Chapter 11 - Why Laura)
Laura listened to the sentence five times.
I am sorry I chose her.
Each repetition felt worse.
Daniel looked at his wife.
“I didn’t know.”
Laura believed him.
That did not make it hurt less.
She had spent fourteen years believing their meeting was accidental.
A crowded coffee shop.
A spilled drink.
Daniel apologizing.
Laura laughing.
A first date.
A second.
Marriage.
Emily.
A life.
Now Thomas Hayes was claiming he had somehow chosen her.
Claire reopened Laura's basement file.
Federal investigators reluctantly allowed Laura to examine copies.
The surveillance began when Laura was nineteen.
But the earliest page was not a photograph.
It was a genealogy chart.
Laura recognized her grandmother’s name.
Evelyn Price.
Next to it was another.
Ellen Price.
Emily Hayes’s alias.
Laura stared.
“No.”
Her grandmother had a sister named Ellen.
At least, that was what Laura had always believed.
They had rarely spoken about her.
Claire whispered, “Your grandmother knew Emily.”
Laura called her mother.
The answer was worse.
Evelyn and Ellen had not been sisters.
They had lived together for nine years and used the same surname for protection.
Laura's mother had grown up calling Ellen “Aunt Ellen.”
Thomas had found Laura through Evelyn.
Why?
The answer was hidden in a letter.
Thomas wrote that Laura's grandmother had once possessed original documents proving Arthur Hayes’s crimes.
Before Evelyn died, she gave them to Thomas.
Thomas feared Daniel would eventually become a target.
He wanted someone outside the Hayes family near him.
Someone whose family understood what Arthur had done.
Laura became that person.
But Thomas claimed he never ordered Daniel to love her.
He had merely engineered their first meeting.
Laura sat silently for a long time.
Daniel finally said, “You can hate him.”
“I do.”
“You can hate me too.”
Laura looked at him.
“You didn’t arrange it.”
“No.”
“But your father watched me.”
“Yes.”
“Your mother knew.”
“Yes.”
“And everyone decided I didn’t deserve to know my own life was being manipulated.”
Daniel had no defense.
Laura walked away.
That evening Emily found her sitting alone.
“Are you leaving Dad?”
Laura looked at her daughter.
“No.”
“Promise?”
“I promise I’m not making any decisions while we’re scared.”
Emily sat beside her.
“Grandpa Thomas was bad?”
Laura considered the question.
“I think he did bad things while believing he was protecting people.”
“Like Grandma?”
Laura looked at her.
“Maybe.”
Emily shook her head.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Grandpa sounds sorry.”
Laura was surprised.
“And Grandma doesn’t.”
Before Laura could respond, her phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
One photograph.
Thomas Hayes sitting at a table.
Alive.
Today’s newspaper beside him.
Underneath was a message.
YOU WANT ANSWERS?
COME WITHOUT DANIEL.
Laura stared.
A second message arrived.
May you like
ASK MARGARET WHAT HAPPENED ON SEPTEMBER 17, 1987.
Daniel’s birthday.
