Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DEADFor several seconds, none of us moved.
Snow swirled around us.
The woman's name was Elena.
My mother had once told me that Elena had died before I was old enough to remember her.
Car accident.
That was the story.
For years, I had believed it.
Now the woman standing in front of me looked at me as if she were seeing a ghost.
“You're alive,” I whispered.
She nodded slowly.
“So are you.”
I stared at her.
“How?”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“Not here.”
She looked at Zoe.
“We need to get you both out of this storm.”
I hesitated.
“What if this is some kind of mistake?”
Elena shook her head.
“It isn't.”
She reached into her coat.
Pulled out her phone.
Then showed me an old photograph.
It was a photograph of me.
As a baby.
I stared at it.
A little girl wrapped in a yellow blanket.
On the back was handwriting.
Clara.
I looked up.
“Where did you get that?”
Elena's voice trembled.
“I took it the day you were born.”
My heart pounded.
My mother had never shown me baby pictures that looked like that.
We drove to a small roadside inn that Elena apparently owned.
She gave Zoe hot chocolate.
Then wrapped her in a blanket.
Zoe fell asleep within minutes.
I couldn't.
I sat across from Elena at a small table.
“Tell me everything.”
She stared at the floor.
“Your parents didn't tell you I was dead because they were grieving.”
She looked at me.
“They told you because they needed you to stop asking questions.”
“What questions?”
Elena reached into a drawer.
She pulled out a file.
Old documents.
Photographs.
Bank records.
Court papers.
Then one sheet caught my eye.
My birth certificate.
I looked closer.
My father's name was listed.
My mother's name was listed.
But there was another document underneath.
It was an adoption petition.
My name was there.
Clara Walker.
I looked at Elena.
“What is this?”
She took a breath.
“Your parents weren't supposed to raise you.”
“What?”
“You were supposed to come to me.”
The room tilted.
“Why?”
Elena's hands shook.
“Because your mother couldn't have children safely.”
I stared at her.
“She had you anyway. But when you were born, something happened.”
“What happened?”
“She made a deal.”
“With whom?”
“With the family.”
“What family?”
Elena's silence answered before her words did.
“The Walker family owned half the town.”
I frowned.
“My father wasn't rich.”
“He was later.”
She slid another document toward me.
A trust agreement.
My name appeared again.
This time beside a number.
I stared.
Then looked at the amount.
My breath caught.
Thirty-two million dollars.
“What is that?”
“Your inheritance.”
I laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because it was impossible.
“My parents don't have thirty-two million dollars.”
Elena looked me directly in the eyes.
“They do.”
My stomach twisted.
“Then why did they make me live there?”
“Because the money isn't theirs.”
“Whose is it?”
Elena leaned forward.
“Yours.”
I shook my head.
“This makes no sense.”
“It will.”
She reached for another document.
“This is why they never let me find you.”
Before she could hand it over, the motel phone rang.
We both froze.
Elena stared at the receiver.
It rang again.
Then again.
She finally answered.
“Hello?”
Nothing.
Then a man's voice came through.
“Stop talking to her.”
Elena's face went pale.
“Who is this?”
The man laughed softly.
“You know exactly who this is.”
The line went dead.
I stood.
“Who was that?”
Elena didn't answer.
“Who?”
She looked toward the window.
A pair of headlights sat in the parking lot.
An engine idled.
Someone was watching us.
May you like
Then Elena whispered:
“Your father.”
