Chapter 5 - The Sister Everyone Buried
By dawn, emergency crews had begun evacuating Willow Street.
Ethan refused to leave without answers.
Thomas disappeared during the confusion.
One minute he was downstairs.
The next, the basement door stood open and he was gone.
But Ethan no longer cared about chasing him.
There was one name in his mind.
Sarah Whitmore.
Anna.
The address on the photograph led to a quiet subdivision on the northern edge of town.
When the roads reopened that afternoon, Ethan and Lily drove there.
Claire and Emma stayed at the emergency shelter under the protection of local authorities after Lily reported what they had found in the basement.
Thomas was now officially being sought for questioning.
But Ethan hardly spoke during the drive.
Lily kept looking at him.
“You don't have to do this today.”
“Yes, I do.”
“You've learned more in twelve hours than most people could process in twelve years.”
“I wasted twenty-two years.”
“You were a child.”
“I forgot her.”
“You were injured.”
“I forgot two sisters.”
“You were eight.”
Ethan looked out the window.
“I should've remembered.”
Lily reached over and touched his hand.
“You remembered enough to come back.”
The address belonged to a blue two-story house with a red maple tree in front.
A woman was gardening despite the damp ground.
She looked about thirty-eight.
Brown hair.
Gray-green eyes.
Ethan stopped walking.
The woman looked up.
Her garden shears fell from her hand.
Neither moved.
Lily knew instantly.
The woman whispered, “Ethan?”
His knees almost gave way.
“Anna?”
She covered her mouth.
Twenty-two years vanished.
Ethan crossed the lawn.
Anna ran toward him.
They collided in the middle of the yard.
Neither said anything coherent.
They simply held each other.
Lily turned away briefly, wiping her own eyes.
When Ethan finally pulled back, he touched Anna's face as though needing proof.
“You're alive.”
Anna laughed through tears.
“So are you.”
“I thought you were dead.”
“I thought you hated me.”
“What?”
Anna looked confused.
“Dad told me you never wanted to see me again.”
Ethan's expression hardened.
“He told me you disappeared.”
They stared at each other.
Another lie.
Another stolen decade.
Inside, Anna showed them photographs.
Her adoptive parents.
Her graduation.
Her wedding.
Her children.
A whole life Ethan had never known.
“Why Sarah Whitmore?” he asked.
“My adoptive parents changed my name.”
“Did Mom arrange it?”
Anna nodded.
“She said Dad was dangerous.”
“What happened the night of the flood?”
Anna's face changed.
“I've spent years trying not to remember.”
“Please.”
She looked down at her coffee.
“Mom found out Dad had been keeping Emma hidden.”
“Why?”
“Because Emma's mother died.”
Ethan listened.
“Dad had promised Emma's mother he would take care of her. But Mom didn't know Emma existed until she found her in the basement.”
Lily frowned.
“Why hide a child?”
Anna looked at Ethan.
“Because Dad wasn't just hiding Emma.”
“What else?”
“Money.”
Silence.
Anna continued.
“Dad had been stealing from the company he worked for. He used fake identities. Accounts. Properties. Emma's mother knew.”
Ethan's stomach turned.
“And Emma?”
“She had heard things.”
“She was six.”
“Dad was terrified she'd repeat them.”
Ethan rubbed his face.
“So Mom tried to leave.”
“With all of us.”
“But the flood came.”
Anna nodded.
“Dad caught her packing.”
“What happened?”
“They fought.”
Anna looked at Ethan.
“You came downstairs.”
A flash of memory.
His father shouting.
His mother crying.
A suitcase.
A rabbit on the floor.
“You tried to let Emma out.”
Ethan swallowed.
“And?”
“Dad grabbed you.”
Another memory.
Hands.
Stairs.
Falling.
Darkness.
“You fell.”
Ethan closed his eyes.
“When I woke up?”
“You were in the hospital.”
“And you?”
“Mom took me away.”
“What about Emma?”
Anna cried silently.
“We thought Dad took her.”
“He didn't?”
“I don't know.”
“But Emma survived.”
Anna looked startled.
“You found her?”
“Her daughter.”
Ethan explained Claire.
The letters.
The basement.
The child named Emma.
Anna's face drained of color.
“Claire?”
“You know her?”
“Emma's daughter was named Claire.”
Ethan leaned forward.
“You met her?”
“Once.”
“When?”
“Six years ago.”
“That was when Emma said she saw you.”
Anna nodded slowly.
“We met at a train station.”
“Why?”
“She found me.”
Anna's hands trembled.
“She told me Dad was alive.”
“He supposedly died six years ago.”
“That funeral was a lie.”
“We know.”
“She said he was watching all of us.”
Lily thought about the photographs in the basement.
“He was watching me too.”
Anna looked at Lily.
“Why?”
“I don't know.”
Anna's gaze fell to Lily's rabbit.
She stood abruptly.
“Where did you get that?”
Lily exchanged a look with Ethan.
“My grandmother.”
“Rose?”
Lily nodded.
Anna began crying again.
“Oh my God.”
“What?”
Anna disappeared upstairs.
She returned holding an envelope.
“I've had this for sixteen years.”
The front said:
FOR ROSE'S GRANDDAUGHTER.
Lily stared.
“Why do you have that?”
“My mother gave it to me.”
“Ethan's mother?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you send it?”
“She told me never to send it unless the girl came to me herself.”
Lily's heart hammered.
Anna handed her the envelope.
Inside was a birth certificate.
Lily read the name.
Once.
Twice.
Then a third time.
Her hands began shaking.
“This can't be right.”
Ethan took it.
The certificate listed Lily's mother.
But under biological grandmother was another name.
Margaret Cole.
Ethan's mother.
Lily stared at him.
“No.”
Ethan looked stunned.
Anna covered her mouth.
Lily turned to her.
“What does this mean?”
Anna whispered, “My mother had another daughter.”
Ethan frowned.
“We never had another sister.”
“No,” Anna said.
“She had one before she married Dad.”
Lily felt cold.
“My mother?”
Anna nodded.
“Your mother was our half-sister.”
Lily sat down.
Ethan stared at Lily.
The woman he had loved for four years.
The woman he had planned to marry.
His niece.
Anna suddenly shook her head.
“Wait.”
Both looked at her.
“I read that wrong.”
She grabbed the certificate again.
“Margaret wasn't the mother.”
She pointed to the line.
Guardian at birth: Margaret Cole.
The biological grandmother field was blank.
Lily breathed again.
“So who was my mother's mother?”
Anna whispered, “That's what Rose spent her whole life hiding.”
And beneath the birth certificate was a second piece of paper.
A hospital bracelet.
The surname printed on it was Bennett.
May you like
But the first name made Lily's stomach drop.
EMMA.
