Chapter 4 - The Woman Who Was Supposed to Be My MotherThe anonymous caller gave Amber one instruction.
“Meet me at Saint Mary's cemetery at midnight.”
Amber went with Vincent.
They arrived early.
Fog crawled between the graves.
At exactly midnight, a woman stepped from the trees.
She was in her sixties.
She looked terrified.
“My name is Evelyn.”
Amber stared.
“How did you know my mother?”
“I worked for the Whitakers.”
“As what?”
“A nanny.”
“Twenty years ago?”
“Yes.”
“Then tell me everything.”
Evelyn looked at Vincent.
“You shouldn't be here.”
“He has a right to know.”
“He has no right to survive.”
Vincent's jaw tightened.
Evelyn handed Amber an envelope.
“I kept this because I couldn't destroy it.”
Amber opened it.
Inside was a letter from Rose.
Not to her.
To Lily.
My little girl,
If you're reading this, it means someone found you before I could.
I need you to know I never abandoned you.
I fought for you.
Your sister is with me.
I will come back.
Amber couldn't breathe.
Lily had been with Rose.
That meant the story they had told her was false.
Rose hadn't lost one child.
She had tried to save both.
“What happened next?”
Evelyn started crying.
“Your mother came to the Whitaker house.”
“For Lily?”
“Yes.”
“What did they do?”
“They locked her in the basement.”
Amber stared at her.
“Why?”
“She threatened to expose them.”
“What did she know?”
Evelyn looked toward Vincent.
“She knew about the money.”
“What money?”
“The deal.”
The Whitakers had paid Robert Reed.
The Marino family had provided protection.
The child had been used as collateral.
But there was more.
Gabriel had attempted to destroy the arrangement.
He had planned to take Rose and both children away.
Someone killed him.
And then Rose disappeared.
“Who killed Gabriel?”
Evelyn whispered:
“Robert Reed.”
Amber went rigid.
Her own grandfather.
He had killed her father.
Then he had sold her sister.
Then he had allowed Rose to disappear.
“Why?”
“To protect himself.”
Amber closed her eyes.
Her entire bloodline seemed poisoned.
Vincent reached for her hand.
She pulled away.
“You knew.”
“I suspected.”
“You didn't tell me.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“Everyone says that.”
She turned away.
Then Evelyn said the one thing that changed everything.
“Your mother wasn't alone that night.”
Amber looked back.
“Who was with her?”
“Thomas.”
Her legal father.
Amber's chest tightened.
“Thomas was there?”
“Yes.”
“He was supposed to be dead.”
Evelyn nodded.
“He didn't die.”
Amber's head spun.
“What?”
“He disappeared because he refused to let them kill Rose.”
“Where is he?”
“I don't know.”
Evelyn looked terrified.
“But Rose gave him something.”
“What?”
“A photograph.”
“Of what?”
“The baby they thought they had taken.”
Amber understood.
“Claire.”
Evelyn nodded.
“You need to find Thomas.”
Before they could ask more, headlights appeared.
Two black cars approached.
Evelyn panicked.
“They found me.”
Vincent pulled Amber behind a stone wall.
Gunshots cracked through the cemetery.
Evelyn ran.
A bullet struck the stone above Amber's head.
Vincent fired back.
Then another shot.
Silence.
When the smoke cleared, Evelyn was gone.
But she had dropped something.
A key.
Attached to it was a brass tag.
127.
Vincent studied it.
“I know this.”
“What is it?”
“A locker.”
“Where?”
“Penn Station.”
They drove through the night.
Locker 127 contained a metal case.
Inside was a stack of photographs.
A passport.
And a letter.
The passport belonged to Thomas Reed.
He was alive.
The letter contained an address in Vermont.
They drove there the next morning.
An old farmhouse stood beneath a mountain.
A man opened the door.
Amber froze.
Older.
Thinner.
Gray hair.
But unmistakable.
Thomas Reed.
Her father.
He stared at her.
His face collapsed.
“Amber.”
She couldn't move.
“Are you real?”
He cried.
“I never stopped looking for you.”
“You were alive.”
“Yes.”
“And Mom?”
His eyes lowered.
“She died protecting you.”
Amber walked forward.
“Why did you leave me?”
“Because they threatened you.”
“You abandoned me.”
“I thought if they believed I was dead, they'd stop searching.”
“They didn't.”
“No.”
He looked at Vincent.
“They never stopped.”
Thomas finally revealed the truth.
He wasn't Amber's biological father.
But he had loved Rose.
He had raised Amber as his own.
And on the night Rose was killed, Thomas escaped with one piece of evidence.
A birth ledger.
It contained the names of everyone involved.
Robert Reed.
Victor Marino.
Patricia Whitaker.
And one other name.
A judge.
Thomas looked at Amber.
“That judge is still alive.”
“Who?”
“Judge Leonard Hale.”
Vincent went pale.
“Hale?”
Thomas nodded.
“He is the man who ordered the children separated.”
Amber whispered:
“Then he knows where my sister really came from.”
Thomas looked at her.
“No.”
May you like
He took a breath.
“He knows where your sister is going.”
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