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As planned, Claire took the lead on this, hoping that her calm and gentle demeanor would take the stress level down a notch and diffuse the girls’ sense of unease.
“We’re not intentionally hiding anything from you,” she reassured them. “There are just so many open threads to this investigation, and much of what we’re looking into is still guesswork. Until we have concrete answers, please, let us do our jobs.”
Gia didn’t look convinced. “Clearly, you are hiding things from us. You just told us we have a third sister—Lina—who lives in New York City and who is as much in the dark about us as we are about her. You haven’t told us how or when you even found out she exists, much less how you got her DNA sample without telling her why. You haven’t told us her last name or anything about her parents. You haven’t told us if her life has been threatened.” A frustrated pause. “Actually, Dani is right. You haven’t told us much of anything.”
“That’s why we’re here—to answer all your questions,” Claire replied. “But initially, we were just more worried about your ability to handle this. You’ve been through hell already.”
“Thank you. But it’s up to Dani and me to cope. Please tell us whatever you can.”
Emma took over with the initial facts. “We met Lina purely by chance during one of our other investigations,” she said. “Obviously, we saw the physical resemblance the minute we met the two of you. But we had no proof and no basis to ask for it. Plus, we didn’t want to alert Lina to anything. You’re our clients. You had to be told first—once we had something real to tell. We had to play this carefully.”
“The DNA confirmation just came in last night,” Claire added. “That’s why we’re here first thing this morning. We not only wanted to tell you about Lina but we wanted to ask if you’re okay with us filling her in, as well. And most important of all, we want to know if you want to meet her. That decision is yours.”
Gia and Dani both blinked, glancing at each other with the same of-course expression.
“Definitely, yes,” Dani said, speaking for them both. “We want to meet our sister right away.”
Claire picked up her phone. “I’ll call Casey and tell her to speak to Lina immediately. As soon as she gives us the okay…”
“I don’t want to wait until then.” Gia jumped to her feet. “It’ll take Mr. Nickels an hour to get us into the city. If we leave now, we can go in and meet our sister as soon as she’s ready. I don’t care if we have to circle the block for an hour, waiting for her to process what we just did. I can’t just sit here and wait, doing nothing.”
“I agree one hundred percent.” Dani also stood. “Please tell Casey we’re on our way.” A pointed pause. “And you can answer the rest of our questions during the ride down.”
A half block from the Brando manor
Todt Hill
10:40 a.m.
Ryan was clicking away on his laptop when the muffled sounds of a second person entering Joseph’s office came through his headphones. He’d been waiting for this ever since Joseph had returned to his office, slammed the door, and called his wife, practically ordering her home.
Immediately, Ryan stopped what he was doing to listen.
“Joseph, what is it?” Donna asked, clearly alarmed by the urgency of her husband’s call.
“Close the door and sit down,” Joseph replied. “We have a huge problem.”
The sounds that followed indicated that Donna was doing just that.
“You’re scaring me,” she said. “What problem? What happened?”
“Casey Woods and Marc Devereaux were here this morning. And it wasn’t to support my campaign.” In a tense, shaken tone, Joseph relayed the entire conversation to his wife.
“What do you mean triplets?” Donna had started weeping halfway through Joseph’s revelation. “Lina is an only child. She’s our child. Why are they doing this?”
“I don’t know. Some investigation they’re working on. Does it matter? Clearly, there are triplets, and Lina is one of them. We can’t pretend that away, not when there’s DNA evidence involved.”
“Did you see that evidence?”
“They wouldn’t have shown it to me. And how could I have demanded to see it? It would be as bad as an admission of guilt.”
“If there were triplets, we would have been told.” Donna was in a total state of denial.
“Would we?”
“Of course. And we’d know who and where the other two children were.”
“Stop it, Donna. You know better. We were never supposed to know about this. Please.” Joseph’s voice gentled. “I need you to face this with me. We have decisions to make, and we have to make them fast. There’s too much at stake to deny the facts.”
