Chapter 10 - two girls with one name)
Dr. Miriam Lane refused to speak by phone again.
They met at Adrian’s office after sunset.
She was seventy-one, thin, silver-haired, and visibly frightened.
Before sitting down, she checked the conference room twice.
“Who knows I’m here?”
“Only the people in this room,” Adrian said.
Clara sat across from her.
Daniel remained beside the window.
Dr. Lane looked at Clara for a long time.
“You have Margaret’s eyes.”
Clara swallowed.
“You knew my mother?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“I treated her after your birth.”
“Why would a neurologist treat her?”
“I was a resident in psychiatry before switching specialties.”
Clara felt impatient.
“Tell me about Rebecca.”
The doctor folded her hands.
“Rebecca was born eleven minutes after you.”
Daniel turned away.
Clara felt no surprise anymore.
Only confirmation.
“My twin.”
“Yes.”
“Why did the Hayes family have her?”
“They didn’t at first.”
Dr. Lane opened an old envelope.
“Your mother suffered severe postpartum complications. Physical and psychological. Charles panicked.”
“What did he do?”
“He told the hospital staff the second baby had not survived.”
Clara stared.
“To whom?”
“Your mother.”
Daniel cursed softly.
Clara’s voice became almost inaudible.
“He told my mother her baby died?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know everything.”
“Tell me what you know.”
“Charles believed Margaret could not handle twins. He also believed there was something medically wrong with the second infant.”
“What?”
“Nothing serious. A heart murmur. It resolved within months.”
Clara felt sick.
“So he gave her away.”
Dr. Lane looked down.
“A private placement was arranged.”
“To Robert Hayes?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
“A couple named Samuel and Lorraine Pike.”
Clara had never heard those names.
“What happened?”
“The Pikes died in a house fire when the baby was eighteen months old.”
Daniel looked back.
“Oh God.”
“Afterward she entered temporary foster care. Robert Hayes’s sister worked with the placement agency.”
Clara understood.
“That is how Robert found her.”
“Yes.”
“Did he know who she was?”
“At first, no.”
“When did he find out?”
Dr. Lane looked toward Daniel.
“After the accident.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Clara said, “Rebecca saw my photograph.”
“She saw several.”
“Then?”
“She began asking questions. Robert became suspicious because Charles appeared at the hospital before he did.”
“Why did my father arrive?”
“Daniel called him from the car.”
Daniel nodded weakly.
Dr. Lane continued.
“Charles recognized Rebecca immediately.”
Clara’s hands clenched.
“He knew.”
“Yes.”
“What did he do?”
“He ordered a private transfer.”
“To where?”
“A rehabilitation facility partly funded by Vance charitable money.”
Clara almost laughed at the cruelty of it.
“He hid his daughter inside a building paid for by his own foundation.”
Dr. Lane did not answer.
“Did Rebecca know?”
“Eventually.”
“How?”
“I told her.”
Clara looked at the doctor.
“Why?”
“Because she deserved to know.”
“Did she want to meet me?”
The doctor’s expression broke.
“Yes.”
Clara looked away.
“When?”
“For years.”
That hurt more than anything.
“Did my father stop her?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Money. Lawyers. Threats.”
Daniel looked furious.
“What threats?”
“Charles told Robert that if Rebecca approached Clara publicly, the settlement would disappear and the Hayes family would be ruined.”
Clara whispered, “And Robert agreed.”
“Yes.”
“Victoria?”
“Victoria discovered the truth when she was twenty-six.”
“How?”
“Rebecca told her.”
Clara stared.
“So Victoria knew I was Rebecca’s sister.”
“Yes.”
“And still came into my family.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I cannot answer that.”
Daniel finally spoke.
“Did Rebecca hate me?”
Dr. Lane looked at him with sadness.
“No.”
He blinked.
“What?”
“She hated what happened to her. She hated Charles. For a time she hated Robert. But she never hated you.”
Daniel’s face collapsed again.
“Why?”
“She said you were twenty-one and had spent your adult life living inside the same man’s lies.”
Daniel covered his face.
Dr. Lane reached into her bag.
“She left something.”
Clara looked up.
“For me?”
“Yes.”
The doctor placed a sealed envelope on the table.
The front carried handwriting.
FOR MY SISTER.
Clara stared at it.
She wanted to open it.
She was terrified to open it.
Adrian said quietly, “You don’t have to do this now.”
“Yes, I do.”
She broke the seal.
Inside was one sheet of paper.
Clara read.
Dear Clara,
If you are holding this, someone finally failed to keep us apart.
I spent years imagining what I would say if I met you. I thought I would be angry. Then I thought I would ask whether you somehow felt there was another person missing from your life.
But none of that matters as much as this.
Do not blame Daniel forever.
He made a terrible mistake.
Our father made a thousand deliberate choices afterward.
There is something else Charles hid.
Something Robert eventually learned.
It is why he took the money.
It is why Victoria may one day come looking for your family.
If she does, understand this:
She is not only seeking revenge.
She believes the trust belongs to her.
Clara stopped reading.
Daniel stared.
Adrian leaned closer.
“There’s more?”
Clara looked at the bottom.
May you like
One final line.
The proof is in the black folder.
