The Secret Heiress

by Judith Gould

  “Hurry,” Nikoletta said, then started toward the elevators.

  H. Richard Pipe saw her rushing down the stairs off the mezzanine, and he went after her with a purposeful stride—not too slow, not too fast—that wouldn’t attract much attention. When he got downstairs, he saw that she was making a dash for the back of the lobby.

  Probably has to take a leak, he thought. I got her now. Or maybe she’s going upstairs to her apartment.

  He didn’t dare get too much closer, or she might get on to him. Get suspicious. As he watched, she turned a corner into a small corridor. It led to another elevator bank. He passed by the corridor slowly and saw her enter a code. An elevator door opened immediately and she stepped inside.

  She’s dead meat now! he thought merrily. Private elevators with security codes. A small corridor where nobody goes but the handful of people who know the codes. When she comes back downstairs, I can pick her off.

  He could hardly restrain his excitement. He stationed himself across from the small corridor, just out of the range of vision of anyone exiting the car that led to her penthouse. He wouldn’t have to wait long because she wouldn’t be gone long.

  She’s a party animal, he thought. Can’t get enough. Especially when she’s the star. She’ll be back in a flash, and that’s when I’ll get her.

  From the mezzanine, Sugar searched the crowd for Angelo and Ariadne and Matt, then spotted them toward the back of the lobby. Yves had joined them by now. She quickly worked her way through the crowd.

  “Come with me now,” she said, taking Angelo’s arm.

  “What’s going on?” he asked.

  She leaned in close and told them all.

  “Oh, how horrible,” Ariadne said.

  “Yes, it is,” Sugar agreed, “but it gives us the opportunity we’ve been waiting for.”

  “Where are we going?” Angelo asked.

  “Back there to the freight elevators,” Sugar replied.

  “But why?”

  “Don’t you see?” Sugar said. “We’re going up to Nikoletta’s penthouse. It’s the perfect opportunity.”

  They reached the freight elevator that led up to the penthouse. Sugar pressed in the security code that opened it, and everyone got on. On the way up, Sugar could see that Ariadne looked distressed. She reached over and squeezed her hand. “Sweetheart, everything is going to be all right.”

  The elevator reached the penthouse and opened onto a service area behind the kitchen.

  “Now, all of you wait here,” she said. “No one is going to call for the elevator because only a handful of us has the code. I’ll be back in a few minutes. After I get rid of Nikoletta’s bodyguards, if any of them came up with her.”

  “We’re going to make the switch now?” Ariadne asked in alarm.

  “Yes,” Sugar replied. “I’m gratified that at least you have the sense to realize what’s going on. All of you just stay here until I come and get you.”

  “But what about—?”

  Sugar briefly told them what she planned to do. “Now, no more questions. I’ll be back in a minute.” She hurried out of the elevator, through the service area, and disappeared.

  Sugar reached the entrance foyer that serviced the regular elevator without being seen. In the living room she found Frans still spread out on the couch. Adrian was sitting in a chair talking to Nikoletta, who was perched next to Frans.

  Great, she thought when she saw that the bodyguards hadn’t come upstairs with Nikoletta.

  “How’s he feeling?” she asked Adrian in a soft voice. He and Nikoletta looked up at her.

  “He’s been very quiet,” Adrian said.

  “So quiet he’s hardly said a word to me,” Nikoletta added.

  “He needs absolute peace and rest now,” Sugar said.

  “I think you’re right,” Adrian said.

  Sugar whispered to Nikoletta, “I think we should try to get Frans into one of the bedrooms and make him comfortable. What do you think?” She knew that Nikoletta would agree with her if she thought the idea had been hers to begin with.

  “I think that’s a good idea,” Nikoletta said in a hushed reply. “I was going to ask a few special friends up after the party. If he’s upstairs, he won’t be in the way.”

  “I think it’s a good idea,” Adrian said. “Plus, he’s resting well enough, and there would be a lot of publicity if we called a doctor now.”

  Nikoletta nodded, then patted Frans on the shoulder. “Frans? Will you get up and go to a bedroom? I’ve got to get back to the party, and then friends are going to be coming up here.”

  He didn’t respond, but shifted his shoulder where she had patted it.

