Chapter 6 - They moved Claire to a hotel that night.The police said the house wasn't safe.
Daniel refused to leave her alone.
Evelyn was taken to the station for questioning.
Marcus disappeared before dawn.
By six in the morning, Claire had not slept.
She sat by the hotel window, staring at the city lights.
Daniel stood behind her.
“What do you remember?”
“Not enough.”
“Try.”
She closed her eyes.
“I remember your father.”
Daniel looked surprised.
“You met him before we got married?”
“No.”
She frowned.
“I don't remember meeting him.”
“Then how do you know what he looked like?”
Claire slowly turned.
“He was in a photograph.”
Daniel's expression changed.
“What photograph?”
“I don't know.”
She pressed her fingers to her temple.
“You were younger.”
Daniel waited.
“Your father was standing beside another man.”
“The other son?”
“I think so.”
“What did he look like?”
“Blue tie.”
Daniel took out his phone.
He searched old family photographs.
One by one.
Claire shook her head.
Then Daniel opened a picture from his father's seventieth birthday.
Claire froze.
There he was.
The scar.
The blue tie.
A man standing two steps behind Daniel's father.
Daniel stared.
“That man is Adrian Hale.”
Marcus's brother.
Claire stood.
“Then I saw him before the accident.”
“How?”
“I don't know.”
Daniel enlarged the photo.
“There.”
He pointed.
Adrian wasn't looking at the camera.
He was looking at someone outside the frame.
Daniel zoomed further.
A young woman stood beside a table.
Claire.
Pregnant.
Daniel stopped breathing.
“You were there.”
Claire stared.
“That isn't possible.”
The timestamp said six weeks before their wedding.
Daniel's voice was barely audible.
“Why don't you remember?”
A knock came at the door.
Both turned.
Daniel reached for the gun he'd borrowed from a security officer.
“Who is it?”
A woman's voice answered.
“It's me.”
Claire recognized it.
Evelyn.
Daniel opened the door.
His mother stepped inside.
She looked exhausted.
No makeup.
No polished smile.
She held a small cardboard box.
“What's that?” Daniel asked.
“Everything I should have told you four years ago.”
She put the box on the table.
Claire stood across from her.
“Why now?”
“Because they're coming.”
“Who?”
Evelyn looked at Claire.
“The people who killed your memory.”
Daniel stared.
“Mom.”
“I don't have time.”
She opened the box.
Inside were photographs, hospital documents, letters, and a tiny pink blanket.
Claire touched it.
A violent memory hit her.
A newborn crying.
Her hands.
A woman saying:
“She knows your voice.”
Claire gasped.
Daniel caught her.
Evelyn whispered:
“Her name was Emma.”
Claire looked up.
“Emma.”
For the first time, the name felt like something she had once screamed across a room.
“Where is she?”
Evelyn looked down.
“I don't know.”
“You don't know?”
“I thought I did.”
Daniel's voice rose.
“You took her.”
“I saved her.”
“You stole my daughter.”
“I saved your daughter from Adrian.”
Marcus's story suddenly made sense.
Claire stared.
“Adrian wanted her.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because he knew what Daniel's father had left her.”
“What?”
Evelyn hesitated.
“Control.”
Daniel frowned.
“Control of what?”
“The Hale companies.”
He stared.
“What?”
“Your father changed his will shortly before he died.”
She placed a document on the table.
Daniel read it.
His face drained of color.
“Emma inherits everything.”
Evelyn nodded.
“On her eighteenth birthday.”
Claire stared at the document.
“Why would your father leave everything to a baby?”
“Because he knew Adrian would destroy the family to get it.”
Daniel looked at his mother.
“So you hid Emma.”
“Yes.”
“And you erased Claire's memories.”
Evelyn closed her eyes.
“I had a doctor who could help.”
Claire stared at her.
“Help?”
“You were terrified. You kept asking for Emma.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because Adrian had people watching the hospital.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“You could have told me.”
“You would have gone after them.”
“Yes.”
“And they would have killed you.”
Daniel froze.
Evelyn's voice cracked.
“I already lost your father. I wasn't going to lose you too.”
Claire looked at the papers.
One letter caught her eye.
It was written by Daniel's father.
The final line read:
If Claire remembers, bring Emma home.
Claire's heart stopped.
She looked at Daniel.
“That means he knew about me.”
Evelyn nodded.
“He knew everything.”
Daniel lifted another photograph.
It showed Claire holding a baby.
Taken inside the hospital.
Four years ago.
On the back, in his father's handwriting, were six words:
She never stopped fighting for her daughter.
Claire began to cry.
Then the hotel phone rang.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Nobody moved.
Daniel finally answered.
A man's voice whispered:
“Emma is alive.”
Daniel tightened his grip.
“Who are you?”
The voice answered:
“Ask your mother where she hid her.”
Then the line went dead.
Evelyn's face went white.
May you like
Because she knew the voice.
And the last time she'd heard it, someone had died.
Related Stories
