The original photograph had been submerged in seawater, and the passage of time had severely degraded its quality. Even with the best digital restoration experts in the world, it couldn''t be returned to its original perfection.
She could only make out the general silhouettes of her family members, except for
one-
Coralie''s eyes tracked downward, finallynding on the face of the youngest sister.
By some miracle, the little girl''s face waspletely undamaged. Every feature was striking and perfectly clear.
My baby sister.
Coralie gently traced the little girl''s cheek with her thumb. Deeply buried memories suddenly began to w their way to the surface.
Director Evans had told her it was impossible to find them. But Coralie had never given up hope. Back then, technology was limited, and her resources were scarce; it made sense that her search had failed. But now... she had a photograph. If she ran it through global data analysis, she might actually find them. Even just one of them.
Without wasting another second, Coralie grabbed her phone and called her intelligence team. "I need you to run a search. Yes, I have a photo."
Just as she hoped, she got an answer within two days.
"Most of the faces in the photo are too degraded for a precise match," the analyst exined carefully. "There are a lot of high-probability matches, and we''re still filtering through theyers."
"But—" The analyst hesitated.
"What is it?" Coralie gripped her phone tightly, her voice hoarse.
"The youngest child... we found a facial match with an incredibly high probability." The analyst stammered, clearly terrified to confirm it. "But given the person''s identity, we didn''t dare proceed with deeper verification."
"Who?" Coralie demanded, her knuckles turning white. "Spit it out! Who is it?"
"The fiancée of the Schwartz Group''s CEO. Juniper Payne," the analyst blurted out.
It was fucking Juniper Payne. Anyone who dared run a background check on her was asking for a death sentence!
Juniper Payne?
Coralie froze, her mind instantly going nk.
How was that possible? Was this why she had felt an overwhelming sense of familiarity and affection the very first time they met? Was it highly likely that Juniper was her little sister?
Juniper had told her she grew up an orphan too, but had eventually found her family. It was too much of a coincidence. There were no coincidences like this in the real world.
"Data analysis isn''t one hundred
percent foolproof," the analyst
added cautiously. "To be absolutely certain, we would need a DNA
is this person to you?"
"Don''t worry about it." Coralie was trembling from head to toe, her voice raspy.
"Keep this strictly confidential. Do you understand me?"
"Yes, yes,pletely!" The analyst nodded frantically through the phone.
Everyone knew Shanley Schwartz
worshiped the ground his fiancé
walked on. If he found out they were
secretly investigating his future
wife
just the thought was enough
to make their blood run cold.
***
The moment she hung up, Coralie grabbed her purse and rushed out the door.
The fastest way to get to the truth was to see Juniper in person and convince her to do a DNA test. But wouldn''t that be too abrupt? She was terrified this was all just massive, cruel coincidence. There were plenty of people in the world who looked alike.
With her heart pounding, Coralie picked up a fresh pastry box from the table and headed out to meet Juniper. They had coincidentally scheduled to meet today anyway.
***
At the cafe.
Coralie sat at a corner table, constantly checking the door, her anxiety spiking with every passing second.
If Ms. Payne really was her little sister... that meant Juniper''s family was her family too.
Five minutester, Juniper walked into the cafe.
"Sorry, I got held up," Juniper said softly, pulling off her baseball cap.
She had just gotten a call from the hospital. Director Evans''s condition had
improved; he was expected to wake up in a day or two. She had also been running her own investigations.