Susan.
Michael Grant’s mother.
The woman who had cried in my arms.
The woman whose son married Olivia.
The woman who told me Michael loved “Clara Bennett.”
My grandmother had been standing beside me all day.
And she had never told me who she was.
I whispered, “Susan is Teresa’s mother?”
Monroe stared at the screen.
“It appears so.”
Teresa’s voice broke through the phone.
“My mother is alive?”
“Yes.”
“Where is she?”
I remembered.
Susan had left the courthouse earlier.
Then disappeared from the story entirely.
Nobody had asked where she went.
Agent Monroe grabbed her radio.
“Locate Susan Grant immediately.”
An agent answered seconds later.
“Her phone is active.”
“Where?”
A pause.
Then:
“Northwestern Memorial Hospital.”
I looked toward Teresa’s room.
“What floor?”
Another pause.
“Floor nine.”
Everyone froze.
Teresa whispered:
“She’s here.”
Then the lights in the hospital suddenly went out.
Darkness swallowed the room.
A voice came through the hallway.
Old.
Female.
Calm.
“Teresa.”
My mother stopped breathing.
Then the voice said:
“Clara.”
And I realized Ethan wasn’t the last person in my family whose secrets were about to destroy everything……………
TO BE CONTINUED IN PART 6…
