Chapter 8 - The Sister Who Had Been Dead for Twenty Years
Her name was Celia Mercer.
Ryan remembered her as a thin girl with dark hair and an impatient smile.
She was six years older than him.
She hated piano lessons, loved thunderstorms, and kept sugar cubes in her pockets for horses she was not allowed to own.
When Ryan was eleven, Evelyn told him Celia had died during experimental treatment for a rare immune disorder.
There was no funeral.
Evelyn claimed the hospital had recommended immediate cremation.
Ryan had been too young and too devastated to question it.
Now he held a photograph taken twenty years later.
Celia appeared older, but unmistakably alive.
The shape of her eyes.
The small scar above her eyebrow.
The silver bracelet Ryan had given her on her final birthday.
Maya touched his shoulder.
“Could the date be false?”
Jonah examined the photograph.
“The printing ink is recent. We’ll verify the image.”
Ryan turned toward the drawer.
“She’s alive.”
“We don’t know that yet,” Jonah said.
Ryan slammed the folder onto the counter.
“My mother lied about her death.”
“Ryan.”
“She lied for twenty years.”
Maya had never seen him look so furious.
Not even during their worst arguments.
He walked into the hallway and called Evelyn.
She answered on the third ring.
“Ryan?”
“Where is Celia?”
Silence.
His face hardened.
“Where is my sister?”
Evelyn exhaled slowly.
“You’re upset.”
“Answer me.”
“This is not a conversation for the telephone.”
“Is she alive?”
“Ryan, please come to the hotel alone.”
Maya shook her head.
Ryan looked at her.
“Tell me where Celia is.”
Evelyn’s voice softened.
“I did everything to save her.”
The call ended.
Ryan stood motionless.
Jonah wrote down the number.
“She admitted enough for us to reopen the case.”
Ryan looked toward Oliver’s room upstairs.
“The donor records.”
Maya understood.
Evelyn had not been monitoring Oliver simply because she wanted custody.
She believed he could save Celia.
But why would Oliver be compatible with a woman who was supposed to be Ryan’s biological sister if Oliver was not truly Ryan’s child?
Unless someone had selected him for that reason.
Jonah voiced the thought.
“Oliver may have been placed with you because of his genetics.”
Maya sat at the kitchen table.
“No.”
“The unidentified infant at St. Catherine’s may have been connected to Celia’s treatment program.”
“He was a baby, not medical property.”
“I agree.”
Ryan paced.
“Why wait four years?”
“Some procedures cannot be performed on infants,” Jonah said. “They may have been waiting until he reached a certain weight or age.”
Maya remembered the notes.
DONOR DEVELOPMENT.
Lung capacity.
Immune markers.
Blood tests ordered for reasons she never understood.
Evelyn’s obsessive control over Oliver’s medical appointments.
“They were preparing him.”
Jonah nodded.
“Possibly.”
Ryan’s phone vibrated.
A message from Evelyn appeared.
COME ALONE AND I WILL TAKE YOU TO CELIA.
Beneath it was an address.
Maya read it.
“No.”
“She knows where my sister is.”
“She wants you separated from us.”
“I can bring the police.”
“She said alone.”
Ryan looked at Jonah.
“Can you track me without her knowing?”
“Yes.”
Maya stood.
“You’re not going.”
“I have to.”
“No, you feel like you have to because she knows exactly how to use your guilt.”
“My sister may be alive.”
“And our son may be in danger.”
Ryan’s eyes flashed.
“I can care about both.”
“Then don’t walk into a trap.”
He stepped closer.
“I spent twenty years believing I failed Celia.”
“You were eleven.”
“She begged me not to let them take her to the treatment center. I told her Mom knew best.”
Maya’s anger faded.
Ryan’s voice broke.
“The last thing she said to me was, ‘Don’t forget where they take me.’ I forgot.”
Maya took his hand.
“You didn’t forget. You were made to believe she was dead.”
He looked at the address again.
“I’m going.”
Jonah handed him a small tracking device.
“We stay close.”
Ryan put on his coat.
As he reached the door, Oliver’s voice came from the staircase.
“Daddy?”
Ryan turned.
Oliver stood in his pajamas holding the stuffed rabbit.
“Don’t go with Grandma.”
Ryan walked toward him.
“Why not?”
May you like
Oliver looked toward the kitchen camera.
“Because the lady in the walls said Grandma needs your blood too.”
