CHAPTER 6: THE WOMAN IN MY MOTHER’S HOUSE
Robert drove faster than I had ever seen him drive.
We called the police on the way.
I called my mother six times.
She didn’t answer.
Chloe didn’t answer either.
When we reached the house, the front door was open.
My mother stood in the hallway.
Her hair was loose.
Her makeup had smeared beneath one eye.
She looked nothing like the controlled woman who had slapped me twenty-four hours earlier.
“Where is she?” I asked.
“Leave.”
“Where is Emily?”
My mother looked at Robert.
“You had no right to take her to that storage unit.”
Robert stepped inside.
“Where is the woman we heard on the phone?”
“You misunderstood.”
“I heard her clearly.”
Chloe appeared at the end of the hallway.
“There’s nobody here.”
Her blouse sleeve was torn.
A red mark crossed her cheek.
“What happened to you?” I asked.
“Nothing.”
“Where is Jason?”
Chloe’s eyes flickered toward the basement door.
I saw it.
So did Robert.
He moved past my mother.
She blocked him.
“You cannot search this house without permission.”
I walked around her.
“It’s my house.”
I opened the basement door.
“Hannah, don’t,” my mother said.
I turned on the light.
The staircase was empty.
But I heard movement below.
I descended slowly.
Robert followed.
At the bottom of the stairs, a woman sat in Dad’s old workshop.
Her wrists were wrapped with a torn scarf.
Jason stood beside her.
He held a kitchen knife.
Not against her.
But close enough.
He looked terrified.
“Hannah.”
I stared at him.
“What are you doing?”
“It isn’t what it looks like.”
The woman raised her head.
She appeared to be in her late fifties.
Her dark hair was streaked with gray.
There was blood at the corner of her mouth.
But it was her eyes that stopped me.
Hazel.
The exact same shade as mine.
She looked at my face.
Then started crying.
“Oh, Hannah.”
Nobody had introduced us.
Nobody had told her my name.
Yet she knew me.
Jason lowered the knife.
“Your mother called me. She said Emily was threatening her.”
“So you tied her up?”
“She attacked Chloe.”
Emily laughed bitterly.
“After Chloe tried to take my phone.”
My mother reached the bottom of the stairs.
“This woman is unstable.”
Emily looked at her.
“You’ve used that word for twenty-eight years.”
Sirens sounded outside.
My mother’s face changed.
“You called the police?”
“Yes.”
“You have no idea what you’re doing.”
“I’m beginning to understand.”
Two officers entered the basement minutes later.
Jason placed the knife on the floor.
Emily was freed.
The officers separated everyone.
An ambulance arrived to examine her injuries.
As a paramedic cleaned the cut on Emily’s lip, she refused to stop watching me.
Finally, I asked the question.
“Who are you?”
She looked toward my mother.
Margaret closed her eyes.
Emily’s answer came softly.
“I’m your aunt.”
I stared at her.
“My father didn’t have a sister.”
“Yes, he did.”
“My mother said she died.”
Emily gave a broken smile.
“Margaret has always preferred that version.”
I looked at my mother.
She said nothing.
Emily reached into her coat pocket and removed a photograph.
It was old and creased.
Two young women stood outside a hospital.
One was my mother.
The other was Emily.
Both appeared to be pregnant.
On the back, someone had written a date.
Two weeks before I was born.
“Why did Dad leave you three million dollars?”
Emily’s eyes filled with tears.
“Because he owed me more than money could ever repay.”
My stomach tightened.
“Why?”
She glanced at the police officers.
Then back at me.
“Because you were not born Hannah Brooks.”
My mother stepped forward.
“That’s enough.”
Emily’s voice rose.
“You were born Hannah Carter.”
The basement fell silent.
I held the photograph tighter.
“Who is Carter?”
Emily began to answer.
My mother shouted over her.
“She is lying!”
Emily stood.
“No, Margaret. You stole enough years from her.”
Then she looked directly into my eyes.
“Your father’s name was Daniel Carter.”
The floor seemed to tilt beneath me.
I looked at my mother.
“Thomas wasn’t my father?”
Her face collapsed.
For the first time in my life, my mother looked afraid of me.
May you like
“No,” Emily said quietly.
“Thomas was the man who saved you from the people who killed him.”
