Chapter 255
My phone buzzed again. It was Ms. Davies.
Ms. Sterling. We found him. The forger. The Ghost.
I sat up. The pain in my cheek throbbed, but the adrenaline was stronger.
“Where is he?” I typed back.
A basement in Queens. He’s packing to leave.
“Stall him,” I ordered. “I’m coming.”
The basement smelled of ink and stale cigarettes.
“The Ghost” was a small, rat-like man named Benny. He was shoving passports into a duffel bag when I kicked the door open.
Alistair stood behind me, filling the doorway. Benny took one look at Alistair and dropped the bag.
“I didn’t do it!” Benny squeaked.
“You haven’t even heard the question yet,” I said, stepping into the dim light. I pointed to my bruised cheek. “I’m not in a good mood, Benny. So talk fast.”
I threw a photo of Seraphina onto the table.
“Did you make her ID?”
Benny looked at the photo. He hesitated.
Alistair stepped forward and crushed a bottle of ink under his boot. Crunch.
“Okay! Okay!” Benny yelled. “Yes! She came to me five years ago. She wanted a new history. Birth certificate, social security—the works.”
“And the DNA test?” I asked. “How did she fake the DNA test for the Thorne family?”
“She didn’t fake the test,” Benny said.
I froze. “What?”
“She brought me the sample,” Benny explained, trembling. “It wasn’t her blood. It was a lock of hair. Roots attached. Old. Kept in a sealed bag.”
“Whose hair?” Alistair asked, his voice dangerous.
“The real Eleanor’s,” Benny whispered. “She said she kept it as a souvenir. She paid me to switch the labels on the test tubes Dominic’s doctor used.”
Alistair went still. The air in the room turned solid.
ո𝗼 𝗆𝘪𝘀ѕin𝗀 𝗰𝘩𝖺𝗽tе𝗋𝗌 о𝗇 𝗯𝖾l𝗻ov𝖾𝘭ѕ.𝖼𝗼𝘮
Seraphina hadn’t just killed Eleanor. She had kept a piece of her. Like a trophy. To use for this exact moment.
“Where is the rest of the sample?” I asked.
“She has it,” Benny said. “In that silver locket she wears. She showed it to me. Said it was her insurance policy. If anyone ever questioned her, she’d have the real DNA right around her neck.”
I remembered the locket Seraphina had worn at the party. The one she clutched so tightly.
“That’s sick…” I couldn’t even finish the sentence.
“We have enough,” Alistair said. “We have the forger. We have the testimony.”
“No,” I said. “Testimony isn’t enough for the public. She’s a media darling now. We need to catch her.”
“How?”
“The locket,” I said. “If that locket contains the real Eleanor’s hair, we need to get it. We need to verify it against the Thorne database publicly.”
My phone buzzed. A news alert.
Thorne Heiress to Host Charity Gala Tonight.
Seraphina was moving fast. She was cementing her position.
“Tonight,” I said. “We crash the party.”
“Skye,” Alistair warned. “Dominic will have an army there.”
.