Chapter 8 - the wrong child
For the first time since the birthday party, Emily could not breathe properly.
Mark stared at the phone.
Robert looked as if someone had struck him.
Daniel reacted differently.
He immediately opened his laptop.
"Don't believe anything she says."
Emily turned.
"She said the wrong child."
"That's what she wants you thinking."
"What else could that mean?"
"A hundred things."
"Name three."
Daniel didn't.
Mark paced.
"She's trying to make us question Lily."
Emily snapped, "I'm not questioning Lily."
"I know."
"No, I mean it. Whatever happened in that hospital, whatever Diane did, Lily is my child."
Mark stopped.
"Mine too."
Robert lowered his head.
Emily looked at him.
"What?"
He didn't answer.
"What aren't you saying?"
Robert rubbed his forehead.
"Diane said something similar years ago."
Emily froze.
"When?"
"After the Christmas market."
Mark approached him.
"What exactly?"
Robert swallowed.
"She came home angry."
"And?"
"She said, 'They gave him the wrong one.'"
Mark stared.
"Him?"
"I assumed she meant a doctor."
Daniel looked up.
"What else did she say?"
"She said, 'After all these years, Eleanor still wins.'"
Daniel closed his laptop.
Nobody spoke.
Emily looked at the old photograph again.
Two sisters.
One inheritance.
One disappeared.
"Maybe E.H. isn't Eleanor Hayes," Emily said.
Daniel nodded.
"But we need to check."
The next morning, Emily and Mark went to National Crown Bank with the key.
Daniel accompanied them but remained outside.
The vault manager examined the key and the transfer records.
"There is a box 317."
Emily's heart raced.
"Can we open it?"
"Only the registered beneficiary."
"Who's that?"
The manager consulted the file.
Then looked confused.
"That's unusual."
"What?"
"The original owner was Eleanor Hayes."
Emily glanced at Mark.
"And the beneficiary?"
The manager turned the monitor slightly away.
"I'm afraid I can only disclose that after identity verification."
"Whose identity?"
The manager hesitated.
"Emily Carter Hayes."
Emily stopped breathing.
"Me?"
"Do you have identification?"
Ten minutes later, after multiple signatures and a security check, Emily stood inside a private vault room.
Mark was allowed to accompany her.
The manager placed a narrow metal box on the table.
317.
Emily inserted the brass key.
It turned.
She opened the lid.
Empty.
Almost.
Inside was a single envelope.
Not old.
New.
Her name was written on it.
Emily.
No surname.
No instructions.
She opened it.
Inside was a photograph.
Lily.
Taken three weeks earlier outside school.
Mark swore.
On the back was a sentence.
THE SAFE IS NOT EMPTY. SHE MOVED IT BEFORE THE PARTY.
Emily's skin went cold.
There was also a small paper strip with six numbers.
4 18 16 09 07 03.
Mark stared.
"Combination?"
"Maybe."
"To Diane's safe?"
"We saw it open."
"The safe in their house."
Emily looked at him.
Mark understood.
"There's another one."
They returned home and showed Daniel.
He studied the numbers.
"Dates."
"What?"
"April 18. Sixteen. Nine. Seven. Three."
Emily frowned.
"That makes no sense."
Robert looked at the strip.
His expression changed.
"Yes, it does."
Everyone turned.
"April eighteenth is Lily's birthday."
"We know."
"Sixteen, nine, seven, three."
Robert sat.
"Those were the ages."
"What ages?"
"Of the children."
Emily went still.
"What children?"
Robert whispered, "Diane once told me Eleanor had four miscarriages."
Silence.
"That's not four ages," Mark said.
"No."
Robert looked at the paper.
"Which means she wasn't talking about miscarriages."
Daniel leaned forward.
"Children who lived?"
Robert's eyes filled with fear.
"I don't know."
Mark took out his phone.
"I'm calling Mom."
Daniel stopped him.
"No."
"Why?"
"Because she's waiting for you to react."
"She attacked my daughter."
"And now she's dropping clues about children you never knew existed. That's manipulation."
Emily looked again at Lily's recent photograph.
"Who put this in the box?"
Daniel shook his head.
"Not Diane."
"How do you know?"
"Because whoever did wants us to find what she moved."
Robert suddenly whispered, "The lake house."
Mark looked at him.
"What lake house?"
Robert closed his eyes.
"I knew this was coming."
"Apparently everyone in this family owns secret property."
Robert stood.
"It's not ours anymore."
"Whose is it?"
May you like
Robert looked at the old photograph of Eleanor.
"It belonged to her."
