Chapter 10 - Before Lily)
Claire opened the video at Rachel's kitchen table.
The recording showed her in Margaret's living room six weeks before Lily was born.
Claire remembered the day.
Margaret had hosted a family lunch.
Claire had been tired.
Her ankles were swollen.
She had argued with Daniel because he wanted to stay longer.
The video began after the argument.
Conveniently.
Claire appeared alone in the room, crying.
Margaret entered.
"You're very emotional."
Claire wiped her face.
"I'm pregnant and exhausted."
Margaret sat beside her.
"What if motherhood is harder than you expect?"
Claire looked confused.
"I'll manage."
"Some women don't."
"I'll manage."
Margaret touched Claire's arm.
"If you ever feel like hurting yourself or the baby, you can tell me."
Claire recoiled.
"What?"
The video ended.
Claire stared at the screen.
Rachel whispered, "She was planting it."
Claire nodded slowly.
The email contained four more recordings.
Each followed the same pattern.
Margaret asked leading questions.
Claire rejected them.
But the videos were clipped so tightly that someone could select fragments and make the conversations look very different.
Nora arrived an hour later.
"Don't forward these except to me."
Claire handed her the laptop.
Nora watched.
"This helps us."
"It feels like it hurts me."
"It shows planning."
"Unless she has edited versions."
Nora looked at Claire.
"She probably does."
Rachel crossed her arms.
"So what's the move?"
Nora sighed.
"We preserve originals wherever possible."
Claire looked toward Lily sleeping nearby.
"Why does Margaret want her this badly?"
Nobody answered.
That question had been hiding behind every other question.
The trust explained Daniel.
It did not fully explain Margaret.
Money was power.
Control was power.
But why Lily?
Claire thought back through the pregnancy.
Margaret touching Claire's stomach without asking.
Margaret selecting nursery furniture Claire did not want.
Margaret referring to Lily as our baby.
Margaret becoming angry when Claire chose Lily as the name instead of Eleanor, Margaret's mother's name.
Then Claire remembered something.
Three months into the pregnancy, Margaret had given Daniel a small silver frame.
Inside was a photograph of a baby girl.
Claire had asked who it was.
Daniel had said, "My sister."
Claire had never heard about a sister.
Daniel explained that Margaret had lost a daughter decades earlier.
The baby had lived only a few weeks.
Margaret never discussed her.
Claire looked at Nora.
"Daniel had a sister."
"What?"
"A baby sister. She died."
Rachel's expression softened.
"That could explain attachment."
Claire shook her head.
"Attachment isn't this."
"No."
Claire opened her phone and searched old messages.
She found one from Margaret sent after the twenty-week ultrasound.
She looks exactly like Anna did.
Claire had forgotten it.
At the time, she assumed Margaret was being sentimental.
Now it felt different.
Nora asked, "Anna was the sister?"
"I think so."
Claire called Daniel.
Nora told her not to discuss the case.
Claire asked only one question.
"What happened to Anna?"
Daniel went silent.
Then he said, "Why?"
"Answer me."
"She died when she was eighteen days old."
Claire's eyes moved toward Lily.
Lily was sixteen days old.
"How?"
Daniel hesitated.
"Mom always said it was sudden."
"Sudden what?"
"I don't know."
"Was your mother alone with her?"
Another silence.
"Daniel?"
"Yes."
Claire felt a cold pressure in her chest.
"What does this have to do with Lily?"
Daniel's voice changed.
"I don't know."
"Don't lie to me anymore."
"I'm not."
"Margaret said Lily looked like Anna."
Daniel whispered, "She says that all the time."
Claire closed her eyes.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because it upset Mom."
"Everything upsets your mother unless people obey her."
Daniel did not argue.
Claire asked, "Did she control Anna's feedings?"
The silence that followed was different.
Longer.
Daniel whispered, "My grandmother used to say Mom was strict."
Claire opened her eyes.
"Strict how?"
"I don't know."
"Find out."
"Claire."
"Find out."
She ended the call.
Nora looked concerned.
"This could be nothing."
"I know."
But it wasn't.
That night Daniel called again.
His voice shook.
"I found Dad's old storage box."
Claire sat up.
"What was in it?"
"A journal."
"Whose?"
"My father's."
May you like
Daniel inhaled.
Then he said, "Claire, my mother lied about Anna."
