Chapter 5 - THE SECOND DAUGHTERThe detective answered first.
“Detective Morales.”
He listened.
His expression changed.
“Repeat that.”
Silence.
He slowly lowered the phone.
Daniel watched him.
“What happened?”
Morales looked directly at Lena.
“There was another attack at the airport.”
“Who?”
“An unidentified woman.”
Daniel felt a strange dread.
“Is she alive?”
“Yes.”
“Why does that matter?”
Morales swallowed.
“Because she was carrying this.”
He placed an evidence bag on the table.
Inside was a second bracelet.
Identical to the one stolen from Lena.
Daniel stared.
“No.”
Morales nodded.
“Same engraving.”
Lena looked terrified.
“That's impossible.”
Daniel leaned closer.
The second bracelet had the same words.
For my little girl.
Same date.
June 17, 1998.
But this one had a different detail.
Inside the clasp was a tiny engraved letter.
A single A.
Daniel looked at Lena.
“Did your mother have another child?”
Lena shook her head.
“Not that I know of.”
Morales opened a report.
“The woman at the airport claims she knows you.”
Lena whispered.
“Who is she?”
“Her name is Eva Mercer.”
Daniel's blood ran cold.
Because he knew that name too.
Eva Mercer was the foster mother who had taken custody of a little girl six weeks after Lily disappeared.
Daniel had been told Lily was not the child.
The records had been clear.
The girl's fingerprints didn't match.
Daniel had forgotten her name.
Until now.
He stared at Morales.
“Bring her here.”
Eva entered twenty minutes later.
She was seventy years old.
Thin.
Pale.
Her hands trembled.
When she saw Lena, she stopped breathing.
“You.”
Lena stepped backward.
“Do I know you?”
Eva began crying.
“I thought they killed you.”
Daniel stepped between them.
“Who?”
Eva looked at him.
“You shouldn't have found her.”
Daniel was tired of hearing that sentence.
“Everyone keeps saying that.”
Eva looked at Lena.
“Your mother was not Amira.”
Lena's face hardened.
“She was.”
“No.”
Eva shook her head.
“Amira was your guardian.”
“Then who was my mother?”
Eva looked at Daniel.
“Your wife.”
Daniel's knees nearly gave way.
“What?”
Eva whispered.
“Sarah gave birth to twins.”
The room went silent.
Lena stared at Daniel.
“Twins?”
Eva nodded.
“One girl was Lily.”
Daniel couldn't move.
“And the other?”
Eva looked away.
“Was never supposed to survive.”
Daniel's chest tightened.
“What are you saying?”
Eva's voice dropped.
“Your wife was told one baby died during childbirth.”
Daniel felt the room spin.
“That isn't possible.”
“It happened.”
“Sarah never had twins.”
“She did.”
“You were there?”
Eva nodded.
“And so was Marcus Vale.”
Daniel's mind raced.
His wife had always told him Lily was their only child.
Why would she lie?
Eva reached into her coat and removed a folded hospital record.
She placed it on the table.
Two birth entries.
Two female infants.
Same mother.
Same date.
Same time.
Daniel stared at the names.
Infant Hart.
Infant Hart.
One was crossed out.
The second had been handwritten.
Transferred.
Daniel looked at Lena.
Then at the record.
“What happened to the other baby?”
Eva's eyes filled with tears.
“She was sold.”
“Where?”
Eva looked toward the locked door.
“Daniel, you need to leave.”
“Why?”
“Because the people who bought your second daughter have been searching for Lily too.”
“Who bought her?”
Eva whispered a name.
May you like
And Daniel recognized it immediately.
It was the name of the man who had sponsored his entire search for the last twenty-eight years.
