Chapter 6: The Woman in the Doorway
For one impossible second, Emily couldn't breathe.
The woman stood beneath the porch light.
Wet brown hair clung to her cheeks.
Her eyes were wide.
Her lips trembled.
She looked older than the photographs of Claire, but the resemblance was unmistakable.
David staggered backward.
“Claire?””
The woman covered her mouth.
Margaret rose so quickly that her chair fell behind her.
“No.””
Daniel stared at the doorway.
“That's impossible.””
The woman stepped inside.
Emily couldn't move.
David whispered her name again.
“Claire?””
The woman looked at him.
“David…”
His knees nearly buckled.
Emily's heart pounded.
“Mom?””
The woman looked directly at her.
Tears filled her eyes.
“Emily.””
Emily took one step backward.
“No.””
The woman raised both hands.
“I'm not going to hurt you.””
“You know my name.””
“Yes.””
“How?””
The woman swallowed.
“Because I'm your mother.””
David moved toward her.
“Claire, where have you been?””
She flinched.
“David, don't.””
“You died.””
“I know.””
“You were dead.””
“I know what they told you.””
Margaret's face had gone gray.
“You shouldn't be here.””
The woman turned toward her.
“You said that seventeen years ago.””
Emily stared at her grandmother.
“Grandma?””
The woman looked at Margaret.
“You told me to disappear.””
Margaret shook her head.
“I was trying to save you.””
“You were trying to save yourself.””
David's eyes moved between them.
“What happened?””
Claire looked at him.
“I was taken.””
“By who?””
“Victor.””
Daniel stepped forward.
“Victor Hale?””
Claire nodded.
“He took me from the farmhouse.””
Emily's mouth fell open.
“But Mom…”
Claire looked at her.
“I survived.””
David covered his face with both hands.
“Why didn't you come home?””
Claire's eyes filled.
“Because I wasn't allowed to.””
“By Victor?””
“By the people behind him.””
Daniel asked, “Who?””
Claire looked at Margaret.
“Your mother knows.””
Margaret whispered, “Claire…”
“No more lies.””
Emily's voice cracked.
“Please.””
Everyone looked at her.
Emily stood in the middle of the room, shaking.
“I've spent my whole life thinking my mother died.””
Claire began crying.
“I know.””
“I thought I was three years old when you left me.””
“I know.””
“I cried because I couldn't remember your voice.””
Claire covered her mouth.
“I know.””
Emily stepped toward her.
“Then why?””
Claire looked at David.
“Because I was told that if I came back, they'd kill you.””
David's voice was barely audible.
“Who?””
“The same people who killed Elena.””
Daniel went still.
“You know who killed my wife.””
Claire nodded.
“Yes.””
“Who?””
Claire looked at Emily.
“Your grandmother's employer.””
Margaret shook her head.
“I didn't work for them.””
“You took their money.””
“I took money to protect David.””
“You took money because they threatened him.””
Margaret said nothing.
David stared at his mother.
“Who threatened me?””
Claire hesitated.
“The Carters.””
David frowned.
“What?””
Claire looked at him.
“Your father's family.””
Emily blinked.
“Grandpa?””
David's face went pale.
“My father died before I was born.””
Claire nodded.
“That's what you were told.””
Daniel whispered, “What is going on?””
Claire reached into her coat.
She pulled out an old photograph.
She placed it on the table.
It showed a younger David standing beside an older man.
Emily recognized David immediately.
But the older man wasn't a stranger.
She had seen his face before.
In the portrait hanging upstairs.
Her grandfather.
David stared at the photograph.
“Where did you get this?””
“Your father gave it to me.””
“He was dead.””
“He gave it to me before he died.””
David's hands trembled.
“What does it prove?””
Claire pointed at the older man.
“He knew about Daniel's family.””
Daniel stepped forward.
“What did he know?””
“That Elena wasn't killed because of Daniel.””
Daniel froze.
“Then why?””
Claire looked at Emily.
“Because Elena discovered that Thomas wasn't Daniel's biological son.””
Daniel's face went blank.
“What?””
Claire nodded.
“Thomas was adopted.””
Daniel shook his head.
“No.””
“Daniel—”
“No. Elena gave birth to him.””
“She believed she did.””
Daniel looked as if he'd been struck.
Claire continued.
“Thomas was part of a private adoption operation run through a medical network.””
Emily whispered, “A medical network?””
Claire nodded.
“Babies were being moved between families.””
David looked horrified.
“Mom…”
Margaret began crying.
Emily looked at her.
“You knew.””
Margaret couldn't meet her eyes.
Claire continued.
“The night Emily was born, there were two mothers at the farmhouse.””
Daniel's eyes widened.
“Who?””
Claire looked at him.
“Elena.””
Daniel stepped backward.
“She was alive that night?””
“Yes.””
“But she died before—”
“She was still alive when I arrived.””
Daniel's face crumpled.
Claire took a breath.
“She had been trying to take Thomas back.””
Emily looked at her.
“And me?””
Claire turned toward her.
“You were one of the babies involved.””
Emily felt cold all over.
“What does that mean?””
Claire reached into her coat again.
This time she pulled out a faded hospital record.
She handed it to Emily.
At the top was a date.
The date of Emily's birth.
Below it were two names.
*Claire Carter.*
And beneath it:
*Elena Hayes.*
Emily stared.
“Why are both their names here?””
Claire's voice trembled.
“Because that night, one baby was supposed to go home with you.””
Emily looked up.
“And the other?””
Claire's eyes filled with tears.
“The other baby was supposed to disappear.””
Daniel whispered, “Whose baby?””
Claire looked at Emily.
“Yours.””
The room fell silent.
Emily shook her head.
“No.””
Claire reached for her hand.
Emily let her.
“I thought I was protecting you.””
“From what?””
“From the truth.””
Emily looked at the hospital record again.
Then something caught her eye.
A handwritten note in the margin.
She read it twice.
Her face went pale.
“Mom?””
“Yes?””
“This says the baby was transferred.””
Claire nodded.
“To where?””
Claire's lips parted.
Before she could answer, David grabbed the document.
His eyes moved across the page.
Then he froze.
Emily watched the color drain from his face.
“What?””
David looked at her.
“The transfer wasn't to another hospital.””
“Where was it?””
David couldn't speak.
Claire answered.
“To a private residence.””
“Whose?””
Claire stared at Margaret.
Margaret whispered:
“Mine.””
Emily slowly turned toward her grandmother.
“You had me?””
Margaret began sobbing.
“No.””
Emily stepped closer.
“Then whose baby did you bring into this house?””
Margaret looked at her.
And after seventeen years of silence, she finally said the one sentence that destroyed everything Emily thought she knew.
“I didn't bring you into this family, Emily.””
She pointed toward Claire.
“Your mother did.””
Then Margaret looked at Daniel.
“And the baby I was supposed to hide…”
May you like
She swallowed.
“…was Thomas.””
