The passage beneath Bellmere seemed to narrow around them as they moved deeper into the earth. Daniel walked ahead with one hand against the stone wall, feeling for the turns he remembered from childhood.
Mara followed with the journal pressed against her chest. Evelyn's last words kept returning to her: Sophie was not the only child I saved. The sentence was short, but it had opened a question neither of them could ignore.
At the end of the passage, Daniel pushed against a warped wooden panel. It gave way with a dull scrape, revealing the old greenhouse behind the estate. Rainwater dripped from the glass roof.
They stepped outside.
For several seconds neither spoke.
Daniel stood beneath the gray morning light, staring at his hands. “My mother caused the crash.”
Mara closed the journal. “She says she did.”
“You heard her.”
“I did.”
“She believed she killed your mother.”
Mara looked at him. “And yet she told me to find Sophie.”
Daniel swallowed. “Why would she save one child after killing another woman's mother?”
“Maybe because she regretted what she did.”
“That doesn't explain the second child.”
“No.”
They walked toward the rear gate.
Daniel kept looking back at Bellmere.
Mara noticed the movement. “Do you want to go back?”
He shook his head.
“Why?”
“Because if I go back, I'll ask my father what he did. And I'm not sure I want to hear the answer.”
Mara stopped walking.
“Daniel, whatever happens next, you don't get to protect me from the truth.”
“I know.”
“You've tried that before.”
“I know.”
“And every time, someone else paid for it.”
He looked at her.
“I know that too.”
The words were quiet, but this time Mara believed him.
They reached the car.
Daniel opened the driver's door, then paused.
“Your mother's journal.”
“What about it?”
“You shouldn't keep carrying it like that.”
Mara looked down.
“I've carried secrets for twelve years. One more book isn't going to break me.”
He gave her a tired smile.
“That sounds like something my mother would say.”
Mara almost smiled back.
Almost.
They drove toward the bakery address.
Neither knew whether Sophie would still be there.
The city was waking around them. Delivery trucks crowded the narrow streets. Shopkeepers lifted metal shutters. People hurried beneath umbrellas, unaware that two people in a dark sedan were driving toward a woman who had supposedly died twelve years earlier.
Mara opened the journal again.
The handwriting changed several times.
Some entries were her mother's.
Others belonged to Evelyn.
A few were written by someone Mara didn't recognize.
Near the middle was a list of dates.
1999.
2000.
2001.
Then the year Daniel's sister disappeared.
Beside that year was a name.
Sophie.
And underneath it, another name.
Anna.
Mara pointed to it.
“Who's Anna?”
Daniel looked over.
“I don't know.”
“Your mother mentioned another child.”
Daniel read the page.
His expression changed.
“Wait.”
“What?”
“My father had a nursery at Bellmere.”
Mara frowned.
“A nursery?”
“Not for children.”
He shook his head.
“It was where my grandmother kept old medical records. When I was little, I wasn't allowed near it.”
Mara turned another page.
There was a drawing of two small footprints.
Underneath were the words:
S and A were separated before Victor could find them.
Mara stared.
“S and A.”
“Sophie and Anna.”
Daniel's hands tightened around the steering wheel.
“But who was Anna?”
Mara looked at the journal again.
A folded newspaper clipping slipped from between the pages.
She opened it.
The article was twelve years old.
LOCAL FAMILY SEEKS INFORMATION ABOUT MISSING CHILD.
The photograph showed a little girl with dark hair.
Mara recognized her.
Not from the picture itself.
From the eyes.
The same eyes as the woman in the bakery photograph.
Sophie.
But the name beneath the photograph was not Sophie Whitmore.
It read Anna Vale.
Daniel pulled the car to the curb.
“What?”
He pointed.
“That's not Sophie.”
Mara looked at him.
“Yes, it is.”
“No.”
He stared at the photograph.
“Sophie had a scar above her left eyebrow.”
Mara looked closer.
The girl in the clipping had none.
Daniel's breathing became uneven.
“That girl isn't Sophie.”
Mara slowly lowered the paper.
“Then who is she?”
A car horn sounded behind them.
Daniel drove on.
They reached the bakery ten minutes later.
The shop was small and warm, with fogged windows and trays of bread cooling behind the glass.
A woman stood behind the counter.
She had light brown hair.
She looked older than the photograph.
But her eyes were unmistakable.
Mara entered.
Daniel followed.
The woman looked up.
She froze.
The tray in her hands slipped slightly.
Flour scattered across the counter.
“Daniel.”
His face went white.
“Anna?”
The woman looked toward the door.
Then back at him.
“You shouldn't have come.”
Mara stepped forward.
“Are you Sophie?”
The woman stared at her.
“No.”
“Then who are you?”
“Anna.”
Daniel seemed unable to speak.
Anna looked at Mara.
“You're her daughter.”
