Nobody moved.
Anna stared at my phone as though the device itself had betrayed her.
“Put him on speaker.”
“Dad?”
A shuffle.
Then Dad’s voice filled the room.
“Anna, Carl says Clara survived.”
Anna laughed once.
It was not amusement.
“It was a closed casket.”
Dad said, “I know.”
“No. You don’t know anything.”
Her voice cracked.
“My mother died when I was eleven.”
Maya and Lily sat together near the technician’s desk.
Their hands were no longer joined, but their shoulders nearly touched.
Harris stood beside the door.
“Where is Carl?” I asked.
“Ambulance. They’re taking him to St. Anne’s.”
“We’ll meet you there.”
I ended the call.
Anna remained motionless.
Evelyn had arrived at the field office with another state officer ten minutes earlier.
Now she looked at Anna with something that resembled grief.
“Clara always planned contingencies.”
Anna spun toward her.
“Did you know?”
“No.”
“Did you suspect?”
“Not until today.”
“That’s convenient.”
Evelyn absorbed it.
Anna grabbed her coat.
“I’m going to Carl.”
Harris stepped between her and the exit.
“So are we. But no one walks into that hospital without security.”
Anna’s eyes flashed.
“My mother might be alive.”
“Which means whoever tried to kill her once may know that too.”
That stopped her.
We traveled to St. Anne’s under state police escort.
Maya chose to ride with Lily.
I sat across from them in the back of a state SUV, watching them negotiate one another in glances.
Lily finally asked, “Do you still like strawberry yogurt?”
Maya blinked.
“What?”
“You did when you were little.”
A faint smile.
“I hate it.”
Lily laughed.
“Okay, good. Because Mom was going to lose her mind if one childhood detail survived intact.”
I should have protested.
Instead I laughed too.
It felt startlingly normal.
Maya glanced at me.
“What did I like besides strawberries?”
“Dinosaurs.”
“No.”
“Very much.”
“That’s terrible.”
“You had a plastic stegosaurus named Princess.”
Lily nodded solemnly.
“You made her marry my stuffed elephant.”
Maya stared at both of us.
“You’re inventing this.”
“No.”
“Unfortunately not.”
A small piece of tension dissolved.
Then Maya asked:
“Did I have nightmares?”
The question changed everything.
“Yes.”
“What about?”
“Usually thunderstorms.”
She looked out the window.
“I still hate thunder.”
Nobody spoke after that.
Carl was in a guarded private room when we arrived.
I stopped outside the door.
For thirteen years, I had imagined seeing him again.
In every imagined version, I had known what I wanted to say.
Coward.
Liar.
You left us.
None of those sentences disappeared.
They simply became insufficient.
Dad stood in the corridor.
“He looks rough.”
“How bad?”
“Concussion. Sedatives. Bruised ribs.”
“Who took him?”
“Reed’s people, apparently.”
“Apparently?”
“Kessler thinks two former hospital security officers still work for him.”
Harris stationed troopers at both ends of the corridor.
Anna stood beside me.
“I’m coming in.”
I didn't object.
We entered.
Carl looked thirteen years older.
That should have been obvious.
Still, seeing it shocked me.
Gray threaded his hair. His face had narrowed. There was a healing scar near his jaw I didn't recognize.
His eyes opened.
They found me first.
“Rebecca.”
My throat tightened.
“Hi, Carl.”
His gaze moved past me.
Maya stood in the doorway.
Then Lily appeared beside her.
Carl’s face collapsed.
He covered his eyes.
For several seconds, no one spoke.
When he lowered his hand, tears had slipped toward his temples.
“My girls.”
Lily stiffened.
Maya looked down.
Carl seemed to understand immediately.
“I’m sorry.”
He didn't ask for anything else.
Anna stepped forward.
“Clara.”
His expression changed.
“She contacted me last week.”
Anna gripped the bedrail.
“Where?”
“Encrypted account.”
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
“How long have you known she was alive?”
“Six days.”
Anna stepped back as though struck.
“Six days.”
“I was trying to verify it.”
“You let me bury her.”
“I didn't know you.”
