Chapter 4: The Baby in the Photograph
For several seconds, I thought Rachel had lost her mind.
I looked at the photograph again.
The young woman standing beside my mother was unmistakably Vivian. Her dark hair fell over one shoulder, and she wore the same silver bracelet I remembered seeing on her wrist during my father's second wedding.
But the baby?
I was thirty-six years old.
My daughter, Emma, was eight.
There was no possible way that baby could have been mine.
"Rachel, what are you talking about?""
My sister wiped her cheeks.
"Look at the bracelet.""
I stared at the photograph.
"What bracelet?""
"On the baby's wrist.""
I enlarged the image.
There was a tiny silver bracelet around the baby's left wrist. A crescent moon dangled from it.
The same symbol as the key.
Rachel pulled out a chair.
"Daniel, do you remember when you were twenty-three?""
"Of course.""
"Do you remember the summer before that photograph was taken?""
I nodded slowly.
It had been the summer I'd spent almost every weekend at the lake house.
I had just graduated from college. My father had offered me a temporary job at his property management company, and I'd been helping renovate the lake house.
It was also the summer I met Laura.
Laura Bennett.
She was a nursing student who worked at a small café near the lake.
We dated for almost six months.
Then, one morning, she disappeared.
No explanation.
No goodbye.
I remembered calling her repeatedly.
I remembered visiting her apartment and finding it empty.
My father had told me she'd taken a job overseas.
"Why are you asking about Laura?"" I said.
Rachel looked down.
"Because she was pregnant.""
The room tilted.
"What?""
"She came to the lake house one evening. I saw her arguing with Dad.""
"That's impossible.""
"I heard them, Daniel.""
"What did they say?""
Rachel closed her eyes.
"Laura wanted to tell you about the baby. Dad said you were too young to become a father. He offered her money to leave.""
I stood up.
"Why didn't you tell me?""
"I was twenty-five. Dad told me Laura had agreed to leave voluntarily. He said she didn't want you involved.""
"And you believed him?""
"I believed what I was told.""
I paced toward the window.
My father had arranged my separation from a woman I loved.
He had hidden a pregnancy.
And now my mother was sending me photographs suggesting that the child had survived.
"Where is Laura now?""
Rachel shook her head.
"I don't know.""
"Does she know about Emma?""
"I don't know, Daniel.""
I placed both hands on the kitchen counter.
"Then why would Mom send me this photograph?""
Rachel pointed to the baby's bracelet.
"Because she wants you to recognize it.""
I took the silver key from my pocket.
For the first time, I noticed that the crescent moon engraving had a tiny line through its center.
The bracelet in the photograph had the same mark.
I turned the key over.
There was a number engraved on the back.
214.
"Do you recognize that?"" I asked.
Rachel stared.
Then she whispered, "Room 214.""
"What?""
"At the lake house. There was an upstairs bedroom with that number on the old door.""
I remembered the room.
It had belonged to my mother.
After she supposedly died, Vivian had turned it into a storage room.
My father had told us never to enter it because the floorboards were damaged.
I grabbed my jacket.
"Where are you going?""
"The lake house.""
"Daniel, wait.""
I turned.
Rachel was crying again.
"There's something I haven't told you.""
I stopped.
"What?""
"Before Mom disappeared, she made me promise something.""
"What promise?""
"She told me that if you ever discovered the truth, I had to give you this.""
Rachel walked toward a cabinet and removed a small wooden box.
She opened it.
Inside was a hospital identification bracelet.
The plastic was yellowed with age.
I picked it up.
The name printed on it was barely readable.
DANIEL BENNETT.
My birth date was underneath.
But the hospital number wasn't mine.
"What's this?""
Rachel swallowed.
"Your mother told me you had a twin.""
I stared at her.
"What?""
"She said you were born with a sister. A little girl.""
I shook my head.
"No.""
"She said she died shortly after birth.""
I looked at the photograph again.
The baby.
The bracelet.
My mother.
Vivian.
"Then why did you say that baby was mine?""
Rachel lowered her eyes.
"Because I recognized the hospital bracelet in the photograph. It belonged to the baby they said had died.""
My throat tightened.
"You're telling me I had a twin sister?""
Rachel nodded.
"And you think she's alive?""
"I think Mom wants you to find her.""
I looked at the photograph.
The baby was wrapped in a white blanket.
Behind her, my mother was smiling.
It wasn't the smile I remembered from her hospital photographs.
It was different.
Peaceful.
Almost relieved.
My phone vibrated.
A message from an unknown number.
Daniel, you need to stop asking Rachel questions.
Another message followed.
Your father is watching the house.
I looked through the window.
Across the street, a black sedan was parked beside a mailbox.
The driver's face was hidden behind dark glass.
Then my phone rang.
This time, the caller ID showed a name.
LAURA BENNETT.
I answered immediately.
A woman's voice whispered:
"Daniel, I know what your father did to our daughter.""
May you like
And then she said something that made me drop the phone.
"She's not the only child he took from us.""
