The message from Ryan stayed on my phone.<\/p>\n
If you contact Lily again, you'll regret it.<\/p>\n
Mara photographed it.<\/p>\n
Then she asked Lily to repeat exactly what had happened when Ryan contacted her adoptive mother.<\/p>\n
Lily told us everything she remembered.<\/p>\n
A man had arrived in a dark sedan.<\/p>\n
He had introduced himself as Ryan.<\/p>\n
He had asked whether she was home.<\/p>\n
Her adoptive mother had refused to let him see her.<\/p>\n
He had asked whether Lily knew anything about Annie Ellis.<\/p>\n
When her adoptive mother said no, he had left a card.<\/p>\n
The card was the same one Lily had brought.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened afterward?\u201d Mara asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mother called your mother.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLily's adoptive mother?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd what did your mother say?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe told her Ryan couldn't be allowed to find me.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at Lily.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid she say why?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe said he believed I belonged to him.\u201d<\/p>\n
The room went silent.<\/p>\n
I stared at Mara.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat does that mean?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt could mean several things.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCould Ryan be Lily's father?\u201d<\/p>\n
Mara didn't answer immediately.<\/p>\n
Lily looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't think so.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy adoptive mother said he wasn't.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWho was?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe wouldn't tell me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel stepped forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour mother may have known.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen why did she hide it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause she was afraid.\u201d<\/p>\n
I was tired of that answer.<\/p>\n
Fear had become the family language.<\/p>\n
Everyone had used it to excuse silence.<\/p>\n
Everyone had believed they were protecting someone.<\/p>\n
And every secret had grown larger because nobody trusted me with the truth.<\/p>\n
I called my mother.<\/p>\n
She answered.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnnie.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you know Lily contacted me?\u201d<\/p>\n
Silence.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRyan told me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis morning.\u201d<\/p>\n
My stomach tightened.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore I told anyone?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow did he know?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has people watching.\u201d<\/p>\n
My mother sounded frightened.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMom, stop.\u201d<\/p>\n
She went silent.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you arrange Lily's adoption?\u201d<\/p>\n
She began crying.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause you were nineteen.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat doesn't answer me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou were in danger.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom whom?\u201d<\/p>\n
She couldn't speak.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho was the father?\u201d<\/p>\n
Silence.<\/p>\n
\u201cMom.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYour uncle.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stared at the phone.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot your mother's brother,\u201d she whispered. \u201cYour father's brother.\u201d<\/p>\n
My father looked at me.<\/p>\n
He had heard.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat can't be.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was alive.\u201d<\/p>\n
My father's face drained of color.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
My mother continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had a relationship with someone who became dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n
I felt sick.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat does that have to do with me?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was Lily's biological father.\u201d<\/p>\n
My mind couldn't process it.<\/p>\n
My father's brother.<\/p>\n
My uncle.<\/p>\n
The man from the photograph.<\/p>\n
The man my father had said died before I was born.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was alive when I was nineteen?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen why did Dad say he died?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe believed he did.\u201d<\/p>\n
My father stared at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat are you saying?\u201d<\/p>\n
My mother began crying harder.<\/p>\n
\u201cI lied to both of you.\u201d<\/p>\n
My father's voice broke.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause I thought it would keep Annie safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
I closed my eyes.<\/p>\n
There it was again.<\/p>\n
The same excuse.<\/p>\n
I asked,<\/p>\n
\u201cDid my uncle survive?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFor several years.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow long?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cUntil Lily was born.\u201d<\/p>\n
I felt the room go silent.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen what happened?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe disappeared.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMom.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI swear.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mara took the phone from me.<\/p>\n
\u201cMrs. Ellis, this is Annie's attorney. We need the complete history.\u201d<\/p>\n
My mother was silent.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you participate in the adoption?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWas Ryan involved?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid Ryan know Lily existed?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid he know about the first pregnancy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWho told him?\u201d<\/p>\n
My mother hesitated.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did.\u201d<\/p>\n
My heart dropped.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause he asked.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter the miscarriage.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy would he ask?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had already found the photograph of Daniel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mara looked at me.<\/p>\n
My mother continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe believed Annie had lied about her past.\u201d<\/p>\n
I interrupted.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou told him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did you hide?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe part about Lily.\u201d<\/p>\n
