Chapter 14 - The First SecretNothing made sense anymore.
My daughter.
My sister.
My mother.
Vanessa.
Every relationship in my life seemed to contain another hidden door.
The nurse introduced herself as Helen.
She had delivered Lily.
And Vanessa.
And the baby I had been told was mine.
She sat beside me.
“Your grandmother discovered the truth twenty-one years ago.”
“What truth?”
“That Vanessa wasn't your father's biological daughter.”
I stared.
“What?”
Helen nodded.
“Your father had adopted her.”
“Why?”
“Because Vanessa was connected to the first child.”
“Subject 1?”
“Yes.”
“Who was Subject 1?”
Helen opened an old file.
Inside was a photograph of a teenage girl.
Vanessa.
Beside her stood a woman.
The woman looked like my mother.
But younger.
Much younger.
“This is Margaret's sister,” Helen said.
I stared.
“My aunt?”
“You never knew she existed.”
“Why?”
“Because she disappeared.”
“When?”
“Twenty-two years ago.”
I felt dizzy.
“What happened?”
“She gave birth to a daughter.”
“Vanessa?”
Helen shook her head.
“Another child.”
My family tree had become a labyrinth.
“Who?”
Helen looked at me.
“Your grandmother took the baby.”
“Why?”
“To protect her.”
“From who?”
“Your father.”
“Why?”
Helen's eyes filled with fear.
“Because your father wasn't the man everyone believed he was.”
She handed me another document.
A DNA test.
The names were partially blacked out.
But one name remained.
Thomas Carter.
The result:
NOT BIOLOGICAL FATHER.
I looked at the nurse.
“Then who was?”
She whispered a name.
I knew it.
My father had hated him.
My grandmother had spoken about him only once.
And Vanessa had once told me he died before I was born.
But the document showed otherwise.
He had lived.
And he had been my mother's first love.
The father of Vanessa.
And possibly...
the father of me.
I couldn't move.
Helen stood.
“Your mother has one final file.”
“Where?”
“At home.”
“What's in it?”
Helen looked toward the police.
“The identity of your biological father.”
Then she walked away.
Before she disappeared around the corner, she turned back.
“And Rachel?”
“Yes?”
“Don't trust Daniel.”
My stomach dropped.
“Why?”
May you like
Helen shook her head.
“Because he isn't the only person who knew where your missing baby went.”
