Chapter 12 - the truth lydia buried)
Daniel remembered nothing about being institutionalized.
Thomas explained why.
It happened nine years earlier.
Before Daniel met Mara.
Daniel had been twenty nine.
He suffered a car accident outside Boston.
He remembered spending three days in a hospital.
According to Thomas, those three days were actually nineteen days.
"What are you talking about?"
"Your medical records were altered."
"Why?"
Thomas looked at Mara, who had insisted on being present.
"Because Daniel saw something."
Daniel stared.
"What?"
"A woman being transported against her will."
Daniel tried to remember.
Rain.
A highway.
Flashing lights.
A black medical van.
Something surfaced.
A woman pounding against a window.
Daniel touched his head.
"I thought that was part of the accident."
"It wasn't."
Thomas continued.
Daniel followed the vehicle.
He called police.
Before officers arrived, another car struck Daniel's vehicle.
Keene treated him afterward.
Heavy sedatives.
Memory manipulation.
False diagnosis.
The network prepared to transfer Daniel permanently.
But someone intervened.
"Who?"
Thomas looked at Mara.
"Your father."
Daniel frowned.
"My father died when I was nineteen."
"No."
Daniel stood.
Thomas repeated the words.
"Your father did not die when you were nineteen."
Daniel stared at him.
Thomas immediately seemed to regret saying it.
Mara whispered.
"Thomas."
Daniel turned toward her.
"You knew?"
"No."
Thomas spoke.
"That information isn't relevant to Mara's case."
Daniel grabbed the front of his hospital gown before officers stopped him.
"My father has been dead for twenty years."
Thomas looked terrified.
"Daniel, listen to me."
"Where is he?"
"I don't know."
"You're lying."
"I genuinely don't."
Ava stepped between them.
"We'll come back to that."
Daniel could barely think.
His father.
Samuel Reed.
Reported dead after a construction accident.
Closed casket funeral.
Daniel had been nineteen.
Thomas continued under questioning.
Samuel Reed had apparently been connected to the original preservation network.
But unlike Lydia's family, Samuel tried to expose it.
When Daniel accidentally encountered the transport nine years ago, Samuel somehow learned what had happened.
He threatened Keene.
Daniel was released.
His memories were chemically suppressed.
And Samuel vanished again.
"Why would my father fake his death?"
Thomas shook his head.
"I don't know."
Daniel looked at Mara.
Everything had become larger than their family.
Mara squeezed his hand.
"One thing at a time."
The Hawthorne estate was searched that evening.
Police found Ellen Price.
Alive.
Weak.
Drugged.
But alive.
Six years after her first death.
Eighteen months after her second disappearance.
Ellen was transported to the hospital.
With Ellen rescued, the preservation network finally began collapsing.
Records from Saint Gabriel's led police to three former doctors, two attorneys, a private security contractor, and several wealthy clients.
Lydia's financial records connected her directly to North House.
Keene became the subject of a nationwide manhunt.
Thomas accepted a cooperation agreement in exchange for reduced charges.
For the first time, Daniel felt the nightmare might actually end.
Then came Lydia's arraignment.
Daniel sat behind Mara.
Lily remained home with Hannah.
Lydia entered the courtroom wearing a gray jail uniform.
Her silver hair was no longer perfectly arranged.
But she still walked like a woman entering her own boardroom.
She looked at Mara.
Mara looked back.
Lydia smiled.
The prosecutor described the freezer.
The forged records.
North House.
The abduction.
Lydia showed no reaction.
Then Mara stood during the recess.
Her mother spoke.
"You think he saved you?"
Mara froze.
Daniel stepped closer.
"Don't talk to her."
Lydia ignored him.
She looked only at Mara.
"You still haven't told him."
Mara's face changed.
Daniel noticed.
"Told me what?"
Mara said nothing.
May you like
Lydia smiled.
"Ask your wife why she chose you."
