Chapter 6 - Evelyn’s Hidden Letter
I stared at the photograph on Julian’s phone.
Two young women.
Two faces that looked almost identical.
Two daughters.
One of them had my silver necklace around her neck.
The other wore the scarlet bracelet.
My hands went cold.
“Who is the other girl?”
Julian didn't answer.
I looked up.
“Julian.”
He slowly lowered the phone.
“I don't know.”
“You said you knew.”
“I know what Evelyn told me.”
“Then tell me.”
He looked at Nora.
She had gone completely silent.
I turned toward her.
“You knew there were two babies.”
“I knew there were two.”
“But you never told me.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
I laughed bitterly.
“Everyone keeps saying that.”
I picked up the photograph again.
The two girls stood side by side.
They were probably around twenty years old.
One had my eyes.
The other had Evelyn's.
Or maybe I was imagining it.
Grief had already destroyed my ability to trust what I saw.
“Which one is mine?”
Julian looked at the photograph.
“Both.”
I stopped.
“What?”
“Both of them are your daughters.”
The room seemed to tilt.
I sat down.
For a moment, I couldn't speak.
Two daughters.
Two babies.
Two lives stolen from me.
One hidden.
One lost.
And somehow, after twenty years, both were alive.
I looked at Julian.
“Where are they?”
“I don't know.”
“Then who took the photograph?”
“I don't know.”
“Who sent it?”
“I don't know.”
I slammed the phone onto the table.
“You know nothing.”
“I know more than you think.”
“Then start talking.”
He rubbed his face.
“Evelyn discovered the truth six years ago.”
“About what?”
“The second daughter.”
I stared at him.
“You knew she found her?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“She wouldn't tell me.”
“Why?”
“Because she didn't trust me.”
I felt a sharp pain in my chest.
“Your own mother didn't trust you.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because she knew I had been trying to find the girl.”
“Why would you search for her?”
He looked at me.
“Because I wanted to bring her home.”
I shook my head.
“You had twenty years.”
“I was afraid.”
“Of what?”
“That finding her would get you killed.”
I stared at him.
He looked exhausted.
For the first time, he seemed older than the man I had married.
“Tell me about the morning they were born.”
Julian closed his eyes.
“It started at 3:12.”
“Why that time?”
“That was when the hospital records were altered.”
“By your father?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Julian hesitated.
“He believed one of your daughters carried a genetic condition.”
“What condition?”
“We never found out.”
“Why?”
“Because the test results disappeared.”
“Where?”
“Evelyn stole them.”
I stared at him.
“She stole my daughters' medical records?”
“She stole everything she could.”
“Why didn't she tell me?”
“Because your father-in-law had people watching you.”
“My father-in-law was dead.”
“Not then.”
I frowned.
“He died three years after the girls were born.”
Julian nodded.
“He spent those three years searching for them.”
A chill moved through me.
“What happened to him?”
“He found one.”
My breath caught.
“Which one?”
“The second.”
“The one Evelyn couldn't save?”
“Yes.”
“Where was she?”
“I don't know.”
Julian looked down.
“Evelyn knew.”
I grabbed his sleeve.
“Then why did she never tell me?”
“She wanted to find her first.”
“She had six years.”
“She was sick.”
“She had six years!”
My voice echoed through the house.
Julian didn't respond.
I turned away.
On the table, the box of letters sat open.
One envelope had fallen onto the floor.
I picked it up.
The handwriting was Evelyn's.
But this envelope was different.
There was no name.
Only a date.
Six years earlier.
I opened it.
Inside was a photograph.
A little girl.
Maybe fourteen.
She was sitting on the steps of a school.
Her face was turned slightly away.
Around her neck was the same silver necklace.
My daughter's necklace.
I touched the photograph.
There was a note behind it.
I found her.
My heart stopped.
Underneath:
She doesn't know I am her grandmother.
Then:
But she knows she is being watched.
I read the next line.
Her name is Emma.
I whispered it.
“Emma.”
Julian looked at me.
“You know her?”
“No.”
“But you've heard the name.”
He nodded.
“Evelyn mentioned it once.”
I looked at the photograph again.
“Emma is my daughter.”
“Yes.”
“Where is she?”
“I don't know.”
I turned the photograph over.
There was an address.
A school.
And a date.
Six years ago.
I looked at Julian.
“Why didn't Evelyn bring her to me?”
“She couldn't.”
“Why?”
“Because someone else got there first.”
My stomach tightened.
“Who?”
Julian didn't answer.
“Who?”
He looked at Nora.
Nora's face had gone pale.
“Vanessa,” she whispered.
I shook my head.
“Vanessa is dead.”
“Not the woman you met,” Nora said.
“Then who?”
“The woman who used the name Vanessa.”
Julian nodded.
“She wasn't Vanessa.”
“Who was she?”
“We never found out.”
I stared at the photograph.
Emma.
My daughter.
She had been alive.
