Chapter 19 - The Woman in the PhotographThe next morning, Sophia brought me a photograph.
A woman stood beside a hospital bed.
She looked young.
Maybe twenty-five.
In her arms was a newborn baby.
Me.
I stared at her face.
There was something familiar.
Not in the way my mother's face was familiar.
Something deeper.
The shape of the eyes.
The smile.
The same tiny scar above the eyebrow.
"Who is she?"
Sophia looked at me.
"Her name was Anna Kane."
My heart stopped.
"Kane?"
"Yes."
"Mark's wife?"
Sophia nodded.
I stared at the photograph.
"Then why did Dad say she was gone?"
"Because she was."
"Where?"
"Official records say she died."
I looked up.
"When?"
"Twenty years ago."
"How?"
"Car accident."
I stared at the baby in the photograph.
Me.
"Then how am I alive?"
Sophia said nothing.
I looked at the date.
The accident occurred three days after the birth certificate was filed.
"That's impossible."
"Not necessarily."
She slid over another document.
A hospital discharge record.
The baby was listed as:
Female infant, mother Anna Kane.
But there was no death record for the baby.
No adoption record.
No transfer.
Nothing.
I looked at Sophia.
"Where did I go?"
"We don't know."
Then Daniel entered the room.
"We may have found her."
My heart jumped.
"Anna?"
He shook his head.
"She's dead."
My chest tightened.
"Then what?"
He placed a photograph on the table.
A woman entering a nursing facility.
Older.
Late fifties.
I stared at her.
There was something familiar.
"Who is she?"
Daniel said:
"Anna Kane's sister."
I looked at him.
"Your biological aunt."
Her name was Evelyn.
She had lived under another surname for decades.
She agreed to meet me.
That afternoon, I sat across from her in a quiet café.
She stared at my face for nearly a minute.
Then she began crying.
"You have Anna's eyes."
I couldn't speak.
"Tell me."
She reached into her purse and pulled out a letter.
"Your mother gave this to me before she died."
I opened it.
The handwriting was not Mom's.
It was different.
The first line read:
My daughter, Rachel.
My hands trembled.
The letter explained everything.
Anna had discovered that Mark was involved in financial crimes.
She had planned to leave him.
She had given birth to me in secret.
But Mark found out.
On the night she tried to escape, there was a car crash.
Anna survived the crash long enough to hide me.
She left me with Linda Whitman.
My mother.
The woman I had called Mom all my life.
Anna believed Linda could protect me.
She was wrong about many things.
But she was right about one.
The family trust.
The assets.
My inheritance.
All of it had been created to keep me safe.
Not to make me rich.
To make me impossible to control.
I cried reading the final paragraph.
Linda is not your mother by blood, but she loves you. Please believe that.
Then another line:
Your father is Michael Kane. Your brother Eric is his son. But neither of you belongs to his world.
I looked at Evelyn.
"What happened to Anna?"
Evelyn lowered her eyes.
"She survived the crash."
My heart stopped.
"What?"
"She lived."
"Then why was she declared dead?"
Evelyn whispered:
"Because she went into hiding."
"Where?"
"She disappeared."
"Why?"
"Because Mark was looking for her."
I stared at the letter.
"Where is she now?"
Evelyn looked at me.
"I don't know."
Then my phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
A woman's voice whispered:
"Rachel."
I froze.
"Who is this?"
A pause.
May you like
Then:
"My name is Anna."
