Chapter 7: The Woman Who Was Supposed to Be Dead
The date on Rebecca Collins's letter was the year Noah was born.
I stared at it until the numbers blurred.
Six years earlier, Richard Bennett had supposedly been dead for years, my mother had been raising me as her own daughter, and my family had been preparing to welcome a new baby.
Yet someone had threatened Rebecca Collins.
Someone had known where she was.
And someone had made sure that whatever she knew about the hospital incident stayed buried.
"Daniel," I whispered, "what happened to Richard's granddaughter?""
He examined the letter again.
"I don't know. But if Rebecca was still alive six years ago, we need to find out whether she is alive now.""
I looked toward my grandfather's hospital room. Two nurses were working around his bed, and a doctor was speaking urgently into a phone.
Arthur had finally told me part of the truth, but he might never be able to tell me the rest.
My mother stood at the end of the corridor, her arms wrapped around herself.
When she saw the letter in my hand, she began shaking her head.
"No.""
I turned toward her.
"You recognize this.""
She looked at Daniel.
"You had no right to bring that here.""
Daniel's expression hardened.
"Rebecca wrote it. I have every right to know why she believed someone wanted her dead.""
Diane grabbed my wrist.
"Maya, please. We need to go home.""
I pulled away.
"Which home? The one where you told me I was your daughter? Or the one where you kept a photograph of another woman's child and pretended it was me?""
Her face crumpled.
"I never pretended you weren't my daughter.""
"Then why did you tell me you brought home the wrong baby?""
She looked toward the nurses' station.
"Not here.""
"That's what you always say. Not here. Not now.
Not in front of your father. Not in front of Marcus. When exactly was I supposed to deserve the truth?""
She pressed a hand against her mouth.
I held up Rebecca's letter.
"Did you know she was alive six years ago?""
Diane stared at the date.
Then she whispered, "Yes.""
The word was so quiet that I almost missed it.
Daniel stepped forward.
"Where is she?""
"I don't know.""
"Did you contact her?""
"No.""
"Did Marcus?""
Diane looked away.
I caught the movement.
"Mom.""
She closed her eyes.
"Your grandfather received a letter from her. She said she had evidence that Richard had arranged the hospital exchange. She wanted to speak to someone who could help her find her daughter.""
"Which daughter?""
Diane's shoulders shook.
"Elizabeth.""
My birth name.
The name of the baby my mother had apparently delivered and then lost.
"What happened to the letter?"" I asked.
"Marcus took it.""
"Why?""
"He said Rebecca was trying to extort money from the family.""
Daniel's voice became sharp.
"Was she?""
"No!"" Diane cried.
"At least, I don't think so. She wanted to know what had happened to Elizabeth. She wanted to know why the hospital had told her that her daughter had died.""
I stared at her.
"And what did you do?""
Diane's eyes filled with tears.
"Nothing.""
For once, she didn't offer an excuse.
She simply stood there and admitted it.
"I was afraid Marcus would leave me. I was afraid his family would take Noah away. I was afraid everyone would discover what Richard had done.""
"So you let Rebecca disappear?""
"I didn't know what happened to her!""
"But you didn't look.""
She shook her head.
I stepped away from her.
"How could you do that to another mother?""
Diane's voice broke.
"Because I was selfish.""
The honesty should have meant something.
Instead, it made me feel worse.
For eighteen years, I'd imagined that there must have been a reason for her choices. A terrible circumstance. An impossible decision. Something that might explain why she could love Noah so openly while treating me as though my existence required constant compromise.
Now I understood that she had made a series of choices.
And every time she had chosen herself, someone else had paid.
Daniel folded the letter.
"We need to find Rebecca.""
Diane suddenly reached for his sleeve.
"Don't.""
He looked at her hand.
"Why?""
"Because if she's alive, she knows what happened to Elizabeth.""
"That's precisely why we need to find her.""
Diane's face went white.
"You're not listening. Rebecca knows more than the hospital exchange. She knows why Richard wanted Elizabeth hidden.""
"What does that mean?"" I asked.
My mother opened her mouth.
Before she could answer, a man in a dark suit approached from the elevators.
I recognized him immediately.
Marcus.
He walked toward us carrying a leather briefcase, his expression carefully composed.
He didn't look like a frightened father.
He looked like a businessman arriving to negotiate a contract.
"Maya," he said.
"Come with me.""
"No.""
His gaze shifted to Daniel.
"I see you've decided to involve yourself in matters you don't understand.""
Daniel crossed his arms.
"I understand that your family may have participated in the deliberate concealment of two children's identities.""
Marcus set his briefcase on a chair.
"You're making serious accusations.""
"We have the hospital records.""
"You have incomplete notes written by a dead doctor.""
"We also have Rebecca's letter.""
For the first time, Marcus looked genuinely alarmed.
His eyes snapped toward my mother.
"You gave them that?""
"I didn't," Diane whispered.
Marcus turned back to Daniel.
"Where did you get it?""
"From the archives.""
