Chapter 6 - THE DAUGHTER THE HARRISONS ERASED
"Your sister didn't die."
Margaret signed the words so forcefully that her fingers trembled.
Daniel stared at his mother.
"Mom?"
Her eyes filled with tears.
"Your father told me she died."
Emily looked between them.
"Who?"
Margaret swallowed.
"Anna."
Daniel stepped backward.
His younger sister, Anna Harrison, had supposedly died when she was four.
He remembered a tiny pink bedroom.
A stuffed rabbit.
A birthday cake with yellow frosting.
Then a funeral where nobody allowed him near the coffin.
For twenty years, he'd carried the memory of a little girl he couldn't save.
Now his mother was telling him Anna might have lived.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Daniel asked.
Margaret's expression broke.
"I didn't know until Laura found the files."
Emily stared.
"My mother knew?"
Margaret nodded.
"Laura discovered Anna's records had been changed. She told me there was another girl living under Anna's identity."
Daniel felt sick.
"Another girl?"
"Yes."
Margaret signed more slowly.
"Richard had used her identity to control money left by my parents."
Emily closed her eyes.
More children.
More stolen identities.
More money.
And now Ruth was missing.
Daniel looked toward Emily.
"We need to focus on your grandmother."
She nodded immediately.
The threatening messages and photograph were forwarded to the police investigating Samuel's disappearance.
Investigators traced the address Ruth had left to an old storage facility.
A search led them to a locked office connected to Harrison Hospitality.
Inside, they found Ruth.
She was frightened, exhausted, and furious.
When Emily entered the hospital room where Ruth was being evaluated, her grandmother immediately began signing.
"I told them I was going to hit them with my handbag."
Emily burst into tears.
Then laughter.
"Grandma!"
Ruth pulled her into a fierce embrace.
For several seconds, neither spoke.
Then Emily signed, "Who took you?"
Ruth's expression hardened.
"A man from the restaurant."
"Victor?"
Ruth shook her head.
"No. Someone younger."
"Did he say anything?"
Ruth nodded.
"He said Richard wanted the bird."
Emily touched her necklace.
"The pendant?"
Ruth's eyes widened.
"Yes."
Daniel leaned forward.
"Why?"
Ruth took a slow breath.
"Because the swallow opens something."
Emily frowned.
"What?"
Ruth pointed toward her handbag.
Inside was an old photograph of Laura.
She stood beside a wooden door decorated with a carved swallow.
Behind her was a brick building.
Emily recognized it immediately.
"The old Harrison factory."
Daniel nodded.
His father had sold the factory years earlier.
Or so everyone believed.
Ruth signed one final sentence.
"Laura hid the original records there."
Then she hesitated.
"And she left a message for you."
Emily's heart hammered.
Ruth reached into the lining of her handbag.
She removed a folded piece of paper.
May you like
Only four words were written across it.
MY DAUGHTER, I AM ALIVE.
