Chapter 7 - The Name on the Birth Record
Daniel looked toward Lily.
The child’s face had gone blank.
He moved quickly down the stairs.
“Lily, go outside with Amelia.”
She did not move.
“Is Grandma telling the truth?”
Daniel knelt before her.
“Your mother was Anna. Nothing changes that.”
“But was I in her stomach?”
The question broke something inside him.
He took Lily’s hands.
“I don’t know what Eleanor is talking about.”
Eleanor descended the remaining stairs.
“I am talking about the birth record Anna hid from you.”
Daniel stood.
“You knew?”
“I discovered it after your wedding.”
“How?”
“Anna asked the family attorney to change Lily’s legal records.”
“That is impossible.”
“Not when the attorney is willing to break the law.”
Rebecca joined them, brushing ash from her dress.
“Mother tried to protect you.”
“By hiding my daughter’s history?”
“By protecting you from Anna.”
Daniel looked at Lily.
She was trying not to cry.
“Amelia,” he said, “take Lily and Sophie to the garden.”
This time Lily allowed herself to be led away.
Once she was gone, Daniel turned on Eleanor.
“You will explain everything.”
Eleanor gestured toward the library.
“Privately.”
“No more private conversations.”
Several relatives remained near the front doors. They pretended to watch the firefighters arriving, but Daniel knew they were listening.
Eleanor lowered her voice.
“Anna worked at a private children’s home before she became a teacher.”
“I know.”
“She left after a child disappeared from the facility.”
Daniel remembered Anna mentioning the home only once. She said the place had closed after financial problems. She had never spoken of a missing child.
“What does that have to do with Lily?”
Eleanor removed the sapphire necklace from behind her brooch.
“The necklace belonged to a woman named Claire Monroe.”
Daniel remembered the stranger at the school gate.
“Claire.”
Eleanor noticed his reaction.
“You know the name.”
“A woman named Claire approached Lily.”
Rebecca’s face changed.
“When?”
“Last week.”
Eleanor looked genuinely alarmed.
“What did she say?”
“She asked whether Lily had the necklace.”
Eleanor closed her fingers around the sapphire.
“Where is the woman now?”
“I don’t know.”
Eleanor looked toward the front windows as if expecting someone to appear.
Daniel stepped closer.
“Who is Claire Monroe?”
“She was an accountant for the children’s home.”
“And Lily?”
Eleanor hesitated.
Rebecca answered.
“Lily was one of the children.”
Daniel stared at her.
“No.”
“Anna removed her before authorities closed the facility.”
“Anna gave birth to Lily.”
“That is what she told you.”
Daniel thought back to the early days of their relationship. Anna had few photographs from her pregnancy. She claimed she had spent the final months with relatives in another state.
At the time, Daniel had not questioned her.
He loved her.
He loved Lily.
The absence of photographs had never mattered.
“Show me the record,” he said.
Eleanor turned toward the library.
Inside, she unlocked a drawer and removed a folder.
Daniel opened it.
A birth certificate named Lily’s mother as Claire Monroe.
The father’s section was blank.
The date matched Lily’s birthday.
Daniel examined the document.
“This could be forged.”
“It was certified.”
“Why would Anna lie?”
“To protect Lily.”
“From whom?”
Eleanor looked toward the sapphire necklace.
“Claire discovered that the children’s home was not only stealing donations. Someone was using it to hide illegal adoptions.”
Daniel’s anger shifted into something colder.
“The Mercer Foundation funded that home.”
“Yes.”
“Did Father know?”
“No.”
“Did you?”
Eleanor’s silence answered him.
Daniel slammed the folder onto the desk.
“You knew children were being sold?”
“I knew there were irregularities. I did not know the full extent.”
“Anna found out.”
“She found the financial records and took Lily before the people responsible could move her.”
“Then why did you call Anna unstable?”
“Because she accused someone inside our family.”
“Who?”
Eleanor did not answer.
Daniel removed the memory card from his pocket.
“Maybe this will tell me.”
Rebecca stepped toward him.
“You can’t play it in front of Lily.”
“I won’t.”
“You shouldn’t play it at all.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Why?”
Rebecca’s eyes filled with tears.
“Because Anna recorded the night she learned who Lily’s father was.”
The library door opened.
Sophie stood there.
Her hands were shaking.
“I know who he is,” she said.
Rebecca spun around.
“What?”
May you like
Sophie held up the blue box.
“It was written inside the lid.”