Mara felt the room shift.
“My mother?”
Anna nodded.
“She told me you would come one day.”
“When?”
“After Victor found Sophie.”
Mara's heart raced.
“Where is Sophie?”
Anna's expression changed.
“She never came here.”
Daniel grabbed the counter.
“What do you mean?”
Anna looked at him.
“Your sister is alive.”
“Where?”
“She was taken before we could get her out.”
“By Victor?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
Anna looked at Mara.
“Your mother.”
Mara stared.
“My mother took Sophie?”
“She took both of us.”
Daniel shook his head.
“That makes no sense.”
“It did to her.”
Anna stepped away from the counter.
“She knew Victor would kill Sophie if he found her. So she created two identities.”
Mara whispered, “Anna and Sophie.”
Anna nodded.
“One of us would disappear if the other was discovered.”
“Which one was Sophie?”
Anna's face tightened.
“I was.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Mara stared.
“But you just said your name was Anna.”
“It is now.”
“What happened?”
Anna looked toward the back room.
“Your mother gave me a new life.”
“And Sophie?”
“She became someone else.”
“Who?”
Anna hesitated.
Then she said, “The second child wasn't another girl.”
Daniel looked at her.
“What?”
Anna's eyes moved between them.
“The second child was a boy.”
Mara's grip tightened around the journal.
Daniel whispered, “Who?”
Anna didn't answer.
Instead, she pointed toward the journal.
“Read the last pages.”
Mara opened them.
There was another photograph.
A baby wrapped in a pale blanket.
Beside him stood a little girl.
Sophie.
And the baby was Daniel.
Mara looked at her husband.
Daniel stared at the image.
“I was there.”
Anna nodded.
“Your mother hid both children.”
Daniel shook his head.
“But my father knew I existed.”
“He knew you were his son.”
“Then why hide me?”
“Because he didn't know what your mother had done.”
Mara turned the page.
A sentence appeared beneath the photograph.
Victor believes the boy is his only heir. He must never learn about the girl.
Daniel read it twice.
“Why?”
Anna answered.
“Because Sophie was not Victor's biological daughter.”
Silence.
Mara looked at Daniel.
His face had gone completely still.
Anna continued.
“She was your mother's daughter from before her marriage to Victor.”
Daniel whispered, “My sister isn't my sister.”
“She is your sister.”
“But not his.”
“No.”
Mara understood.
Victor had spent years searching for Sophie because her existence threatened more than his reputation.
It threatened his claim to the Whitmore inheritance.
Daniel sat down.
“So my father tried to erase her because she wasn't his.”
Anna nodded.
“He believed your mother had betrayed him.”
Mara looked at the journal.
“Who was Sophie's father?”
Anna's expression hardened.
“That's what your mother never told me.”
Daniel stood.
“Then we need to find Sophie.”
Anna shook her head.
“You can't.”
“Why?”
“Because she found out about Victor.”
Mara stepped closer.
“What did she do?”
“She went looking for him.”
Daniel stared.
“When?”
“Three days ago.”
Mara's blood ran cold.
Three days.
That was before the wedding.
Before Clara confronted her.
Before the unknown messages.
“Where did she go?”
Anna looked toward the bakery window.
“She went to your wedding.”
Daniel's face drained of color.
“What?”
“She was there.”
Mara remembered the ballroom.
The guests.
The waiters.
The musicians.
The woman standing near the rear doors.
A woman she had barely noticed.
Mara whispered, “What did she look like?”
Anna hesitated.
“Dark hair. Green coat.”
Daniel looked at Mara.
Neither spoke.
Mara remembered.
A woman had approached her before the ceremony.
She had handed Mara a champagne glass.
Then whispered, “Don't marry him.”
Mara had assumed it was jealousy.
She had ignored her.
Anna's voice broke through her memory.
“She wanted to warn you.”
Mara closed her eyes.
“What happened to her?”
Anna looked frightened.
“She disappeared.”
Daniel turned toward the door.
“We find her.”
Anna caught his sleeve.
“There's something else.”
He looked back.
“What?”
“She wasn't taken by Victor.”
“Then who took her?”
Anna's eyes filled with fear.
“The same person who sent you the photograph.”
Mara felt the journal slip slightly in her hand.
“Evelyn.”
Anna shook her head.
“No.”
She looked directly at Mara.
“It was your mother.”
Mara stared.
“That is impossible.”
Anna's voice trembled.
“Your mother died twelve years ago.”
“I know.”
“Then someone is using her name.”
Click Here to continue read next: PART6: The Woman Mara Thought Was Dead Had Left One Final Trail, and Following It Forced Daniel to Question Everything His Mother Had Told Him
She Left the Wedding With Blood on Her Lip, but the Stain on Her Dress Was the Least Dangerous Thing Behind Her
Part 5 of 16
