Chapter 12 - THE OTHER EVELYNDana searched the underground identity archive for women who had used Evelyn DeLuca’s name.
Three records appeared.
One belonged to Evelyn herself.
The second documented a short hospital admission when Evelyn was fourteen. She remembered an appendectomy at a private clinic.
The file showed fertility tests, egg retrieval medication, and genetic sampling.
She had never received fertility treatment at fourteen.
Vittorio looked stricken.
“I authorized the surgery. Vale’s father said the appendix had ruptured.”
Nora reviewed the operative notes.
No appendix had been removed.
The procedure harvested ovarian tissue.
Someone had taken Evelyn’s reproductive material while she was a minor.
The third record carried no photograph.
EVELYN DELUCA—SUBSTITUTE PATIENT, AGE 31.
Recent activity showed this woman admitted to the hospital six months before Evelyn’s embryo transfer.
Dana requested camera footage.
A woman entered wearing a hat and face mask. Her height and build resembled Evelyn’s. She signed fertility documents using biometric data stolen from the childhood procedure.
Grant may have believed Evelyn herself authorized parts of the plan because the substitute appeared in person.
“Who was she?” Nathan asked.
Dr. Vale looked toward the image.
“Lydia brought her.”
“Did you examine her?”
“She refused to remove the mask.”
“And you accepted that?”
“She had valid DeLuca biometrics.”
“Biometrics stolen from a child.”
Dr. Vale had another excuse.
It no longer mattered.
The substitute patient authorized embryo E-4.
She declared that the child would be carried by Evelyn under a private family arrangement.
The document listed the genetic mother as Evelyn DeLuca and the gestational patient as Evelyn DeLuca.
One identity divided between two women.
Dana located a voice sample from the masked woman.
Technicians compared it with Bianca, Lydia, Celeste, and Isabella’s archived recordings.
The closest match belonged to Lydia.
But Lydia’s face and age did not match the substitute’s body.
She may have supplied the voice through hidden audio while another woman appeared on camera.
Evelyn’s contacts received a new encrypted message.
ASK YOUR FATHER ABOUT THE NIGHT YOU ALMOST DIED AT FOURTEEN.
Vittorio went still.
Evelyn typed:
WHAT HAPPENED?
He looked toward the security officers, the attorney, and the compliance camera.
Then he told the truth.
After the supposed appendectomy, Evelyn suffered internal bleeding. Vittorio rushed back to the clinic and found two girls in adjacent recovery rooms.
One was Evelyn.
The other looked almost identical.
Vale’s father claimed the second girl was a sedated cousin from Italy.
Vittorio demanded records.
Isabella persuaded him to leave.
“She said the other girl was Bianca’s daughter,” he whispered.
Evelyn stared at him.
“Bianca had a child close to your age. Isabella said the girl required protection.”
“Name?” Evelyn typed.
“Eva.”
Bianca may have given birth to two daughters—or to one daughter whose identity was shared.
Eva disappeared after the clinic incident.
If she survived, she would be Evelyn’s sister, cousin, or another genetically related woman capable of producing E-4.
Dana reopened the hidden apartment’s DNA result.
The hair matched both Bianca and Evelyn’s maternal line but could not distinguish a parent from an adult daughter without a reference sample.
The underground resident might not be Bianca.
It might be Eva.
Then security found Lydia Cross in the old fertility tunnel.
She had been stabbed but remained conscious.
She gripped Dana’s sleeve.
“Grant was never the most dangerous person here.”
“Who attacked you?”
“The woman Evelyn replaced.”
Lydia’s eyes moved toward the delivery suite above.
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“She wants the baby because she believes it is the life stolen from her.”
👉 Another girl had shared Evelyn’s identity since childhood, and she was now moving through the hospital toward the newborn.
