PART 4
The gunshot echoed from the recorder.
Lily screamed.
Haley pulled her against her chest.
I stood frozen in the middle of the hospital room, staring at the small device inside Officer Lawson’s evidence bag.
My father’s voice had stopped.
Only static remained.
“Play it again,” I whispered.
Lawson lowered the recorder.
“Natalie—”
“Play it again.”
He pressed the button.
My father’s voice filled the room.
“You already stole one of Natalie’s daughters. I won’t let you take the second.”
Then Eleanor answered.
“You still don’t understand.”
“Understand what?”
“Chloe was never supposed to be born.”
The gunshot exploded again.
This time, Lawson allowed the recording to continue.
For six seconds, there was nothing but scraping, heavy breathing and the sound of something falling.
Then my father groaned.
Eleanor spoke first.
“You should have stayed out of this, Richard.”
My knees nearly gave way.
My father had been shot.
But he was still alive.
On the recording, he coughed.
“You think killing me will protect you?”
“It protected us the first time.”
“What first time?”
Eleanor laughed softly.
“Natalie still believes Lily died in childbirth.”
Haley covered Lily’s ears.
I couldn’t breathe.
My father’s voice became weaker.
“She will learn the truth.”
“No. She’ll grieve, marry Ethan and spend the rest of her life believing your family’s money belongs to him.”
“You will never touch her inheritance.”
“We don’t need all of it.”
“What do you need?”
“Control.”
A door slammed somewhere on the recording.
Then another woman entered.
Miriam.
“Mother, what did you do?”
“He threatened us.”
“You shot him?”
“Help me move him.”
Miriam cursed under her breath.
My father groaned again.
Then he said something too faint to understand.
Officer Lawson increased the volume.
The words became clearer.
“Bluebird… four seventeen.”
The recorder scraped against the floor.
Eleanor’s voice moved farther away.
“What did he say?”
“Nothing,” Miriam answered.
“Check his pockets.”
“I need to stop the bleeding.”
“Let him die.”
“No. If his body is found here, we all go to prison.”
“You should have thought about that before you left the recorder running.”
The audio suddenly ended.
I stared at Lawson.
“He survived that night.”
“We don’t know that.”
“He spoke after the gunshot.”
“He may have died later.”
“My father died four years ago.”
At least, that was what I had always said.
But now the memories returned differently.
There had been no body.
Only pieces of his boat floating in Lake Michigan.
His blood had been found on the railing.
The authorities said the boat’s fuel tank had exploded and thrown him into the water.
Search crews spent eleven days looking for him.
Nothing was recovered.
After six months, he was declared legally dead.
Eleanor had stood beside me at the memorial service.
She had held my hand while I cried.
“She knew,” I whispered.
Lawson studied my face.
“Your father disappeared from a boat?”
“Yes.”
“How long after this recording?”
“I don’t know when this was recorded.”
“The device metadata says seven years ago.”
Haley shook her head.
“That can’t be right.”
We all looked at her.
She removed her hands from Lily’s ears.
“Natalie wasn’t pregnant with Chloe seven years ago.”
Lawson frowned.
“Then the date was altered.”
“Can you recover the real date?” I asked.
“I’ll send it to digital forensics.”
A doctor entered before Lawson could say more.
Chloe was out of surgery.
She had suffered internal bleeding when she was moved from the hospital too soon, but the doctors had repaired the damage.
“She’s stable,” the doctor told me. “But she needs rest. No stressful questions.”
“Can I see her?”
“For a few minutes.”
I turned toward Lily.
She was watching me with frightened blue eyes.
The same eyes I had seen in the mirror every morning as a child.
“Come with me,” I said.
Haley’s arms tightened around her.
“She may not be ready.”
“She just learned that the woman she calls her mother stole her from me.”
“I didn’t steal her.”
“You accepted her.”
“I was told you couldn’t care for her.”
“And when did you learn that was a lie?”
Haley looked down.
I stepped closer.
“When did you learn?”
“Two years ago.”
Lily slowly moved away from her.
“You knew Aunt Natalie was my mommy?”
Haley began crying.
“I wanted to tell you.”
“But you didn’t.”
“Grandma Eleanor said she would take you away from me.”
“You weren’t supposed to have me.”
Haley reached for her.
Lily stepped behind me.
That movement broke something inside my sister.
But I could not comfort her.
Not yet.
I held Lily’s hand and led her into Chloe’s room.
Chloe lay beneath a heated blanket.
Her face was still pale, but when she saw me, she smiled weakly.
“Mommy.”
I kissed her forehead.
“I’m here.”
Her eyes moved toward Lily.
“Why is she crying?”
Lily climbed onto the chair beside the bed.
“Because I found out Aunt Natalie is my real mommy.”
Chloe blinked.
For a moment, I expected confusion.
Instead, she whispered, “I know.”
My heart stopped.
“What did you say?”
“Grandma told me.”
“When?”
“At the old hospital.”
I sat beside her.
“Tell me exactly what she said.”
Chloe looked toward the door.
