Chapter 15 - THE WOMAN WHO STOLE HER OWN NAME
Patricia Collins had never been Patricia Collins.
Not originally.
The discovery fractured every assumption Sarah still possessed.
The real Patricia Anne Collins had been born in 1962.
She died of pneumonia at age nine.
Rebecca Hale disappeared from Willow Ridge at nine.
Two years later, Robert’s family introduced a young girl publicly as Patricia Collins, a distant relation who had come to live with them after family tragedy.
Records were altered.
Birth certificates were reissued.
School records replaced.
Rebecca Hale became Patricia Collins.
Sarah sat beside Lily in a protected residence while Torres explained what investigators could prove.
The irony was almost unbearable.
The woman who helped erase Emily had once been erased herself.
Daniel stood by the window.
“So Mom was a victim.”
Emily looked at him.
“Once.”
Sarah stared at the evidence.
“That doesn’t erase what she became.”
“No,” Torres said.
“It explains it,” Daniel whispered.
Sarah looked at him.
“Be careful.”
“I’m not defending her.”
“Good.”
Lily sat on the carpet drawing.
She had been discharged from the hospital that morning.
Her swelling had begun to improve.
The fracture would heal without surgery.
The doctors expected a full recovery.
That should have been enough to make Sarah breathe easier.
It wasn’t.
Police still had not determined who caused the most serious injuries.
Robert remained missing.
Patricia and Evelyn had disappeared again.
Michael existed.
The network was larger than Willow Ridge.
And Voss had vanished with the red ledger.
But some things had changed.
Daniel stopped defending the silence of their childhood.
Emily was back.
A federal task force had taken control of the archive.
Three officers suspected of suppressing complaints were suspended.
Two doctors associated with successor programs were arrested before they could leave the country.
And for the first time in Sarah’s life, the Collins family secrets no longer belonged only to the Collins family.
They belonged to investigators.
To courts.
To people who had survived them.
That evening, Sarah stood on the balcony while Lily slept.
Emily came outside.
For a while neither spoke.
Then Emily said, “I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“Staying away.”
Sarah looked at her.
“You were a child.”
“Not forever.”
“No.”
“I could have risked it sooner.”
Sarah considered that.
“I’m angry.”
“I know.”
“I’m angry at you.”
“I know.”
“But I’m more angry that they made you think you were responsible for protecting me from the truth.”
Emily’s eyes filled.
Sarah continued.
“That was Mom and Dad’s favorite trick.”
“What?”
“Making children responsible for adult cruelty.”
Emily looked down.
Sarah reached for her hand.
“We’re not doing that anymore.”
Emily squeezed back.
Inside, Lily called softly.
“Mommy?”
Sarah went immediately.
Lily was sitting up in bed.
“What is it, baby?”
“I had a bad dream.”
Sarah sat beside her.
“You’re safe.”
“Is Grandma coming?”
“No.”
“Grandpa?”
“No.”
“Aunt Evelyn?”
“No.”
Lily considered that.
“What about the man?”
Sarah froze.
“What man?”
“The one from the room.”
“Dr. Voss?”
Lily shook her head.
“The other one.”
Sarah felt the hair rise on her arms.
“What other one?”
“The man who came after Grandma left.”
Sarah’s pulse quickened.
“Sweetheart, do you remember what he looked like?”
Lily nodded.
“He was old like Grandpa.”
“Gray hair?”
“Yes.”
“Did he say anything?”
“He asked where the book was.”
“The red book?”
Lily nodded.
Sarah stayed calm.
“What happened then?”
“He got mad.”
Sarah forced herself not to react.
“Did he hurt you?”
Lily looked down.
“I told him I didn’t know.”
Sarah’s chest tightened.
“Then what?”
“He grabbed me.”
Sarah closed her eyes for half a second.
“What did he say?”
Lily thought carefully.
“He said I looked like her.”
“Like who?”
“He showed me a picture.”
“What picture?”
“A little girl.”
Sarah reached for her phone.
“Could you recognize her?”
“I think.”
Sarah opened the recovered Willow Ridge images.
She showed Lily Emily as a child.