“That doesn't make it better.”
“No.”
Carl tried to sit higher and winced.
I moved instinctively toward him, then stopped myself.
He noticed.
“Rebecca, there are things—”
“Yes. Apparently there always are.”
He closed his eyes.
“I deserve that.”
“Start with Clara.”
Carl explained.
Eleven years earlier, Clara’s vehicle had gone over an embankment and burned.
The body was identified through personal effects and partial dental records.
But Clara had anticipated Reed’s attempt.
With help from Kessler, she staged her death.
Anna turned toward Kessler, who had entered behind Harris.
“You knew.”
Kessler’s face tightened.
“Yes.”
Anna crossed the room and slapped him.
Nobody stopped her.
The sound cracked through the hospital room.
Kessler accepted it.
“You let me think she was dead.”
“She believed that was the only way to keep you alive.”
“You all love that excuse.”
His expression twisted.
“I know.”
Anna's eyes filled.
“You had no right.”
“No.”
“Where is she?”
“I haven’t known for years.”
Carl continued.
“Clara went underground. She monitored the surviving children connected to the ledger.”
“Including Emily?”
Carl nodded.
Maya’s face changed.
“She knew where I was?”
“Eventually.”
“How long?”
Carl looked ashamed.
“From the time you were eight.”
Maya stepped backward.
I caught the edge of a chair.
“That's when the photograph was taken.”
“Yes.”
“You knew Clara had found her?”
“No. I received the photograph anonymously.”
“When did you learn it was Clara?”
“Last week.”
Rage rose so quickly I had to grip the chair.
“Then Clara watched my daughter grow up while I buried an empty identity.”
Carl looked at me.
“She believed direct contact would expose Maya.”
“And everybody believed silence was noble.”
“No.”
“Then what did you call it?”
“Fear.”
The answer stopped me because it wasn't defensive.
Carl looked at the twins.
“We were all afraid.”
Lily crossed her arms.
“You left us.”
“Yes.”
“You could have told Mom.”
“Yes.”
“You could have stayed.”
Carl struggled to answer.
“I thought leaving would move attention away from you.”
“Did it?”
“For a while.”
Lily looked toward me.
“That doesn't answer whether it was right.”
“No,” Carl said. “It wasn't.”
Silence.
That was the first moment I truly saw him as something other than the villain I had constructed or the secret hero Dad had tried to imply.
He had been frightened.
He had made choices.
Some saved us.
Some damaged us.
Both things could be true.
Anna returned to Clara.
“Why send Lily the message?”
Carl frowned.
“I don't know that she did.”
“Your father said—”
“I said Clara knew about the wooden box.”
“So whoever sent the message knew what Clara knew.”
Anna understood.
“Someone pretending to be her.”
“Possibly.”
Harris asked, “Who else knew about the card?”
Carl looked at Kessler.
Kessler shook his head.
“I knew Clara copied evidence. I didn't know where she hid it.”
“Evelyn?”
“No.”
“Voss?”
Carl shook his head.
“Not unless Clara told her.”
Anna laughed bitterly.
“She wouldn't.”
“Then Reed learned somehow,” I said.
Carl looked at Lily.
“Did the message mention the necklace?”
“No. It just said bring the box.”
“That means they didn't know exactly where the evidence was.”
Harris nodded.
“They were fishing.”
“Or Clara was trying to get the box into safe hands,” Anna said.
We all looked at her.
“What?”
“If Mom is alive, she may know Reed discovered the Carter evidence. She may have tried to get Lily to move it.”
“Using Carl's number?” Harris asked.
“She wouldn't know Carl had been taken.”
Carl stared at her.
“She might.”
“How?”
“Because she warned me about Reed before I was grabbed.”
The room quieted.
“When?”
“Thirty minutes before.”
“What did she say?”
“Two words.”
Carl swallowed.
“He knows.”
Harris stepped closer.
“Do you still have the message?”
“They took my phone.”
“Recovered?”
“No.”
“So Reed has it.”
Anna paced to the window.
“If Reed knows Clara is alive—”
“He’ll look for her,” Kessler finished.