I closed my eyes.<\/p>\n
My mother had told Ryan enough to make him suspicious.<\/p>\n
But not enough to let him understand.<\/p>\n
That was dangerous.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did you tell him about Daniel?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat Daniel wasn't the father.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd Lily?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI said there had been a pregnancy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you tell him the child survived?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen how did he find her?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't know.\u201d<\/p>\n
The call ended.<\/p>\n
I sat motionless.<\/p>\n
My father looked devastated.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy didn't you tell me?\u201d<\/p>\n
My mother had already hung up.<\/p>\n
He covered his face.<\/p>\n
\u201cI should have asked.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought she was protecting you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was protecting the secret.\u201d<\/p>\n
He nodded.<\/p>\n
That was the first time he said nothing to defend her.<\/p>\n
Mara turned to me.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to move quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause Ryan now knows Lily is in contact with you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat can he do?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnything from attempting to discredit her to trying to locate her himself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lily looked frightened.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't want to cause trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou didn't.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI should leave.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
I took her hand.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou've spent twenty-two years being told you were dangerous to know.\u201d<\/p>\n
She looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou're not.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her eyes filled.<\/p>\n
For a moment, neither of us spoke.<\/p>\n
Then she asked,<\/p>\n
\u201cCan I call you Mom?\u201d<\/p>\n
I couldn't answer immediately.<\/p>\n
I looked at her.<\/p>\n
At the scar near her eyebrow.<\/p>\n
At the wooden box.<\/p>\n
At the photograph of the baby.<\/p>\n
At the yellow ribbon.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
She cried.<\/p>\n
So did I.<\/p>\n
It wasn't a perfect reunion.<\/p>\n
It wasn't a magical repair of twenty-two missing years.<\/p>\n
It was simply two people sitting across from each other and acknowledging that the missing years had happened.<\/p>\n
That mattered.<\/p>\n
The next morning, Mara obtained emergency protective measures concerning the children and advised Lily not to disclose her location.<\/p>\n
Ryan's attorney objected.<\/p>\n
Then another document arrived.<\/p>\n
A statement from my mother.<\/p>\n
This one was different.<\/p>\n
She admitted helping arrange the adoption.<\/p>\n
She admitted Ryan had been told about the first pregnancy.<\/p>\n
She admitted she had given Ryan photographs of me grieving.<\/p>\n
And she admitted that the custody proposal had been discussed before Claire's pregnancy.<\/p>\n
The statement ended with one sentence.<\/p>\n
Ryan believed Annie would never fight if he convinced her that losing the children was inevitable.<\/p>\n
I read it twice.<\/p>\n
Then I saw the date.<\/p>\n
The statement had been signed the day before the wedding.<\/p>\n
My mother had known what was coming.<\/p>\n
She had known Ryan planned to move the children.<\/p>\n
She had known he intended to use my grief.<\/p>\n
And she had finally decided to write it down.<\/p>\n
But one question remained.<\/p>\n
Why had Ryan cared so much about Lily?<\/p>\n
The answer came that afternoon.<\/p>\n
Daniel found another document.<\/p>\n
It was an old financial record.<\/p>\n
A payment.<\/p>\n
The recipient was a private investigator.<\/p>\n
The date was six years earlier.<\/p>\n
The description read:<\/p>\n
Locate biological daughter.<\/p>\n
Mara examined it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is Ryan's account.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stared.<\/p>\n
Six years.<\/p>\n
That was long before the divorce.<\/p>\n
Before Claire.<\/p>\n
Before the wedding.<\/p>\n
Before the fifth pregnancy.<\/p>\n
Ryan had been looking for Lily while we were still married.<\/p>\n
Why?<\/p>\n
Then I noticed the second page.<\/p>\n
It contained a handwritten note.<\/p>\n
Find the girl before Annie learns the truth.<\/p>\n
My hands went cold.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat truth?\u201d<\/p>\n
Mara looked at the document.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel pointed to the bottom.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere.\u201d<\/p>\n
A name.<\/p>\n
Not Lily.<\/p>\n
Not Daniel.<\/p>\n
Not my uncle.<\/p>\n
A name I recognized immediately.<\/p>\n
Claire.<\/p>\n
I stared at it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat does Claire have to do with this?\u201d<\/p>\n
No one answered.<\/p>\n
Then my phone rang.<\/p>\n
Claire.<\/p>\n
I answered.<\/p>\n
Her voice was shaking.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnnie, I need you to listen carefully.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRyan knows about Lily.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
She sounded terrified.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe doesn't just know about her.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat then?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI found something in his files.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reason he wanted custody.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stood.<\/p>\n
\u201cTell me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Claire took a breath.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wasn't trying to get the children because he wanted a bigger family.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen why?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he was trying to make sure you couldn't leave the state.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause he needs you here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFor what?\u201d<\/p>\n
She started crying.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause the person Ryan has been afraid of finding Lily is not Lily.\u201d<\/p>\n
I felt my stomach tighten.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho is it?\u201d<\/p>\n
Claire whispered the answer.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou.\u201d<\/p>\n
The message from Ryan stayed on my phone. If you contact Lily again, you'll regret it. Mara photographed it. Then she asked Lily to repeat exactly what had happened when … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insightdrama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8246"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8265,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8246\/revisions\/8265"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}