Chapter 10 - Two LilliesDavid couldn't speak.
The girl looked exactly like Lily.
Not similar.
Exactly.
Same crooked front tooth.
Same birthmark beneath the left ear.
Same voice.
Karen whispered, “This can't be.”
The girl walked down the stairs.
“Hello, Daddy.”
David backed away.
“Where is my daughter?”
The girl tilted her head.
“I am.”
“No.”
She smiled.
“You don't remember me?”
David stared.
Memory struck him.
A hospital room.
Eight years ago.
Two cribs.
Two babies.
One red bracelet.
One blue bracelet.
He remembered Evelyn screaming.
Then the lights went out.
Then the doctor saying one baby had died.
But he couldn't remember seeing the body.
He had always assumed grief had erased the details.
Now he wasn't sure.
The girl pointed toward the ledger.
“Your family changed the bracelets.”
David looked at Karen.
“Tell me.”
Karen covered her mouth.
“I can't.”
“You will.”
Karen began shaking.
“The baby they took…”
“Which one?”
“Lily.”
David stared at her.
“What?”
“The original Lily was taken.”
“And the child who stayed?”
“Benjamin's twin.”
David felt the room spin.
“Then who is the girl?”
Karen looked directly at her.
“The original Lily.”
David stared.
He looked toward the passage.
The voice he'd been hearing.
The child he'd protected.
The girl he'd called his daughter for eight years.
“Then who was in my house?”
Karen whispered, “An impostor.”
The girl smiled.
“Not an impostor.”
David's heart pounded.
“Then what?”
“A replacement.”
The lawyer laughed.
“The family needed a child who could inherit without anyone asking questions.”
David looked at the girl.
“Where is Benjamin?”
She pointed deeper into the chamber.
The lawyer stepped aside.
A steel door opened.
Inside was Benjamin.
Older now.
Twenty? No.
About ten.
Same age as Lily.
David stared at him.
The boy stared back.
“Daddy?”
David walked toward him.
Then stopped.
Benjamin looked frightened.
“Are you really my dad?”
David knelt.
“Yes.”
The boy stared for several seconds.
Then whispered, “Mom said you forgot me.”
David's eyes filled.
“I never knew.”
Benjamin looked at the girl.
“Did she bring you here?”
The girl nodded.
“She said we had to find the truth.”
David stood.
“Who is she?”
The lawyer answered.
“The first witness.”
Karen shook her head.
“No. She knows more than that.”
The girl turned toward Karen.
“You remember my mother.”
Karen froze.
“Your mother?”
“My real mother.”
David stared.
“Who?”
The girl smiled.
“Evelyn.”
David's blood ran cold.
“That isn't possible.”
The girl walked closer.
“My mother is alive.”
David stopped.
Karen backed away.
“No.”
The girl whispered:
“She has been watching us from inside the house.”
Every light in the chamber went out.
A woman began singing somewhere in the darkness.
A lullaby.
Evelyn's lullaby.
David knew it instantly.
Then a woman's voice whispered beside his ear.
“Did you miss me?”
He turned.
May you like
No one was there.
A hand touched his shoulder.
