Chapter 4 - My Mother’s Second Daughter
Evelyn denied it.
She said Lily had imagined everything after being sedated.
The detective asked why a child named Ava would call her Mom.
My mother folded her hands.
“I fostered children years ago.”
“You never told me.”
“You were away at college.”
“For seven years?”
She looked at me.
“Ava was troubled.”
The basement records told a different story.
A medical file identified Ava Morgan, age eight.
No official foster placement existed.
No school records.
No legal guardianship.
Only private prescriptions signed by Dr. Leonard Vale.
The same doctor who treated my father before he died.
Police found photographs of Ava from infancy.
Evelyn appeared in every one.
In one picture, she held the newborn beside Taylor.
Taylor looked barely twenty.
I turned toward my wife.
“You knew her as a baby.”
Taylor’s face tightened.
“I was helping your mother.”
“With what?”
She refused to answer.
Lily was taken to the hospital.
I rode with her.
She remained weak but conscious.
Inside the emergency room, she told Detective Cole she had discovered Ava in the basement three weeks earlier.
Ava said she had lived there most of her life.
Taylor caught them speaking.
After that, Lily became “sick.”
Every night she was given medicine.
That evening, Lily pretended to swallow it.
She heard Evelyn and Taylor arguing.
Taylor wanted to move Ava.
Evelyn wanted to “finish the arrangement.”
“What arrangement?” I asked.
Lily shook her head.
Then she remembered one sentence.
“Grandma said Ava had the wrong blood.”
The laboratory called with Lily’s results.
She had been given a powerful sedative and insulin despite not being diabetic.
A combination that could cause unconsciousness and memory loss.
Taylor was arrested for child endangerment.
Evelyn remained free while police confirmed her role.
Before officers led Taylor away, she turned to me.
“You think Ava is the victim.”
“Isn’t she?”
Taylor’s eyes filled with tears.
“No.”
May you like
She looked toward Lily’s room.
“She was brought into that house because of your daughter.”
