THE SISTER CHLOE NEVER MENTIONED
Matteo verified Sophie’s identity in eleven minutes.
Driver’s license.
Employment records.
Museum archive badge.
Social security history.
Birth records.
Two girls born four minutes apart in Milwaukee.
Chloe Marie Gallagher.
Sophie Anne Gallagher.
Identical twins.
Different lives.
Leo handed Matteo the tablet.
“He’s right,” Sophie said.
Leo looked at her.
“About what?”
“Your boss looks like he hates being wrong.”
Leo’s mouth twitched.
Matteo heard.
Of course he did.
He stood near the far wall speaking into his phone.
“Turn the car around.”
Pause.
“No one goes near the museum.”
Another pause.
“I said no.”
He ended the call.
Sophie folded her arms.
“Was someone else going to visit my job?”
Matteo looked at her.
“Not now.”
“That is not reassuring.”
“It wasn’t meant to be.”
He walked back to the table.
Leo set a dry towel near Sophie.
She used it.
No thank you.
Matteo sat opposite.
“We start again.”
“No.”
His eyes narrowed.
Sophie continued.
“You start again.”
“With what?”
“An apology.”
Leo looked down.
Smart man.
Matteo stared at Sophie for a long moment.
Then:
“I had you taken because I believed you were Chloe.”
“That explains.”
“Yes.”
“It does not apologize.”
His jaw tightened.
Sophie waited.
Matteo Romano was probably a man who could make rooms move with one glance.
This room did not move.
Finally:
“I was wrong.”
Sophie said nothing.
He continued.
“And I should have verified before you were brought here.”
“Better.”
Leo looked toward the ceiling.
Matteo’s eyes sharpened.
Sophie held his gaze.
“And the water?”
A longer pause.
“I should not have done it.”
There.
Not warm.
Not sufficient.
Real.
Sophie sat.
“Now ask.”
Matteo looked at her differently.
Not as Chloe.
Not yet as Sophie exactly.
As a variable that had refused to stay where he put it.
“When did you last see your sister?”
“Nine months ago.”
His face changed.
“Date?”
“March eleventh.”
That matched something.
Sophie noticed.
“What?”
“Chloe disappeared March twelfth.”
Her stomach tightened.
“From you?”
“Yes.”
“What did she do for you?”
Matteo looked at Leo.
Leo stepped back.
Interesting.
Matteo answered himself.
“Financial operations.”
Sophie laughed once.
“Chloe?”
He frowned.
“She was good.”
“She failed algebra twice.”
“People change.”
“No. Chloe cheats around systems. She hates systems.”
Matteo’s expression became unreadable.
“That made her useful.”
Sophie studied him.
“What exactly did she steal?”
“Two million dollars.”
“You said that.”
“From a private account used for discretionary payments.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means it was money she had access to and no permission to move.”
“Was it legal money?”
Leo looked at Matteo.
Matteo almost smiled.
“Mostly.”
“Mostly is not a legal category.”
“No.”
Sophie stared.
“What was the account for?”
“Settlements. Vendor emergencies. Problems that needed to be solved quickly.”
“You mean bribes?”
“No.”
“Extortion?”
“No.”
“Crime-family Christmas fund?”
Leo coughed.
Matteo ignored him.
“Chloe knew the account.”
“And transferred two million.”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“That is what I’m trying to find.”
“Why not call police?”
Matteo’s expression said enough.
Sophie nodded.
“Right.”
He leaned back.
“You disapprove.”
“I was kidnapped by a man asking why he didn’t call police.”
Fair.
Matteo accepted that with silence.
Sophie continued.
“Why was Chloe working for you?”
“She came recommended.”
“By who?”
“Someone who no longer works for me.”
“That sounds ominous.”
“It was accounting.”
“Still ominous.”
Matteo gave her nothing.
Then:
“She was supposed to clean up irregularities in a small hospitality subsidiary.”
“Bookkeeping?”
“Forensic reconciliation.”
Sophie almost laughed.
“Chloe told me she worked event finance.”
“She lied.”
“Apparently.”
That hurt more than Sophie expected.
Chloe had sent photographs.
Hotel rooftops.
Charity galas.
Expensive shoes she claimed were borrowed.
She had looked happy.
Or performed happy.
Sophie asked:
“Did she steal from you before or after she quit?”
“She didn’t quit.”
“She vanished.”
“Yes.”
“Any note?”
“No.”
“Phone?”
“Left in her apartment.”
Sophie’s face changed.
Same as with her.
Chloe left everything connected to ordinary life.
Why?
Matteo watched.
“You’re scared.”
“Don’t narrate me.”
He almost smiled.
“Fine.”
Sophie looked at the photograph.
“What happened March eleventh?”
Matteo said nothing.
She looked up.
“You know something.”
“So do you.”
“I had dinner with her.”
“What happened?”
“We fought.”
“About?”
Sophie hesitated.
Chloe had arrived late.
Nervous.
Checking the window.
She brought a brown envelope.
Would not say what was inside.
She asked Sophie one strange question:
“If someone gave you money to disappear, would you?”
Sophie thought she meant another toxic relationship.
Chloe had dated bad men before.
Sophie said:
“No. I’d rather know why they wanted me gone.”
Chloe laughed.
Then cried.
Sophie asked:
“What happened?”
Chloe answered:
“I made the mistake of thinking being useful made me safe.”
Sophie told Matteo.
His face changed.
Leo looked at him.
There was history in that reaction.
Sophie noticed.
“What did she mean?”
Matteo did not answer.
Sophie continued.
“She also said someone was making copies.”
Leo went still.
Matteo’s eyes sharpened.
“Copies of what?”
“She didn’t say.”
“Think.”
“I am thinking.”
The room tightened.
Sophie closed her eyes.
Brown envelope.
Chloe tapping it against her knee.
Then:
“If anybody ever asks whether I gave you something, say no.”
Sophie had been furious.
“What are you in?”
Chloe said:
“Nothing I can get out of clean.”
Sophie opened her eyes.
Matteo was staring.
“She gave you something.”
“No.”
“Did she?”
“No.”
“You just said—”
“She asked me to say no if anyone asked whether she gave me something.”
Matteo’s gaze hardened.
“And did she?”
Sophie looked directly at him.
“No.”
This time it was true.
At least as far as she knew.
Matteo leaned back.
Then Leo’s phone buzzed.
He read a message.
His expression changed.
“Boss.”
Matteo stood.
“What?”
Leo turned the screen.
A photograph.
A storage locker in Evanston.
Rented under Sophie Gallagher’s name.
Opened eight months ago.
Still paid through an anonymous cash service.
Sophie stared.
“I’ve never rented a storage locker.”
Matteo looked at her.
“No.”
Not accusation now.
Something worse.
“Chloe did.”
Sophie’s stomach turned.
May you like
Her sister had not merely disappeared.
She had continued using Sophie’s identity after she was gone.