Marcus opened his briefcase and removed a thick envelope.
"Then perhaps you should read this.""
He handed me a document.
It was a legal notice bearing the name of a law firm. The letter claimed that the hospital records were confidential, that unauthorized access could constitute a criminal offense, and that any further disclosure would result in legal action.
At the bottom was a signature.
Marcus Bennett.
"You threatened the hospital," I said.
"I protected our family.""
"From what? The truth?""
He leaned closer.
"You have no idea what you're doing. You think finding a birth certificate will magically give you a better life? You think Daniel will suddenly become the father you always wanted?""
Daniel stepped forward.
"Don't use me to hurt her.""
Marcus ignored him.
"You've spent your entire life looking for a reason to hate me, Maya. Now you've found one, and you're determined to make it the answer to everything.""
I felt my hands begin to shake.
"You missed my graduation.""
His jaw tightened.
"Not everything is about graduation.""
"It was the most important day of my life.""
"And I had responsibilities.""
"So did Mom. So did Grandpa. Yet none of you came.""
Marcus glanced toward the hospital room.
"Your grandfather is sick. Your mother is falling apart. And you're standing here arguing about a ceremony.""
I stared at him.
"You don't even hear yourself.""
He took a breath, visibly controlling his temper.
"Come home. We'll discuss this privately. I'll give you access to whatever records you want, provided we handle this sensibly.""
I almost laughed.
"You're offering me the truth in exchange for my obedience.""
"I'm offering you a chance to keep this family together.""
I looked at Diane.
She was crying silently.
Then I looked at Daniel, who stood beside me without asking me to trust him or promising that everything would be fine.
For the first time, I understood that choosing my family didn't have to mean choosing the people who had raised me.
It could mean choosing the truth.
"I'm not going home with you," I said.
Marcus's expression hardened.
"Then don't expect me to protect you when this becomes public.""
I picked up Rebecca's letter.
"I don't want your protection.""
He stared at me for several seconds.
Then he turned toward my mother.
"Diane, we're leaving.""
She didn't move.
He grabbed her arm.
She pulled away.
"Marcus, I need to know what happened to Elizabeth.""
His face changed.
"You need to remember who kept you from losing everything.""
She stared at him.
"And who did you keep me from losing?""
He didn't answer.
He simply walked toward the elevators.
But as the doors began to close, he looked directly at me.
"Ask Daniel why his father agreed to help Richard.""
The doors shut.
I turned to Daniel.
"What did he mean?""
Daniel's face had gone pale.
"My father?""
"Marcus said your father agreed to help Richard.""
Daniel looked at the letter in my hand.
"My father died when I was twenty-three. He had nothing to do with your birth.""
"Then why would Marcus say that?""
Daniel didn't answer immediately.
Instead, he took the letter from me and examined the back again.
There was a faint impression beneath Rebecca's handwriting, almost invisible unless the paper was held at an angle.
He moved it beneath the corridor light.
A second message emerged.
Daniel, if you ever find this, ask your father about the Collins inheritance.
Daniel went completely still.
I watched the blood drain from his face.
"What inheritance?""
He shook his head slowly.
"I don't know.""
"But you said your father had nothing to do with my birth.""
"He didn't. At least, that's what I believed.""
He looked toward the elevators where Marcus had disappeared.
Then he pulled out his phone and called someone.
When the person answered, Daniel spoke in a voice I had never heard before.
"This is Daniel Reed. I need access to my father's estate records.""
He listened.
"No, it's not a financial dispute.""
Another pause.
"It's about a woman named Rebecca Collins and an inheritance that may have been concealed eighteen years ago.""
His face tightened.
"What do you mean the file was sealed?""
He listened again.
Then he whispered, "Who sealed it?""
The answer made him close his eyes.
"Richard Bennett.""
Daniel ended the call.
I stared at him.
"Your father knew Richard?""
Daniel nodded slowly.
"My father and Richard Bennett were business partners.""
"How long have you known that?""
"I knew they worked together. I didn't know anything about an inheritance.""
I looked down at the photograph of Rebecca and the little girl.
Two babies. Two mothers. Two identities.
And now a hidden inheritance connecting both families.
Daniel took a long breath.
"Maya, I think we need to find Rebecca before Marcus does.""
My phone vibrated.
A message from an unknown number appeared.
You don't know me, but I'm Rebecca Collins's daughter. My name is Elizabeth Reed. I've been looking for Maya Bennett for eighteen years.
I stared at the screen.
Another message followed.
If you want to know what happened to your mother, meet me tomorrow morning. Come alone.
Beneath the message was an address.
And a photograph.
The woman in the picture had dark hair, a crescent-shaped birthmark beside her left ear, and eyes that looked exactly like mine.
For the first time in eighteen years, I was looking at someone who might share my face.
But the name beneath the photograph wasn't Maya.
It was Elizabeth.
May you like
And if she was Rebecca's daughter, then I had finally found the girl my family had spent eighteen years trying to erase.
Or the person who had been waiting eighteen years to take my place.
