Chapter 11 - THE SISTER I NEVER KNEW EXISTED
I'd spent twenty-eight years believing I was an only child.
Now my attorney was telling me I had a younger sister.
I stared at Rachel across the conference table.
"That's impossible."
She looked sympathetic.
"Emily, the records are incomplete, but your father repeatedly requested information about a girl named Lily Carter."
My stomach tightened.
"Lily?"
Rachel nodded.
"She was born approximately three years after you."
I tried to remember my childhood.
My mother had been pregnant once.
I remembered her swollen stomach.
The hospital.
And the terrible silence afterward.
She'd told me the baby died.
I'd been seven.
For years, I'd believed I had a sister who never lived.
Now I wasn't so sure.
"Did my mother know?"
Rachel hesitated.
"We don't know."
I looked at Alexander.
He was sitting beside the window, listening quietly.
"What do you think?"
He studied me.
"I think we should wait for your father to explain."
I nodded.
It was sensible.
But waiting felt unbearable.
That evening, investigators arranged a supervised reunion at the rehabilitation center.
When I entered the room, my father sat beside a window overlooking bare trees.
His hair was gray.
His shoulders were thinner than I remembered.
But his eyes were the same.
Warm brown.
Gentle.
Familiar.
"Dad?"
He turned.
For a moment, he simply stared.
Then his lips trembled.
"Emily?"
I ran to him.
He opened his arms.
I fell against his chest.
And suddenly I was seventeen again.
A frightened girl who'd lost her father.
Except now he was holding me.
Alive.
Real.
Warm.
"I'm sorry," he whispered.
I shook my head.
"No."
"Sweetheart, I'm so sorry."
I cried harder.
For several minutes, neither of us could speak.
Then he held my face between his hands.
"You're beautiful."
I laughed through tears.
"You're old."
He chuckled.
"That happens."
I hugged him again.
Then I remembered the question.
"Dad, who is Lily?"
His smile faded.
He looked toward the window.
For a long time, he didn't answer.
Then he whispered:
"Your sister."
My chest tightened.
"She's alive?"
He nodded.
"Yes."
"Where is she?"
He closed his eyes.
"I don't know anymore."
I squeezed his hand.
"What happened?"
His voice trembled.
"Richard Hayes took her."
I stopped breathing.
"Why?"
"Because he needed leverage against me."
I covered my mouth.
My father continued.
"Your mother was told Lily died shortly after birth. Richard arranged the paperwork."
Tears filled his eyes.
"I tried to find her for years."
I held his hand tighter.
"We'll find her."
He looked at me.
"Emily, there's something else."
"What?"
He swallowed.
"Lily wasn't adopted by strangers."
My heart pounded.
"Then who took her?"
His expression darkened.
"Someone inside the Moretti family."
I stared.
Then he whispered:
"Alexander's father arranged the adoption."
May you like
And the next words nearly destroyed me.
"Lily Carter grew up believing she was Alexander Moretti's younger sister."