  Sugar went over to him and leaned down. “Frans, sweetheart. It’s Sugar. Let’s go to bed. Okay? You need rest, and there’s going to be a party here. Come on, sweetheart.” She took one of his hands in hers.

  Frans groaned, but began sliding his legs off the couch.

  Nikoletta quickly stood up, clearing the way.

  “You’re going to be fine, Frans, sweetheart,” Sugar said. “It’s not far. Then you can sleep all you want to.”

  Adrian took one of Frans’s hands, and Sugar took the other. Together they helped him to his feet and led him toward the spiral staircase that led upstairs. Nikoletta followed closely behind them. When they finally reached the guest room, Sugar quickly threw back the cover, and they helped him onto the bed. She drew the cover back over him, tucking him in.

  “Sleep as long as you want, Frans,” she said. “We’ll be checking on you, so everything will be all right.”

  Flipping off the light switch, she closed the door to the room as they left, then went back downstairs to the living room.

  “I’ll be right back,” Sugar said. “I’ve got to go to the powder room, darling.”

  “Hurry,” Nikoletta said. “I need to get back downstairs to the party.”

  “In a jiffy.” Sugar gave Adrian a significant look, and he nodded slightly, as if he understood. Sugar rushed to the service area, where the freight elevator was located.

  “Come on,” she said. “Hurry. I’ve got Niki alone in the living room and nobody else is around but Adrian.”

  The others stepped off the elevator and followed Sugar back to the living room. Ariadne lagged a bit behind the others. A lump the size of a walnut had lodged in her throat. The switch they had planned for weeks was going to be made now.

  She had to become her twin sister.

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  Nikoletta poured herself a glass of champagne and lit a cigarette while waiting for Sugar. “What’s taking her so long?” she asked Adrian. “Who knows?” Adrian said casually. “She’s probably powdering her nose, putting on more lipstick. Whatever.”

  Nikoletta began pacing back and forth in front of the windows that looked out over the terrace. Looking out at the parapet, she wondered what to do about Frans. She was not in love with him—of that she was certain—but he was the sexiest-looking man she’d ever seen. Major arm candy, and that counted for a lot. Still . . .

  She heard footsteps on the marble floor, a lot of them, approaching the living room. Who the hell? she wondered. The bodyguards? She and Sugar and Adrian had been alone. In the entrance hall Sugar appeared, along with Yves and Angelo, followed by some couple she didn’t know. Adrian stood up to greet them.

  “Well, well, well,” Nikoletta said, “I finally have the pleasure of getting to see some more of my lovely board members. Here to pay your respects, I assume.” Her voice was sarcastic. “And who are these people with you?” She gazed at Ariadne and Matt with curiosity.

  “We have a little surprise for you,” Angelo said, as Yves sat down.

  “Oh, I doubt that you could surprise me, Angelo,” Nikoletta replied airily. She stubbed out her cigarette in an ashtray.

  As they had rehearsed, Ariadne reached up and loosened a couple of pins that helped hold her wig in place, and Angelo slipped it off. Ariadne then took off her sunglasses an
d slipped out of the red satin cape that enveloped her. Nikoletta’s eyes widened in surprise, then narrowed to slits, but she couldn’t take her eyes away from Ariadne.

  She quickly recovered her composure. “I see you’ve brought the impostor with you,” she said haughtily. “Don’t think that I don’t know about her.”

  Then she noticed that Ariadne was wearing the identical snakeskin Cavalli dress that she had planned to wear. “What the—?”

  “I think it’s time we explained,” Adrian said coolly. “This is Ariadne Papadaki, Niki. Your twin sister.”

  “What?” she exclaimed. She looked at Adrian with disbelief before shifting her gaze back to Ariadne. “You’re out of your mind,” she snapped. “I don’t have a twin sister.”

  “It’s true,” Adrian said. “I was there when she was taken away after your birth, so I know it’s true.”

  “You’re out of your mind!” Nikoletta screeched, quivering with rage. “I’m the only Papadaki heiress. The only one there is and the only one there’ll ever be.” Despite her words, she was completely flummoxed. She felt as if she were staring into a mirror.

