Chapter 6 - THE WOMAN AT THE WINDOW
Anna contacted me before police found her.
I woke in the hospital just after midnight and saw a woman standing outside the examination-room window.
Same eyes.
Same hair.
Older, thinner, with a scar across her jaw.
She pressed one finger to her lips.
I thought I was dreaming.
Then she walked through the door.
Dr. Brooks had arranged private security, but Anna knew the service corridors.
She sat beside my bed.
Her hand hovered near my face but did not touch me.
“I’m sorry.”
I wanted to ask where she had been.
Instead, I asked why she left me.
“I didn’t.”
Her voice cracked.
“Diane took you.”
Anna had placed me with a trusted friend temporarily while she prepared to expose Richard.
Diane discovered the plan, forged adoption papers, and sent me to another state.
Anna spent years searching.
When she finally found me at six, she gave me the locket.
Richard’s men caught her before she could take me away.
She was held in a private facility, drugged, and declared dead under another identity.
Eleanor found her there years later.
Together, they began collecting evidence.
“Where is Eleanor now?”
“Safe.”
“Why didn’t she come?”
“Because Mark is still connected to Diane’s system.”
Mark entered the room behind her.
He froze when he saw Anna.
She stood.
“You have Richard’s eyes.”
Mark began crying.
“I’m sorry.”
Anna did not soften.
“You married my daughter knowing who she was.”
“I was trying to protect her.”
“From the truth?”
“From my mother.”
“You brought her into Diane’s house.”
His silence became an admission.
Anna revealed that Diane had not sewn my lips only to silence me.
She wanted a video of me appearing unable to speak after an alleged self-harm episode.
Dr. Vale had prepared guardianship papers.
Mark would become my legal guardian.
The twelve-million-dollar account would then be released.
The family had repeated the same financial scheme used against Anna.
I looked at Mark.
“Were you going to sign?”
He whispered, “I didn’t know about the stitches.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Before he answered, the hospital fire alarm sounded.
Smoke entered beneath the door.
Anna grabbed my hand.
May you like
Through the hallway window, Diane stood near the emergency exit.
She was watching us burn.
