Chapter 3 - The Woman Who Was Never Supposed To Exist
The paper was still lying on the marble floor.
Nobody moved.
Nobody spoke.
The entire lobby felt frozen around those three words.
Subject confirmed alive.
I stared at the photograph attached to the page.
The woman in it looked like me.
Not similar.
Not someone who reminded me of myself.
She had my eyes.
My nose.
The same small scar near her eyebrow that I had carried since childhood.
A scar my mother once told me came from falling off a bicycle when I was five.
But the woman in the photograph looked younger.
Much younger.
And the date written underneath was impossible.
The day I was born.
My fingers started shaking.
"No."
The word came out quietly.
Nobody heard me.
Or maybe they did.
Maybe they just didn't know what to say.
I bent down and picked up the paper.
Daniel immediately stepped forward.
"Hannah."
I looked at him.
"Don't."
He stopped.
That one word made him freeze.
Because he knew.
He knew I wasn't angry anymore.
Anger was easier.
This was something else.
This was the feeling you got when your entire life suddenly became a story someone else had been writing.
I looked back at the page.
The photograph had a file number.
A code.
A name.
"Pierce."
My last name.
Underneath it was another line.
"Original identity: protected."
I looked at Victoria.
"What does this mean?"
She didn't answer immediately.
That scared me.
People who knew nothing answered quickly.
People who knew too much chose their words carefully.
Finally, she took a breath.
"It means there are parts of your past that were hidden from you."
I laughed.
But there was no humor in it.
"My past?"
I held up the paper.
"This says someone was tracking me before I was even old enough to walk."
Daniel looked away.
And that was when I realized something.
He had known.
Maybe not everything.
But enough.
"You knew about this."
He didn't deny it.
"I knew there were records."
"Records?"
My voice rose.
"About me?"
"Hannah..."
"No."
I stepped closer.
"You sat at my table. You talked to my children. You let me believe you were just some lonely man having dinner."
His expression changed.
Because he knew that part was true.
"I was lonely."
The answer surprised me.
I stared at him.
He looked exhausted.
"I wasn't pretending about that."
For a second, I saw the man from the diner again.
The man who had looked at my children like their laughter was something precious.
The man who had eaten a cold meal because he didn't want anyone to notice he was alone.
But then I remembered the file.
The picture.
The secrets.
"You still lied."
Daniel nodded.
"Yes."
That honesty hurt more than an excuse would have.
Victoria stepped between us slightly.
"Hannah, there is something you need to understand."
I looked at her.
"What?"
"Daniel wasn't searching for you because of money."
I frowned.
"I never thought that."
"You should have."
She looked toward the executives watching from the lobby.
"Most people who find out about this situation assume the same thing."
"What situation?"
Victoria lowered her voice.
"The reason you were hidden."
The room suddenly felt colder.
"Hidden from who?"
Nobody answered.
And then my phone rang.
The sound echoed through the lobby.
I looked at the screen.
It was my mother.
My heart stopped.
My mother had passed away six years ago.
I stared at the name.
Impossible.
Everyone saw it.
Victoria's face changed.
Daniel took one step back.
"Don't answer that."
I looked at him.
"What?"
"Please."
The fear in his voice was real.
Not the fake kind.
Not the kind someone used to manipulate another person.
Real fear.
And that scared me more than the call.
The phone kept ringing.
I answered.
I don't know why.
Maybe because some part of me needed proof that I wasn't losing my mind.
"Hello?"
Silence.
Then breathing.
A woman's breathing.
My hand tightened around the phone.
"Who is this?"
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then a voice whispered:
"Hannah?"
My knees almost gave out.
Because I knew that voice.
I knew it better than anyone.
"Mom?"
The lobby disappeared.
The people.
The noise.
Everything.
All I could hear was that voice.
The voice I hadn't heard in six years.
The voice I cried over at her funeral.
"Hannah, listen to me."
I couldn't breathe.
"Where are you?"
A pause.
Then:
"You need to leave."
I looked around.
Everyone was watching me.
"Mom, you're alive?"
Another pause.
A painful one.
"I don't have time to explain."
My eyes filled with tears.
"Why did you let me believe you were dead?"
The silence that followed was worse than any answer.
Then she said:
"Because they were going to kill you too."
My entire body went numb.
Daniel closed his eyes.
Like he had expected this moment.
Victoria whispered something under her breath.
"What?"
I looked at Daniel.
"What did she mean?"
He didn't answer.
My mother's voice came through again.
"Hannah, you cannot trust anyone there."
I looked at Daniel.
Then Victoria.
"Who?"
The line became filled with static.
"Not Daniel."
I froze.
My eyes moved to him.
"What?"
My mother continued.
"Daniel tried to protect you."
Daniel looked up.
But before I could process that, another sound came through the phone.
A door opening.
My mother's breathing changed.
Someone was near her.
"Hannah, you need to listen carefully."
"Mom?"
"If Daniel tells you about Charles, don't believe everything he says."
My heart raced.
"What does that mean?"
The line went silent.
Then my mother's final words came through.
"He doesn't know the truth about your father."
The call ended.
I stood there holding the phone.
Unable to move.
Nobody spoke.
Finally, Daniel said my name.
"Hannah."
I looked at him.
"Who is my father?"
His face changed.
Just slightly.
But enough.
Enough for me to know there was another secret.
Victoria picked up the folder.
She looked at Daniel.
"You never told her."
Daniel didn't respond.
"Tell her."
Still nothing.
My voice was barely a whisper.
"Tell me."
Daniel looked at me.
And for the first time since I met him...
He looked afraid of me knowing the answer.
"I don't know if I should."
I laughed softly.
A broken laugh.
"After everything today, you're worried about what you should tell me?"
He looked down.
Then he said:
"Your father was Charles Pierce."
The name hit me.
The same name from the message.
The same name that had terrified him.
But that wasn't the worst part.
The worst part was the next thing he said.
"He's the reason your mother disappeared."
I felt the room spin.
"My father is alive?"
Daniel didn't answer.
Because he didn't need to.
The look on his face already told me.
My phone buzzed again.
Another message.
This time from the same unknown number.
I opened it.
One photo appeared.
A recent photo.
A man standing outside my apartment.
Watching my children.
Under the picture were five words.
"He knows you found out."
I looked up at Daniel.
He was already staring toward the entrance.
Because someone had just walked into the building.
Someone everyone in the lobby recognized.
Someone who made Victoria drop the folder again.
May you like
And then Daniel whispered a name I had never forgotten, even though I had never heard it before.
"Charles."
