Chapter 8 - The Woman Who Had Been Dead for Thirty Years
Evelyn Carter was sixty-one.
Not dead.
Not missing.
Not imaginary.
She was frightened.
She had been found hiding behind a false wall inside the barn with bottled water, blankets, and a small battery lantern.
At the sheriff’s office, she refused to speak until she saw Emma.
The moment Emma entered, Evelyn began crying.
“You look like Michael.”
Emma stopped.
“My father?”
Evelyn covered her mouth.
“My little brother.”
Emma sat across from her.
“My father believes you died.”
“I was supposed to.”
Emma glanced at Cole.
He stood near the wall.
“Why?”
Evelyn looked toward Margaret through the interview-room glass.
“Because Thomas Hayes needed a dead mother.”
Margaret heard.
Her face went white.
Evelyn continued.
“I was nineteen. Pregnant. Unmarried. My parents sent me to St. Vincent.”
Emma leaned forward.
“Was Daniel your baby?”
Evelyn cried harder.
“Yes.”
Margaret shouted from outside.
“No!”
Cole opened the door.
Margaret pushed into the room.
“You’re lying!”
Evelyn looked at her for the first time.
“I remember you.”
Margaret froze.
“You were crying,” Evelyn whispered. “Thomas brought you into my room.”
Margaret shook her head.
“No.”
“You held my son.”
“No.”
“You asked me his name.”
Margaret backed toward the wall.
Evelyn continued.
“I said I hadn’t chosen one.”
Emma felt her heartbeat pounding.
“Then what happened?”
Evelyn stared at the table.
“Thomas offered me money.”
“How much?”
“Enough to leave the state.”
“For Daniel?”
“For silence.”
Evelyn wiped her eyes.
“He said a family had lost their newborn son. They wanted to adopt mine privately.”
Margaret whispered, “My father told me she abandoned him.”
Evelyn laughed bitterly.
“I changed my mind.”
Margaret stopped.
“When?”
“That night.”
Evelyn looked at Emma.
“I heard another baby crying in the hallway. I heard nurses arguing. Something felt wrong. I told them I wanted my son back.”
“What did Thomas do?”
“He came into my room with a doctor.”
Her voice shook.
“They injected me.”
Emma’s stomach turned.
“When I woke up, the building was burning.”
Cole leaned closer.
“How did you survive?”
“A nurse named Helen Morse pulled me down the back stairs.”
“Why were you declared dead?”
“The unidentified woman found in Room 214 was wearing my bracelet.”
Margaret sat down heavily.
Evelyn continued.
“Helen told me Thomas would kill me if he learned I survived.”
“So you disappeared.”
“Yes.”
“For thirty-four years?”
“No.”
Evelyn looked at Margaret.
“I came back six years later.”
Robert had said Thomas was questioning six-year-old Daniel in the basement.
Emma connected it instantly.
“You tried to get Daniel.”
Evelyn nodded.
“Thomas stopped me.”
“How?”
“He threatened Michael.”
Emma’s throat tightened.
“My father.”
“He showed me photographs of him. Your grandparents. Their house.”
Emma stared.
“He said if I ever contacted Daniel, my family would die.”
“And you believed him.”
“I had already watched St. Vincent burn.”
Emma could not argue.
Evelyn took a folded paper from her pocket.
“I stayed away until Thomas contacted me three months ago.”
Margaret shouted, “Why would he contact you?”
“Because someone else restarted the program.”
The room went silent.
“What program?” Cole asked.
Evelyn looked toward the photographs from the barn.
“The babies.”
Emma felt Sophia kick.
Hard.
Evelyn looked directly at Emma’s stomach.
“Thomas said another child was being prepared.”
Emma’s mouth went dry.
“Mine?”
Evelyn did not answer immediately.
She didn’t need to.
Margaret stood.
“That’s impossible.”
Evelyn looked at her.
“Then why did you name her Ethan before she was born?”
Margaret’s face collapsed.
Emma stared.
“You did know.”
Margaret backed away.
“I was trying to prevent it.”
“Prevent what?”
May you like
Margaret looked toward Emma’s stomach.
“The correction.”
