Chapter 5 - Rebecca Told Them Why She Kept Lucy
Rebecca Foster opened the door with tears already in her eyes.
A little girl stood behind her.
Blonde curls.
Pink pajamas.
Holding a stuffed rabbit.
Claire forgot how to breathe.
The girl looked at her curiously.
Rebecca crouched.
“Lucy, sweetheart, why don’t you go finish your picture?”
Lucy ran toward the kitchen.
Claire’s hand covered her mouth.
Michael was crying openly.
Rebecca led them into the living room.
Claire’s voice trembled.
“Did you know she was ours?”
“Eventually.”
“When?”
“Six months after she came to me.”
Claire’s face tightened.
“And you didn’t tell us?”
Rebecca’s eyes filled.
“I tried.”
She opened a storage box.
Inside were returned envelopes.
All addressed to Michael and Claire.
All marked undeliverable.
Michael frowned.
“That was our address.”
Rebecca nodded.
“I sent certified letters too.”
Hannah examined the tracking history.
Someone had repeatedly refused delivery.
Signed:
E. Bennett.
Eleanor.
Rebecca explained that Eleanor contacted her during Claire’s pregnancy.
“She told me Claire was seriously ill and didn’t want the baby.”
Claire closed her eyes.
“She told everyone that.”
“I believed her.”
Rebecca had struggled with infertility for years.
Eleanor knew.
“She said the baby needed family.”
Rebecca agreed to temporary guardianship.
Then six months later she found medical inconsistencies.
No real adoption consent.
No contact with Claire.
No proper paternal authorization.
Rebecca confronted Eleanor.
Eleanor became threatening.
“She said if I contacted you, she’d have Lucy removed and placed with strangers.”
Michael stared at his aunt.
“You believed she could?”
“At the time? Yes.”
Rebecca had little money.
Eleanor had lawyers.
Influence.
And control of several Bennett family trusts.
Rebecca decided protecting Lucy physically was more important than risking Eleanor moving her again.
Claire struggled with anger.
“You still should have found another way.”
Rebecca nodded immediately.
“I know.”
No excuses.
That mattered.
“I was scared. And every month I waited made telling you harder.”
Claire looked toward the kitchen.
Lucy was humming.
She had no idea three adults in the next room were unraveling her entire life.
“Does she think you’re her mother?”
“She calls me Mom.”
Claire shut her eyes.
That hurt.
Rebecca whispered:
“I won’t ask her to stop.”
Claire looked at her sharply.
Rebecca continued:
“And I won’t stop you from being her mother either.”
Silence.
Then Rebecca handed Hannah a folder.
“I kept everything.”
Eleanor’s emails.
Payment records.
Threatening messages.
A voicemail.
Michael pressed play.
Eleanor’s voice filled the room.
If Claire ever finds out that child survived, you’ll lose everything I gave you.
Claire stared at Michael.
Rebecca had not been the architect.
She had been another person Eleanor controlled.
Then Rebecca produced one final envelope.
“I never opened this.”
“Why?”
“Eleanor gave it to me the night Lucy arrived and said it was for the child if something happened to her.”
The envelope was addressed in handwriting Michael recognized immediately.
His late father’s.
DAVID BENNETT — FOR MY GRANDDAUGHTER.
Michael’s face changed.
“My dad knew?”
Rebecca shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
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David Bennett had died two years earlier.
If he knew about Lucy, Eleanor’s secret had reached deeper into the family than anyone realized.
