Chapter 4
I sent Imogen and Colin out.
Not away.
Under guard.
I would deal with them later.
Lila came first.
She would not let me touch her.
Fine.
I sat on the floor.
Lucy sat between us.
That helped.
“What did they tell you about me?”
Lila spoke softly.
That I had one daughter.
That I chose Lucy.
That two babies were too much after Elena died.
That Lila had been sick.
That I had given her to Aunt Imogen because I wanted a quieter house.
Every lie selected carefully.
Not “Daddy hates you.”
Too obvious.
“Daddy chose another life.”
More believable.
Crueler.
“Did they call you Lila?”
“Yes.”
“At least that.”
She frowned.
“Why?”
“Because your mother chose it.”
Her face changed.
“Mommy?”
No one had told her much about Elena either.
I pulled out my phone.
No secret image.
Just a family photo.
Elena holding both babies hours after the birth.
Before Lila was taken.
I had never seen it.
Imogen had sent it to my phone that night, but grief drowned everything.
Now I zoomed in.
Two infants.
Elena exhausted.
Smiling.
Both alive.
Lila touched the screen.
“That me?”
“Yes.”
“And Lucy?”
“Yes.”
“Mommy held both.”
My throat closed.
“Yes.”
That one image destroyed the story she had lived inside.
She was not rejected before memory began.
Her mother held her.
Named her.
Loved her.
Then Lila asked:
“Did Mommy know I gone?”
I did not know.
That question frightened me.
If Elena died believing one daughter had died, that was one horror.
If she knew Lila had been taken and could not stop it, that was another.
I needed truth.
I called the retired doctor who attended the birth.
No answer.
Then the former night nurse.
Disconnected.
Old trail.
But Imogen still had records.
I knew she did.
People who maintain lies keep fragments because they fear memory.
I returned to the hallway.
Imogen looked at me.
I asked one question.
“Did Elena know?”
Her face changed.
May you like
That was enough.
My wife knew something before she died.