“Is Grandma gone?”
“She is with the police.”
“She said Lily was the good daughter.”
Lily’s fingers tightened around mine.
“What did she mean?” I asked.
“She said Lily did everything she was taught.”
“What was Lily taught to do?”
Chloe’s eyes filled with tears.
“To make you love Daddy.”
I looked at Lily.
She shook her head quickly.
“I didn’t do anything.”
“I know, sweetheart.”
Chloe continued.
“Grandma said Daddy started visiting Aunt Haley because Lily was his first little girl.”
That part was true.
Ethan had known Lily was alive.
He had visited her in secret.
He had watched me mourn a daughter he knew was living only twenty minutes away.
“Did Grandma say anything about you?” I asked Chloe.
“She said I ruined the plan.”
“How?”
“Because Grandpa saved me.”
I leaned closer.
“What did Grandpa save you from?”
“The medicine.”
I felt ice spread through my chest.
“What medicine?”
“The medicine Aunt Miriam put in your orange juice when I was inside you.”
A nurse near the door looked at me sharply.
Chloe could not have remembered that.
Someone had told her.
“Who told you this?”
“Grandma.”
“Why would she tell you?”
“She said Mommy was weak, but I was weaker.”
I closed my eyes.
Eleanor had tried to frighten Chloe by telling her how they had attempted to kill her before she was born.
Lily began to cry.
I pulled both girls close.
Neither of them deserved the truth that had been forced upon them.
Not in a hospital room.
Not after years of lies.
A technician arrived twenty minutes later with the results from the recorder.
Officer Lawson asked me to step into the hallway.
“The timestamp was altered,” he said.
“When was it recorded?”
“Five years and eight months ago.”
I had been four months pregnant with Chloe.
“What happened to me around that time?” I whispered.
The memory came slowly.
A family brunch at Eleanor’s house.
Miriam had been there, although Ethan introduced her as a distant cousin.
She had poured me orange juice.
An hour later, I began bleeding.
Ethan drove me to a private clinic.
Miriam examined me.
She told me I was miscarrying.
But when I demanded a second opinion, my father arrived and took me to another hospital.
Chloe survived.
Ethan later said my father had overreacted.
Three weeks after that, my father changed his will.
“You need to question Miriam,” I told Lawson.
“She has requested a lawyer.”
“Eleanor?”
“She keeps asking about the recorder.”
“Does she know you recovered it?”
“No.”
“Good.”
Lawson watched me carefully.
“What does Bluebird mean?”
“I don’t know.”
“What about four seventeen?”
I thought of my father’s habits.
He never trusted computers.
He kept paper copies of everything.
He used names instead of numbers for his private accounts.
When I was a child, he called me his bluebird because I wore a blue dress every day for nearly a month.
Then I remembered a storage company.
Bluebird Storage.
My father had rented a unit there after selling our childhood home.
“Bluebird is a storage facility,” I said.
“And four seventeen?”
“Unit 417.”
Lawson called for a warrant.
While we waited, a social worker arrived to speak with Lily.
A nurse remained beside Chloe.
Haley was taken downstairs for additional questioning.
I sat alone in a consultation room and listened to the recovered recording again.
My father had known everything.
He knew Lily was alive.
He knew Eleanor had tried to make me lose Chloe.
Yet he had never told me.
Why?
Near the end of the recording, after Miriam said she needed to stop his bleeding, I noticed a faint sound beneath the static.
Three taps.
A pause.
Two taps.
Another pause.
Three taps.
My father used to tap messages on my bedroom door when I was young.
Three-two-three meant one thing.
Danger is listening.
I replayed it.
Three taps.
Two.
Three.
He had known the recorder would be found.
And he had been warning me that someone nearby could not be trusted.
But who?
Officer Lawson returned an hour later.
“We have access to the storage unit.”
“I’m coming.”
“You should remain with Chloe.”
“The unit belongs to my father.”
“It may contain evidence connected to an attempted murder.”
“Then I need to see it.”
Lawson finally agreed after arranging two officers to remain outside Chloe’s room.
Lily stayed with the social worker.
Before I left, I kissed both girls.
Chloe caught my sleeve.
“Mommy, don’t go with the man who has Grandpa’s watch.”
I stopped.
“What man?”
“The man at the old hospital.”
“Was he with Grandma?”
She nodded.
“What did he look like?”
“He had a black coat.”
“Did you hear his name?”
Chloe’s eyes began closing.
“Grandma called him David.”
Officer Lawson stood in the doorway.
I looked at his wrist.
He wore a silver watch.
It was old-fashioned, with a dark leather strap.
“Is your first name David?” I asked.
His expression did not change.
“Yes.”
The room became very quiet.
“Were you at Lakeshore before the police raid?”
“No.”
“Chloe says a man named David was there.”
“There are thousands of men named David.”
“She mentioned a watch.”
Lawson looked down at his wrist.
“This belonged to my father.”
I remembered my father wearing a similar watch.
But many men owned silver watches.
I told myself it meant nothing.
Still, as we walked toward the elevator, I kept several feet between us.
