Chapter 2 - The Woman Behind the Door
For several seconds, neither of us spoke.
The necklace was unmistakable.
A small gold circle holding a blue sapphire.
I had given it to Rachel on our fifth anniversary.
She wore it almost every day.
I had personally placed it among the belongings returned to me after her death.
“What is that?”
The woman instinctively touched the pendant.
Behind her, chairs scraped.
My mother appeared.
Her face lost all color.
“Daniel.”
Lily came running.
“Daddy?”
I crouched immediately.
“You okay?”
She nodded.
“Why are you here?”
“I changed my plans.”
My eyes returned to the stranger.
She was perhaps forty.
Dark hair.
Pale face.
Nothing about her resembled Rachel except the necklace.
That should have relieved me.
It didn’t.
“Who are you?”
“My name is Anna.”
“Where did you get that?”
She looked at my mother.
Wrong move.
“Don’t look at her. Look at me.”
“Daniel,” Evelyn said.
“No.”
Lily flinched.
I lowered my voice.
“Sweetheart, go sit in the other room.”
“I want to stay.”
“Please.”
The old man appeared and offered his hand.
Lily hesitated.
I didn’t like that she knew him well enough to take it.
But she did.
They disappeared into the next room.
I faced my mother.
“You have sixty seconds.”
“Daniel, this isn’t what you think.”
“I don’t know what I think.”
“Then let me explain.”
“Start with the necklace.”
Anna unclasped it.
She placed it in my palm.
On the back were three engraved letters.
RDM.
Rachel Danielle Mercer.
My wife.
“How?”
Anna’s eyes filled.
“She gave it to me.”
The room went silent.
“No.”
“She did.”
“My wife died three years ago.”
“I know.”
“Then choose your next words carefully.”
My mother stepped between us.
“Rachel gave Anna the necklace before she died.”
“Why?”
Neither answered.
I laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“You’ve been bringing my daughter here behind my back. You told her to lie. Now a stranger is wearing Rachel’s jewelry. And both of you think silence is helping?”
Anna sat.
“She was my sister.”
I stared at her.
Rachel had been an only child.
At least that was what I had believed.
“That’s impossible.”
“No. It’s inconvenient.”
She slid a folder across the table.
Inside was a birth certificate.
Two names.
Rachel Bennett.
Anna Bennett.
Same mother.
Different fathers.
Born four years apart.
I read it twice.
“My wife never mentioned you.”
“She had reasons.”
“What reasons?”
Anna looked toward my mother.
Again.
I turned on Evelyn.
“You knew?”
“For the last year.”
“One year?”
“Yes.”
“And you said nothing.”
“I made a promise.”
“To whom?”
“Rachel.”
That hurt more than I expected.
“You’re telling me my dead wife made you promise to hide her sister from me?”
“No.”
My mother’s voice cracked.
“She made me promise to protect Lily until we knew the truth.”
“What truth?”
Anna reached for another folder.
Before she could open it, Lily returned.
“Daddy?”
She was holding the photograph.
I forced my voice softer.
“Yes?”
“Grandma said you wouldn’t be here.”
“I know.”
“Are you mad?”
“No.”
It was a lie.
But not at her.
Never at her.
She handed me the photograph.
Rachel stood in it.
Younger.
Maybe twenty.
Beside her was Anna.
Between them stood the elderly man.
On the back, in Rachel’s handwriting, were five words.
FOR LILY, WHEN SHE’S READY.
I stared at them.
“When did Rachel write this?”
Anna answered.
“Eight years ago.”
Before Lily was born.
“What does my daughter have to do with any of this?”
Anna opened the folder.
Inside were medical records.
Letters.
A sealed envelope.
And one document bearing the logo of a fertility clinic in Manhattan.
My stomach tightened.
Rachel and I had struggled for years to have a child.
There had been treatments.
Appointments.
Failures.
Then Lily.
Our miracle.
I looked at Anna.
“No.”
She didn’t say anything.
I picked up the document.
Patient: Rachel Mercer.
Procedure: IVF.
I knew that.
Then I saw another line.
Egg donor.
The name had been blacked out.
“Who?”
Anna started crying.
My mother closed her eyes.
I already knew.
But I needed someone to say it.
“Who was the donor?”
Anna whispered, “I was.”
The room seemed to tilt.
I looked toward the doorway where Lily stood.
My daughter.
Still my daughter.
Nothing could change that.
But suddenly Rachel’s hidden sister wasn’t simply a stranger.
She was part of Lily’s beginning.
“Why didn’t Rachel tell me?”
“She wanted to.”
“When?”
“She ran out of time.”
I looked at my mother.
“And the secret visits?”
“Anna is sick.”
Anna stiffened.
“Evelyn.”
“He deserves the truth.”
“What kind of sick?”
Anna looked away.
The old man answered.
“Leukemia.”
Lily’s voice came from behind me.
“That’s why we come here.”
I turned.
She understood more than I had realized.
Anna wiped her eyes.
“Lily has been helping me.”
“How?”
Nobody answered.
Then I noticed the small adhesive bandage inside Lily’s elbow.
My pulse stopped.
I grabbed my mother’s wrist.
“What did you let them do to my daughter?”
The old man moved toward me.
“Mr. Mercer—”
“What did you do?”
Lily began crying.
“Daddy, stop!”
I released Evelyn instantly.
I knelt beside Lily.
“What happened to your arm?”
“They took blood.”
My vision narrowed.
“For what?”
Anna covered her mouth.
My mother whispered my name.
Then the elderly man placed a laboratory report on the table.
At the bottom, one sentence had been circled.
POTENTIAL MATCH IDENTIFIED.
May you like
The name beneath it was Lily Mercer.
And beside Lily’s name was another name I had never seen before.