“No.”
Rebecca Hale.
“No.”
Young Sarah.
Lily shook her head again.
Then Sarah reached a group photograph.
Lily pointed.
“Her.”
Sarah stared.
The child Lily indicated stood beside Dr. Voss.
A girl Sarah had not noticed before.
The handwritten label beneath her read:
CATHERINE VOSS.
Sarah called Torres.
“Who is Catherine Voss?”
Silence on the other end.
Then Torres said, “Malcolm Voss had a daughter.”
“What happened to her?”
“She disappeared in 1998.”
Sarah looked at Lily.
“That’s the girl the attacker showed Lily.”
Torres’s tone changed.
“I’m coming over.”
Sarah ended the call.
Emily stood in the doorway.
“What is it?”
“Someone attacked Lily because she resembles Voss’s daughter.”
Emily frowned.
“She doesn’t.”
“Apparently somebody thinks she does.”
Daniel entered from the hallway holding an envelope.
“This was outside.”
Sarah turned.
“What?”
“The security officer found it against the door.”
No stamp.
No address.
Just Sarah’s name.
Torres had warned them not to touch unexplained packages.
Daniel set it on the table.
The security team inspected it.
No explosive.
No chemical hazard.
Sarah opened it wearing gloves.
Inside was a photograph.
The picture showed Catherine Voss at approximately six years old.
Yellow dress.
Light brown hair.
Holding a stuffed rabbit.
Sarah stared.
The resemblance to Lily was not exact.
But it was close enough to be disturbing.
Behind the photograph was a photocopy of a birth certificate.
Catherine Elise Voss.
Mother:
Rebecca Hale.
Sarah stopped breathing.
Emily looked over her shoulder.
“No.”
Daniel whispered, “Rebecca Hale became Mom.”
Sarah turned toward him.
Which meant Catherine Voss was Patricia’s daughter.
Sarah stared at the paper.
“That would make Catherine our sister.”
Emily shook her head.
“Half sister.”
Another document sat beneath the birth certificate.
A hospital record.
INFANT FEMALE DELIVERED.
The year was wrong.
Not 1992.
Not 1998.
Thirty-three years earlier.
Sarah’s own birth year.
She read the line again.
Mother: Catherine Voss.
Sarah could no longer feel her hands.
Emily took the page.
Her face emptied of color.
Daniel whispered, “Sarah.”
Sarah looked at the birth date.
Her birth date.
The exact day.
“No.”
The bedroom door opened.
Lily stepped into the room clutching her stuffed bunny.
“Mommy?”
Sarah turned.
Lily’s eyes were wide.
“There’s a lady outside.”
Every adult went still.
Sarah crossed the room.
“What lady?”
“She said she knows you.”
Security officers moved toward the front entrance.
Sarah looked through the protected residence’s camera monitor.
A woman stood beyond the gate.
Mid-fifties.
Dark coat.
Gray streak in her hair.
She held nothing in her hands.
Sarah did not recognize her.
Emily did.
She stumbled backward.
“Oh my God.”
Sarah turned.
“You know her?”
Emily’s eyes filled with terror.
“That’s Catherine.”
Sarah looked back at the monitor.
The supposedly vanished daughter of Malcolm Voss stood twenty yards away.
The woman who, according to the document in Sarah’s hand, had given birth to Sarah Collins thirty-three years earlier.
The intercom buzzed.
Nobody moved.
It buzzed again.
Sarah pressed the button.
“Who are you?”
The woman looked directly into the camera.
“My name is Catherine.”
Sarah’s voice trembled.
“What do you want?”
Catherine looked past the camera, almost as though she could see Lily standing behind Sarah.
“I came because Michael found out the truth.”
“What truth?”
Catherine’s expression tightened.
“The reason Robert chose you.”
Sarah stared at the screen.
“Chose me for what?”
Catherine whispered:
“To replace the daughter he lost.”
The lights in the residence went out.
Emergency alarms exploded through the hallway.
The security monitor flickered.
Catherine disappeared from the gate.
May you like
And somewhere inside the darkened house, Lily screamed.
CUT TO BLACK.
