Chapter 9 - why anna never came home)
Nathan watched the footage seventeen times.
Each time he expected the face to become someone else's.
It never did.
Anna entered Brighton Pediatric Research Center on April nineteenth, almost exactly six months after the crash.
She was alive.
The discovery should have filled Nathan with joy.
Instead it created a pain he could barely name.
If Anna survived, why had she never come home?
Why had she allowed Lily to believe her mother was dead?
Why had she allowed Nathan to bury an empty coffin?
He returned to his house after midnight.
Lily was sleeping under police protection in the guest room.
Nathan sat alone in the kitchen.
Anna's coffee mug remained in the back of a cabinet.
He took it out.
For eighteen months he had imagined her last moments.
Fear.
Rain.
Fire.
Now he imagined something worse.
Anna alive somewhere, deliberately staying away.
Bennett entered through the side door.
"You should rest."
Nathan laughed bitterly.
"Excellent suggestion."
She placed a folder on the table.
"We found the woman from the Arden House footage."
"The doctor?"
"Dr. Miriam Kessler."
Nathan opened the folder.
Fifty four.
Pediatric genetic researcher.
Former director of Brighton.
Current location unknown.
"Missing?"
"Officially retired three years ago."
"Unofficially?"
"Vanished."
Nathan stared at her photograph.
"Project June?"
"Her name appears on several documents."
"Where's Harrison?"
"His plane landed in Zurich. Then he disappeared from the registered itinerary."
Nathan closed the folder.
"And Anna?"
"We're searching."
Nathan looked toward the stairs.
"Why wouldn't she contact Lily?"
Bennett had no answer.
Nathan went upstairs.
He stood in Lily's doorway.
She slept with one hand beneath her cheek.
On the night Anna died, Lily had been three.
Old enough to remember pieces.
Young enough that adults could convince her the pieces meant something else.
Nathan sat beside her.
Lily woke.
"Daddy?"
"Sorry."
She rubbed her eyes.
"Is Aunt Rachel home?"
"Tomorrow, maybe."
"Good."
Nathan hesitated.
"Lily, can I ask about the deer house?"
She looked uneasy.
"You don't have to remember everything."
"Mommy said not to tell."
Nathan's heart stopped.
"Mommy Anna?"
Lily nodded.
"When did she say that?"
"At the deer house."
Nathan carefully kept his voice calm.
"What did she say?"
"She said we were playing a secret game."
"What game?"
"Hide from the doctor."
Nathan swallowed.
"What doctor?"
"The lady with white hair."
Miriam Kessler had gray white hair.
"What happened?"
Lily stared at her blanket.
"Mommy was crying."
"Why?"
"I don't know."
"Did the doctor touch you?"
Lily shook her head.
"She wanted to look at my arm."
Nathan's throat tightened.
"Why?"
"I had the little dot."
Nathan knew exactly what she meant.
Lily had a tiny crescent shaped birthmark near her left elbow.
Anna used to kiss it.
Nathan had always thought it was ordinary.
"What did Mommy do?"
"She got mad."
"What did she say?"
Lily concentrated.
"She said I'm not yours."
Nathan's blood chilled.
"She said that to the doctor?"
Lily nodded.
"What happened after?"
"The old man came."
"Harrison?"
"The mean glasses man."
Nathan showed her a photograph.
Lily immediately nodded.
"That's him."
"What did he say?"
"I don't remember."
"Did you leave?"
"Mommy took me in the car."
Nathan waited.
Lily whispered.
"Then Mommy gave me to Aunt Rachel."
Nathan froze.
"Rachel?"
Lily nodded.
Nathan stood.
Rachel had never mentioned this.
He called immediately.
She answered sleepily.
"Nathan?"
"Did Anna bring Lily to you at Arden House?"
Silence.
"Rachel."
"I didn't know it was called Arden House."
"But she brought Lily."
"Yes."
Nathan closed his eyes.
"You lied to me."
"I was trying to protect you."
"For eighteen months?"
"Anna made me promise."
Nathan's voice became cold.
"Tell me everything."
Rachel began crying.
"She showed up with Lily. She was terrified. She said people were trying to take her."
"Take Lily?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"I don't know."
"You expect me to believe that?"
"Anna wouldn't tell me everything. She said the less I knew, the safer I was."
"What did she ask you to do?"
"Keep Lily overnight."
Nathan remembered that evening.
Rachel had told him she wanted Lily for a sleepover.
He had thought nothing of it.
"Then what?"
"Anna left."
"And the next night she supposedly died."
Rachel sobbed.
"I thought she did."
Nathan gripped the phone.
"Did she ever contact you afterward?"
Rachel went silent.
Nathan knew immediately.
"Rachel."
"Once."
His entire body tensed.
"When?"
"Eight months ago."
"You spoke to my wife eight months ago?"
"It wasn't a call."
"What?"
"A letter."
Nathan could barely breathe.
"What did it say?"
"That Lily was still in danger."
"Where is it?"
"I destroyed it."
Nathan closed his eyes.
"Why?"
"Because Anna told me to."
Nathan wanted to scream.
Instead he asked the only question that mattered.
"What else did she say?"
Rachel's answer came quietly.
"She said she couldn't come home until Harrison believed she was dead."
Nathan looked toward Lily.
Harrison now knew Anna had survived.
Because somebody had accessed Brighton footage.
The poisoning at the wedding suddenly made sense.
Rachel was not attacked merely because she married Marcus.
She was attacked because she had helped Anna.
And whoever poisoned her may have believed she knew where Anna was.
Nathan whispered, "Rachel, did the letter include a location?"
"No."
"A name?"
"No."
"Anything?"
Rachel hesitated.
"One sentence."
May you like
"What sentence?"
"If Nathan discovers the truth, tell him to find the lighthouse before they find Lily."