She had been watching me.
And I had spent twenty years believing I had nothing left to lose.
I suddenly remembered something.
A woman had stood outside my office three years ago.
Blonde hair.
Dark sunglasses.
She had looked at me through the glass doors.
I remembered thinking she looked familiar.
When I stepped outside, she was gone.
At the time, I had forgotten about it.
Now I couldn't.
“She watched me.”
Julian looked at me.
“Who?”
“Emma.”
He nodded slowly.
“Probably.”
“Why didn't she come inside?”
“Because she was afraid.”
“Of me?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
Julian's phone vibrated again.
He looked at it.
His face changed.
“What?”
He handed me the phone.
A new message.
STOP ASKING ABOUT EMMA.
Then another.
YOU ALREADY LOST ONE DAUGHTER.
My blood ran cold.
I looked at Julian.
“Who sent this?”
“I don't know.”
The phone vibrated again.
DON'T MAKE ME TAKE THE OTHER.
I stared at the screen.
My hands trembled.
“Call the police.”
Julian shook his head.
“Not yet.”
“Why?”
“Because we don't know who we're dealing with.”
“They threatened my daughter.”
“They threatened both of them.”
I stood.
“I don't care.”
“You should.”
“No.”
I looked directly at him.
“I spent twenty years being afraid.”
My voice was steady.
“I won't spend another night doing it.”
Nora stepped closer.
“There is something else.”
I turned.
“What?”
She looked at the box.
“Evelyn left one letter that she told me never to open unless you found both daughters.”
I stared at her.
“You have it?”
Nora nodded.
She reached beneath the table.
From a hidden compartment, she removed a sealed envelope.
It was thick.
Old.
My name was written across it.
CLARISSA.
My hands trembled as I took it.
“Why didn't you give me this before?”
“Because I didn't know if both girls were alive.”
“And now?”
Nora looked at the photograph.
“Now I think Evelyn knew this day would come.”
I opened the envelope.
The first page was dated six years earlier.
My dearest Clarissa,
I stopped.
My eyes filled with tears.
I continued.
If you are reading this, then I failed to protect you from the truth.
I need you to know something before you judge me.
I never abandoned your daughters.
I separated them because someone was trying to find them.
I turned the page.
One child was taken from the hospital.
The other was hidden by me.
I could not save both.
I covered my mouth.
Julian stood beside me.
I continued reading.
The child I hid was Emma.
The child who was taken was given another name.
My eyes widened.
Another name.
I turned the page.
She was raised by a woman who believed she was protecting her from her father.
I looked at Julian.
“Her father?”
He shook his head.
“I don't know.”
I read on.
Julian believes he knows which child was R-17. He is wrong.
My heart stopped.
I looked at my husband.
“You were wrong?”
His face went pale.
“I thought I knew.”
I looked back at the letter.
R-17 was not the baby who was taken.
R-17 was the baby who stayed.
I felt dizzy.
Emma.
The daughter Evelyn had hidden.
She was R-17.
Then who had been taken?
I turned the page.
The handwriting became darker.
More hurried.
The other child has spent twenty years being told she was someone else.
She has been trained to hate the woman who gave birth to her.
I stopped.
My throat tightened.
“She hates me?”
Julian whispered, “Maybe.”
I kept reading.
If she comes back, she will not come as your daughter.
She will come as your enemy.
The page slipped from my fingers.
I picked it up.
There was one final paragraph.
Her name is not Vanessa.
I stared.
Then I read the next line.
Her real name is—
The rest of the sentence had been torn away.
I looked at the ripped edge.
Someone had deliberately removed the bottom half of the page.
“Who tore this?”
Nora shook her head.
“I don't know.”
Julian stepped closer.
“Give it to me.”
“No.”
“Clarissa.”
“You've lied enough.”
I folded the letter.
Then something fell from inside the envelope.
A small photograph.
I picked it up.
It showed Evelyn standing in front of a hospital nursery.
Beside her stood a teenage girl.
The girl's face was turned toward the camera.
I stared.
She had the same eyes as mine.
The same small scar near her eyebrow.
And around her neck was the silver necklace.
Emma.
On the back of the photograph, Evelyn had written:
I found R-17.
Then beneath it:
But the other girl found me first.
My phone suddenly rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
“Hello?”
A woman's breathing came through the line.
Then a whisper.
“Mom?”
My entire body froze.
I couldn't speak.
The voice trembled.
“I've been waiting twenty years to call you that.”
Tears filled my eyes.
“Emma?”
Silence.
Then she whispered:
“No.”
My heart stopped.
The voice became colder.
“You called the wrong daughter.”
The line went dead.
A second later, a message appeared.
It contained only an address.
And one sentence:
COME ALONE IF YOU WANT TO MEET YOUR OTHER DAUGHTER.
May you like
Then, before I could move, Julian looked at the screen and whispered—
“Clarissa, that's my father's old estate…”