  Ariadne stared back at her speechless. She wished Nikoletta would come to her and embrace her as a sister. But she knew that would not happen. Not tonight. Not ever.

  “I assure you that you’re wrong,” Adrian said. “She is your twin sister, and as such has a right to her share of the Papadaki empire.”

  “Get her out of here!” Nikoletta screamed. “Get her out of my sight!”

  “I don’t think so,” Adrian said calmly. “We have other plans.” He looked over at Matt and nodded.

  Matt crossed the room to Nikoletta. Grabbing both of her arms and pulling them behind her, he quickly slipped handcuffs on her.

  “You son of a bitch!” Nikoletta cried, struggling against the restraints. “I know what you’re doing! I know! You’re trying to replace me, aren’t you? With her!” She spit the word as if it were poisonous. “Well, it won’t work!”

  “If you say another word, I’ll gag you,” Matt said firmly.

  “Who the—”

  Matt clamped a hand across her mouth tightly. “If gagging you doesn’t work, then I’ll use chloroform. Understand?”

  Nikoletta’s eyes had grown wide with alarm, but she nodded.

  Matt slowly removed his hand, and she remained silent. The expression on her face, though, was one of utter hatred.

  Sugar calmly took a cream-saturated cloth from a plastic bag in her evening purse. In brisk, broad strokes she began wiping away the thick makeup she had applied to Ariadne’s face a few hours earlier. As heavy eyebrow pencil, rouge, eye shadow, lipstick, powder, and base makeup began to disappear, Nikoletta’s twin began to emerge from beneath her mask.

  Nikoletta couldn’t help but stare at the woman. The awe that she had felt initially overcame her again. For a moment it was as if time had stopped. Nikoletta and the twin sister she had never known stared at each other. Then Nikoletta’s expression contorted once again into an ugly rictus.

  “You’ll never get away with this,” she snarled. “Never!”

  She focused her attention on Adrian, her eyes burning with intensity. “You traitor!” she cried. “You’re responsible for this. I’ll kill you for this!”

  She began shouting obscenities again, but Matt clamped his hand across her mouth again and held her all but immobile against him.

  Ariadne watched the scene in horror. She had felt the same awe Nikoletta had experienced, but Ariadne had also felt a terrible shame wash over her. The reality of what they were about to do to her sister, evil though she was, almost overcame her. Yet when Nikoletta spewed a stream of obscenities, displaying all of the nastiness that she was known for, Ariadne was shocked. She regarded her with a mixture of disgust and sympathy. Her twin was everything they had described and more.

  “We’d better get her undressed,” Sugar said matter-of-factly. “It’s time she put in a final appearance at the party.”

  Nikoletta made muffled noises against Matt’s hand and began to struggle again, her eyes filled with rage. Matt let go of her with one hand and took a plastic bag out of his jacket pocket. Sugar opened it for him, and he pulled out a chloroform-saturated cloth. Releasing the pressure of his hand against her mouth momentarily, he shoved the cloth under Nikoletta’s nose, pushing it into her nostrils. She struggled violently for an instant; then her head slumped forward.

  Matt released her and gently placed her on the couch. From his jacket pocket he extracted another plastic bag, from which he removed a small plastic case. He held a hypodermic needle and a small alcohol-saturated cotton ball. He took them out of the case, pressed the plunger once to get any air out of the solution, and wiped a place on Nikoletta’s arm with the cotton ball. Then he plunged the needle in, pressing all of the fluid into her. When he was finished, he said, “She’s going to be out for hours.”

  “How long, do you think?” Angelo asked.

  “Oh, around twelve hours, give or take.”

  “Will she have any ill effects?” Ariadne asked.

  “No, she shouldn’t,” Matt responded. “It would be very rare if she did, and if so, just a sort of hangover.” He retrieved his keys and removed the handcuffs from Nikoletta’s wrists.

  “Okay, gents,” Sugar said. “Make yourselves scarce for a few minutes. Just don’t go upstairs where Frans is sleeping.”

  “I think we ought to wait in the entrance hall,” Matt said, “just in case anybody comes up. Just let me get ready.” With Adrian’s help, he quickly removed the military and other decorations that were pinned to his tuxedo and the two that hung around his neck on large ribbons. Then he slipped off the curly wig on his head and pulled off the mustache glued above his lip. “Ouch. That glue’s really strong.” He took off the large-framed glasses with clear lenses that he’d worn. “How do I look?”