Bluebird Storage was located outside the city in a long concrete building surrounded by security fencing.
The manager led us to Unit 417.
The lock had recently been replaced.
“Who changed it?” Lawson asked.
The manager checked his records.
“The renter.”
“My father is dead,” I said.
The manager frowned.
“The person who came in showed identification under Richard Bennett’s name.”
“When?”
“Six days ago.”
My skin prickled.
“Do you have security footage?”
“I’ll check.”
Lawson cut the lock.
The metal door rolled upward.
Inside were dozens of sealed boxes.
A wooden desk.
Two filing cabinets.
And a wall covered with photographs.
Pictures of Eleanor.
Miriam.
Ethan.
Haley.
Lily.
Chloe.
Me.
Some had been taken from a distance.
Others were family photographs I had never seen before.
At the center of the wall was a map of Chicago marked with red circles.
Our house.
Eleanor’s home.
Lakeshore Women’s Center.
The hospital.
And Officer Lawson’s police station.
Lawson stared at the map.
“I’ve never been here before.”
I didn’t answer.
On the desk sat a blue envelope.
My name was written across it in my father’s handwriting.
NATALIE — OPEN ONLY IF BOTH GIRLS ARE IN DANGER.
My hands trembled as I tore it open.
Inside was a key.
A photograph.
And a letter.
The photograph showed my father standing beside Officer Lawson.
It had been taken beside the lake.
Both men were smiling.
On the back, my father had written:
David agreed to protect you if I disappeared.
I looked up at Lawson.
“You knew my father.”
He closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
“How?”
“He contacted me before the boat explosion.”
“You lied to me.”
“I was trying to protect the investigation.”
“My daughters were nearly killed!”
“I didn’t know Ethan and Eleanor were going to move this soon.”
“You knew Lily was alive?”
Lawson hesitated.
That hesitation was enough.
I slapped him.
“You watched me bury an empty coffin.”
“I was not allowed to tell you.”
“Who stopped you?”
“Your father.”
I unfolded the letter.
Natalie,
If you are reading this, Eleanor has made another attempt against one of the girls.
Lily is your daughter.
Chloe survived because I discovered what Miriam put in your drink and got you to another hospital in time.
Ethan knew about both plans.
Do not believe his claims that his mother controlled him. He has always been the one she feared most.
My eyes moved to the next paragraph.
I did not die on the lake.
I disappeared because the people helping Eleanor were more powerful than I understood.
One of them worked inside the police department.
I looked at Lawson.
His face had gone pale.
I continued reading.
David Lawson offered to help me.
I wanted to trust him.
But three days before the explosion, I discovered he had been meeting Eleanor in secret.
Lawson moved toward me.
“Natalie, let me explain.”
I stepped back.
“Don’t.”
The final line of the letter was underlined twice.
If David brings you to Unit 417, he is not bringing you there to find evidence.
He is bringing you there because Eleanor needs the key hidden inside this envelope.
Lawson looked at the small brass key in my hand.
Behind him, the storage door began rolling downward.
I ran toward it.
Too late.
It slammed shut.
The lights went out.
I heard Lawson draw his gun.
“Give me the key, Natalie.”
My heart stopped.
“You said you were protecting me.”
“I was.”
“Then why do you want this?”
“Because your father stole something that never belonged to him.”
“What does the key open?”
Lawson stepped closer in the darkness.
“A deposit box containing proof of who Chloe’s biological father really is.”
I backed into the desk.
“Ethan is her father.”
“No.”
The gun clicked.
“Your father arranged the pregnancy after he discovered Ethan helped steal Lily.”
“You’re lying.”
“I wish I were.”
A telephone suddenly rang somewhere inside the storage unit.
An old landline sat beneath a stack of files.
Lawson turned toward the sound.
I grabbed it first.
“Hello?”
For a moment, there was only breathing.
Then a man spoke.
A voice I had heard every day of my childhood.
“Natalie.”
My knees nearly collapsed.
“Dad?”
Officer Lawson raised his gun.
My father continued.
“Do not give him the key.”
Tears filled my eyes.
“You’re alive.”
“Yes.”
“Where are you?”
“Closer than you think.”
A loud metallic bang came from behind one of the filing cabinets.
The cabinet slowly moved away from the wall.
A hidden door opened.
A man stepped through.
His hair was gray.
A scar crossed the left side of his face.
But I knew him.
My father looked at Officer Lawson and raised a gun of his own.
“Move away from my daughter, David.”
Lawson smiled.
Then he pointed his weapon at me.
“You should have stayed dead, Richard.”
My father’s eyes never left him.
“You should never have touched my granddaughters.”
Neither man lowered his gun.
I stood between them, holding the key that could reveal the final truth about Chloe.
Then the storage door behind Lawson began opening.
A pair of black shoes appeared beneath it.
Someone else was entering.
My father’s face changed.
“Natalie, get down!”
The first shot shattered the light above my head.
The second struck my father in the chest………………….
TO BE CONTINUED IN LAST PART…