Carl nodded.
“He has been.”
“How do you know?”
Carl looked at Maya.
“Because Clara is the reason I found you.”
Maya frowned.
“The lake?”
“She gave me the town.”
“When?”
“Three months ago.”
“Why then?”
“She said Reed had become active again.”
“Why?”
Carl looked toward Lily’s necklace, now sealed in an evidence bag.
“Because someone tried to sell him the ledger.”
Harris frowned.
“Who?”
“We don't know.”
Carl continued.
“Reed had spent years believing Clara kept the only complete copy. Then somebody contacted him claiming they had the original.”
“The ledger you had?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“How did you get it?”
“From Clara.”
Anna stepped forward.
“When?”
“Last week.”
Her anger returned instantly.
“You met her.”
“No.”
“She left it in a storage unit.”
“Where?”
“Outside Baltimore.”
Anna stared at him.
“She was that close.”
“I don't know where she was.”
Carl looked exhausted.
“Anna, she wrote you a letter.”
Anna stopped.
“What?”
“It was with the ledger.”
“Where is it?”
Carl's face fell.
“Reed took everything.”
Harris said, “Not everything. We recovered the ledger.”
Carl looked at him.
“The letter?”
Harris frowned.
“No letter was logged.”
Anna went pale.
“Then Reed has it.”
A nurse entered to check Carl's monitors.
We waited.
When she left, Carl spoke more quietly.
“The ledger proves the placements. Clara’s recording proves Reed threatened her and ordered Emily sedated. But neither fully proves what happened afterward.”
“Then what does?” I asked.
Carl looked at Maya.
“Emily.”
Maya recoiled.
“No.”
Carl immediately raised one hand.
“You don't have to remember.”
“Everyone keeps waiting for me to remember.”
“No.”
His voice broke.
“I spent years hoping you would because I thought memory could solve everything. I was wrong.”
Maya watched him.
“You're my father.”
“Yes.”
“You knew I was alive.”
“Not where you were.”
“You found out when I was eight.”
“I got a photograph.”
“You could have shown Rebecca.”
“Yes.”
“You didn't.”
“No.”
“Why should I trust anything you say?”
Carl closed his eyes.
“You shouldn't yet.”
Maya looked surprised.
“Trust is earned.”
Carl's voice was weak but steady.
“I kept telling myself I was protecting everyone. Sometimes I was. Sometimes I was just afraid of what would happen if I was wrong.”
I looked at him.
That sounded closer to truth than anything else he'd said.
Harris’s phone buzzed.
He stepped into the hall.
When he returned, his face had tightened.
“We found the man who followed Lily.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Who is he?”
“Former hospital security.”
Kessler whispered, “Name?”
“Daniel Horne.”
Kessler's expression darkened.
“Reed's man.”
Harris nodded.
“He's talking.”
“What did he say?”
“He was told to retrieve the wooden box.”
“By Reed?”
“No.”
Everyone went still.
“Who?”
Harris checked the message on his phone.
“His instructions came from Dr. Voss.”
I stared toward the hallway.
“But Voss was in custody.”
“Scheduled message.”
Anna frowned.
“So Voss wanted the evidence before Reed got it.”
Harris nodded slowly.
“That appears to be the case.”
I thought of Voss’s earlier warning.
Of her phone message:
SHE REMEMBERS REED.
She feared him.
But she had also protected herself.
“What does that mean?” Lily asked.
Carl answered.
“It means Voss and Reed aren't working together anymore.”
Harris's phone buzzed again.
This time he read the screen twice.
“What?”
He looked at Anna.
“A woman just walked into a state police station in Delaware.”
Anna stopped breathing.
“She asked for protection.”
Her hand rose toward her mouth.
Harris continued.
“She gave the name Clara Hart.”
Click here to continue reading: PART 11: Clara Hart Returned From the Dead With the Missing Letter, but Her Account of Emily’s Adoption Changed What We Believed About Sarah Bennett
Thirteen Years After We Buried Emily, My Father Put a Photograph on the Table That Should Not Have Existed
Part 10 of 44
