Chapter 7 - The Secret Beneath the Clasp
We reached the apartment in eleven minutes.
The door stood open.
Dad was on the floor.
Alive.
Lily was beside him.
Nathan was gone.
I grabbed her.
"He left me," she said.
"Why?"
"He said he made a mistake."
Dad groaned.
Nathan had struck him but apparently panicked when Lily began screaming.
Police found Nathan two hours later.
He confessed.
Richard had paid him for years.
The danger was finally shrinking.
But one question remained.
Why had Emily chosen the bracelet?
Dad knew.
"I gave it to her."
I stared.
"What?"
"After she found me."
Dad had purchased the bracelet years earlier for my mother.
After Mom died, he kept it.
When Emily found him, he gave it to her.
"Why?"
"Because she was carrying my granddaughter."
Lily touched the bracelet.
"So it belonged to Grandma?"
Dad nodded.
"And Mama?"
"Yes."
"And now me?"
"If you want it."
She smiled.
"I do."
There was still something strange about the center stone.
Arthur examined it again.
A microscopic hinge.
He opened it.
Inside was a rolled strip of paper.
One address.
We drove there.
A storage facility.
Emily had rented a unit.
Inside were boxes filled with Lily's childhood.
Photographs.
First shoes.
Drawings.
Birthday candles.
And hundreds of letters addressed to me.
Emily had written one every year.
Never mailed them.
I read until I couldn't see through tears.
The final letter was different.
Daniel,
I know I'm running out of time.
The doctors have stopped using hopeful words.
If Lily ever finds you, don't try to replace me.
Just love her as yourself.
She's afraid of thunderstorms but pretends she isn't.
She hates peas.
She sleeps better if the hallway light stays on.
When she's upset, she says she's "fine" exactly like you do.
And Daniel?
She has spent her whole life believing her father didn't know she existed.
Please make sure she never mistakes absence for rejection.
I sat on the concrete floor.
Lily leaned against me.
"I know now."
"What?"
"You didn't reject me."
"No."
"Good."
She rested her head on my shoulder.
Then she noticed one final box.
"Mama's handwriting."
It said:
FOR LILY — WHEN DANIEL KNOWS EVERYTHING.
We opened it.
Inside was a video camera.
One recording remained.
I pressed play.
Emily appeared.
But she wasn't alone.
Richard Mercer was sitting beside her.
May you like
And the first words he spoke changed everything.
"Daniel needs to know that Emily wasn't the person who decided to keep Lily from him."