  “Comb your hair,” Angelo said.

  “And there’s some glue from the mustache,” Yves said. “You’ll have to wash that off.”

  “Be right back,” Matt said. “I’ll meet you in the entrance hall.”

  Sugar and Ariadne began undressing Nikoletta, taking care with the delicate skirt and top. Ariadne felt very strange sensations—indescribable sensations—that threatened to overwhelm her as she helped strip the clothing off her mirror image. This is someone with whom I was supposed to share my life. She had to remember that her sister was an evil person, and that she had to right the wrongs that her twin had perpetrated.

  When Nikoletta was naked, Ariadne threw her red satin cape over her, carefully tucking her in. Then she began dressing in her sister’s clothes, fighting off the creepy feeling that donning each piece gave her.

  When she was finished, she turned to Sugar. “What about shoes?” she asked.

  “Leave yours on,” Sugar replied. “No one will notice because of the floor-length skirt, and even if they do, they’ll think that Niki changed shoes for some reason. Now, stand there and let me have a look at you.”

  Sugar stepped back a few paces and studied Ariadne. She clapped her hands together at last. “You look beautiful, sweetheart,” she exclaimed. “If anything, more beautiful than Niki. You have an inner glow that Niki doesn’t have, and it shows.”

  “I . . . I feel so . . .”

  Sugar grasped both of Ariadne’s hands in her own. “You are doing the right thing. You’re doing a noble thing, as unpleasant as it may seem to you now.”

  Ariadne gave a wobbly smile. “I hope so.”

  Sugar let go of her hands, then fiddled with a few strands of Ariadne’s hair. “Wait just a second,” she said. “One more thing.”

  Sugar took a small silk makeup case out of her evening purse and opened it. She applied a little fresh lipstick to Ariadne’s lips, a little blusher to her cheekbones, and, with delicate fingers, a small amount of eye shadow to her lids. She stood back and studied Ariadne’s face again. “Perfect,” she pronounced. “Wait here while I get the men.” Suga
r went off toward the entrance hall.

  Gazing down at the sleeping body of her twin, Ariadne felt a knot clench in her stomach. The guilt Sugar had mentioned was part of it, but there was so much more twisted up into that knot. The overwhelming sense of loss she felt, knowing that she would never be friends with her twin and that they would probably never even get to know each other was the saddest part, she thought. There would never be anything other than a genetic bond between them.

  Sugar hurried back into the living room, the men trailing behind her. “What do you think?” she asked them.

  “Perfect,” Adrian said. “I could never tell the difference.”

  “Bellissima,” declared Angelo. He approached Ariadne, and she gave him a kiss on the cheek.

  “Grazie,” Ariadne said. “You’ve been so wonderful to me.”

  Tears came into the old man’s eyes. “My Bianca is in heaven, and she is smiling because of you coming into my life, cara.”

  “I can hardly believe it,” Yves said with a shake of his head.

  Sugar looked at Matt. “Matt? What do you think?”

  Matt’s eyes traveled up and down Ariadne’s elegantly clothed body. “I’ll take her,” he said.

  Everyone laughed.

  “That isn’t what I meant,” Sugar said amiably.

  “She’ll certainly pass for Nikoletta,” he said.

  “What do we do about Nikoletta?” Ariadne asked.

  “I’m going to take her upstairs to a bedroom,” Matt said. He lifted Nikoletta from the couch and carried her upstairs. When he came back down, he joined Ariadne. “We’re all set,” he said. “Ready?”

  “I think so,” she said.

  “You’ll be fine,” he told her. In his eyes she saw the confidence that he had in her.

  Ariadne turned to address the others. In a loud voice she declared, “It’s time to party.”

  The group got on the elevator, Ariadne leading the way.

  When the car reached the lobby, everyone started piling off. Sugar, Adrian, Angelo, and Yves led the way out. As Ariadne and Matt followed, he spotted a security guard stepping directly into their path at the end of the corridor, a hand slipping inside his suit jacket.