Chapter 7 - the bride's forgotten memory)
Daniel's feelings did not resemble relief.
Relief would have been simple.
Mara was alive.
He should have felt joy.
Instead he felt betrayal, terror, hope and anger arriving simultaneously.
For eleven months he had mourned her.
Lila had stopped speaking.
Daniel had nearly married another woman.
And Mara had been somewhere in the world.
Watching.
Hiding.
Running.
Or trapped.
Claire packed a suitcase.
Daniel found her in the bedroom that had been intended to become theirs.
"You don't need to leave."
She folded a blouse.
"Yes, I do."
"Claire."
"Your wife is alive."
"We don't know what condition she's in."
"It doesn't matter."
"It matters."
Claire looked at him.
"Daniel, what exactly do you expect me to do? Sleep downstairs while you search for the woman you never stopped loving?"
Daniel had no answer.
Claire zipped the suitcase.
"I don't blame you."
"I care about you."
"I know."
"Today doesn't erase the last year."
"No."
She looked close to tears.
"But it changes tomorrow."
Daniel sat on the bed.
"What about the photographs of you and Evelyn?"
"I want answers too."
She took a deep breath.
"There's something I haven't told you."
Daniel looked up.
Claire explained that two years before Mara died, she suffered a car accident in Boston.
Minor physical injuries.
But she lost portions of memory covering approximately six months.
Doctors described it as post-traumatic amnesia.
Most memories returned.
Some did not.
"The photographs with Evelyn could be from that period."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"I did tell you I had an accident."
"You never said memory loss."
"Because I hated people treating me differently."
Daniel frowned.
"What caused the crash?"
Claire looked at him.
"A truck hit me after I left a restaurant."
"What restaurant?"
"I don't remember."
Daniel thought of the photograph showing Claire and Evelyn at a restaurant.
"Could it have been the same night?"
"I don't know."
They searched Claire's archived medical records.
The date of the crash matched the date printed on the restaurant photograph.
Alvarez investigated the truck.
The driver had disappeared after the accident.
False identification.
False employment address.
The collision may not have been random.
Claire had been attacked.
But why?
An old email provided a clue.
Two hours before the accident, Claire sent herself a message.
Subject: Insurance.
The body contained only a single sentence.
If anything happens, ask Mara about Project Juniper.
Daniel had never heard those words.
Claire did not remember writing them.
Mara had apparently never mentioned the project to him.
Searches of the Bennett Foundation revealed a discontinued program called Juniper Children's Initiative.
It funded genetic screening for children born through a private fertility clinic.
Claire had managed grants.
Mara volunteered in patient outreach.
And Evelyn Cross worked for a consulting firm that audited medical data.
Their connection had not been social.
It was professional.
Project Juniper closed after allegations of improper record handling.
One doctor died before investigators questioned him.
Another vanished.
Alvarez located an archived employee statement.
Mara Mercer had filed it.
She claimed several children's birth records had been deliberately altered.
Daniel's chest tightened.
"Lila?"
Alvarez looked at him.
"We don't know."
Lila had been conceived naturally.
At least Daniel thought so.
Mara had undergone fertility treatment briefly before becoming pregnant.
Daniel remembered appointments.
Injections.
Disappointment.
Then, unexpectedly, pregnancy.
Project Juniper had operated at the same clinic.
Claire whispered.
"What if Lila's trust isn't the only reason they wanted her?"
Daniel looked at her.
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying maybe Mara discovered something about Lila's birth."
Daniel felt anger.
"Lila is my daughter."
"I didn't say she wasn't."
"Then what?"
Claire looked frightened.
"I don't know."
A phone rang.
Alvarez answered.
She listened.
Her expression changed.
Then she looked at Daniel.
"We found Rebecca Hayes."
Eli's aunt.
Jonathan's widow.
Alive.
She had been hiding in a motel under another name.
When police asked why she vanished, she gave them a terrifying answer.
"Because Mara told me Victor had found Eli."
Daniel asked the obvious question.
"How did Mara contact her?"
Rebecca stared through the interview room glass.
"She didn't call."
"Then what?"
Rebecca reached into her pocket.
She removed an envelope.
"It came three days before the wedding."
On the front, in Mara's handwriting, were the words:
SEND ELI TO DANIEL.
May you like
Inside was another message.
He is the only child Lila will trust when she remembers.
