Chapter 5 - Rachel Asked the Question No One Wanted
Rachel didn’t defend Margaret after that.
But she asked the question Emily had been avoiding.
“If Sophie is your biological daughter, how did Daniel end up raising her with Lauren?”
“He didn’t.”
Rachel frowned.
“Lauren had pictures of him holding her.”
Emily nodded.
“But Daniel never raised Sophie. Lauren did.”
“Then he knew.”
That hurt.
Emily had loved Daniel.
He had died believing, as far as Emily knew, that their only pregnancy had ended.
Why would he secretly know Sophie?
Why hadn’t he told Emily?
Emily returned to Daniel’s old storage unit.
She had avoided it since his death.
Boxes of business files.
Winter coats.
Sports equipment.
Photographs.
She searched for hours.
Then she found his old laptop.
Marcus’s forensic technician recovered deleted emails.
One subject line appeared repeatedly.
L.
The messages were between Daniel and Lauren.
Emily’s stomach twisted.
She expected betrayal.
An affair.
Instead, the first email read:
I can’t tell Emily until I know exactly what Margaret did.
Emily stared.
Daniel knew.
Another:
Sophie looks like her more every week.
Another:
Reed is scared. He won’t meet me again.
Emily began crying.
Rachel read over her shoulder.
“Daniel was investigating too.”
The timeline became clearer.
Daniel discovered Sophie’s existence about eighteen months before his death.
Lauren had contacted him after Margaret stopped making promised payments.
Lauren confessed that she had been paid to raise a baby delivered secretly after Emily’s pregnancy.
But Lauren claimed she didn’t initially know the child had been taken without Emily’s informed consent.
She was told Emily had voluntarily surrendered the baby.
Later she realized it was a lie.
Daniel had been trying to build proof before telling Emily.
Then his highway accident happened.
Emily searched deeper.
There was one final unsent email.
Addressed to Emily.
Emily,
I need to tell you something impossible, and I need you to know first that I never stopped looking for what we lost.
She couldn’t finish reading for several minutes.
Daniel explained that he had obtained private DNA testing.
The baby Lauren was raising was genetically his.
And likely Emily’s.
He wanted one more verified test before confronting Margaret.
He never got the chance.
Rachel wiped her eyes.
“He was trying to bring Sophie home.”
Emily nodded.
All those years she had blamed Daniel for secrecy.
But he had been frightened of being wrong.
He had wanted proof.
Then Marcus called.
His voice was urgent.
“We located Dr. Reed.”
“I already spoke to him.”
“No. We located him physically.”
Emily stiffened.
“Where?”
“At a motel outside Hartford.”
“Why is he there?”
“Because he emptied his retirement account yesterday and checked out of his house.”
Emily stood.
“He’s running.”
Marcus agreed.
“And there’s more.”
“What?”
“Margaret called him eleven times in the past forty-eight hours.”
Emily looked at Rachel.
May you like
Their mother wasn’t simply waiting for the past to expose her.
She was actively trying to contain it.
