Chapter 5
The house had two hearts.
I repeated the phrase to myself all night.
At dawn, Detective Harris arrived.
She was older, sharp-eyed, and careful with children.
She showed Emma a photo of my mother.
“Is this Grandma Rose?”
Emma smiled for the first time.
“Yes. She sang.”
My throat closed.
My mother sang when she was nervous.
Always the same old hymn.
Detective Harris looked at me.
“Your father reported your mother’s death?”
“Yes.”
“Was there an autopsy?”
“I don’t know.”
She wrote that down.
I called my sister, Julia.
She answered half asleep.
“Ryan?”
“Did Mom know Megan had a child?”
Silence.
Then a whisper.
“Where are you?”
“The hospital.”
“Is she alive?”
My hand tightened on the phone.
“Who?”
Julia started crying.
“The little girl.”
I closed my eyes.
“You knew.”
“I was sixteen. Dad told me if I said anything, he would have me committed like Megan.”
Committed.
Not dead.
Not gone.
Committed.
I walked into the hall.
“Julia, where is Megan?”
“I don’t know. Dad said she was dangerous. Mom didn’t believe him. She took the baby. Then Mom died.”
“She died?”
Julia sobbed.
“I don’t know anymore.”
The room tilted.
My father had been a judge.
Respected.
Feared.
Untouchable.
Claire had been his clerk before she became my wife.
Suddenly their marriage blessing made sense.
Their shared stories.
Their calm lies.
Their control over my grief.
Detective Harris took the phone and spoke to Julia.
When she hung up, her face was grim.
“We need to search your house.”
I looked through the hospital glass at Lily and Emma sitting together.
Two little girls.
May you like
One visible.
One hidden.
