Mara followed Daniel downstairs without speaking.
He walked quickly, but not confidently. Every few steps he glanced behind him as though expecting Helen to call him back.
She did not.
When they reached the kitchen, Daniel stopped beside the sink and gripped the counter.
Mara stood across from him.
“My mother has a sister.”
“Yes.”
“She’s alive.”
“Yes.”
“She has been looking for Mom for thirty-seven years.”
Daniel nodded.
Mara waited.
He did not say anything else.
“That’s it?”
“What do you want me to say?”
“The truth would be a good start.”
Daniel rubbed both hands over his face.
“I promised your mother.”
“You promised her what?”
“That I would never tell you unless she was ready.”
“She’s ready now.”
He looked toward the ceiling.
“No. She’s terrified.”
“Of her sister?”
“Of what happened before her sister disappeared.”
Mara pulled out a chair.
“Sit down.”
Daniel almost smiled.
“You sound like your mother.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
He sat.
For several seconds, the only sound was the refrigerator cycling on.
Then Daniel said, “Your mother was seventeen when she left home.”
Mara frowned.
“Seventeen?”
“She told everyone she was eighteen.”
“Why?”
“Because she needed to disappear legally.”
Mara stared at him.
“From whom?”
Daniel looked toward the window.
“Her father.”
The answer was simple, but the way he said it made Mara understand there was more.
“My grandfather?”
“Yes.”
“What did he do?”
Daniel's mouth tightened.
“I don't know everything.”
“That isn't good enough.”
“I know what Helen told me.”
“Then tell me.”
Daniel leaned back.
“Your grandfather ran a boarding house outside a town called Bellweather. It was an old place. Three floors. Long hallways. A dozen rooms.”
“What does that have to do with my mother?”
“Everything.”
He paused.
“Your mother had a younger sister named Rose.”
Mara looked down at the photograph still in her hand.
The girl in it could not have been more than ten.
“Rose was five years younger?”
“Four.”
“What happened to her?”
Daniel hesitated.
“Helen says she vanished.”
“Vanished how?”
“One night she was there. The next morning she wasn't.”
Mara stared at him.
“Wasn't there a police investigation?”
“Yes.”
“Then how did nobody find her?”
Daniel looked tired.
“Because your grandfather told the police she had run away.”
“And they believed him?”
“He was respected.”
Mara felt anger rise in her chest.
“That doesn't explain why Mom ran.”
“No.”
“What happened?”
Daniel lowered his voice.
“Helen knew Rose hadn't run away.”
Mara looked toward the ceiling again.
Her mother was upstairs.
Waiting.
Listening.
Daniel continued.
“She found Rose's coat in a locked room.”
Mara's skin prickled.
“What room?”
“Your grandfather's office.”
“What was inside?”
“I don't know.”
“You don't know?”
“I saw the coat. I didn't see the room.”
“You knew Mom when?”
“Years later.”
“So how do you know this?”
Daniel looked at her.
“Because Helen showed me something.”
“What?”
“A key.”
Mara waited.
Daniel reached into his shirt pocket.
He pulled out a small brass key.
Mara stared at it.
“Where did you get that?”
“Helen gave it to me twenty years ago.”
“She gave you this?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“She told me that if anyone ever came looking for her, I was supposed to destroy it.”
Mara's eyes widened.
“You didn't.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I knew she would regret it.”
Mara reached for the key.
Daniel closed his fist around it.
“I never knew what it opened.”
“Then why keep it?”
“Because your mother asked me not to.”
Mara laughed bitterly.
“You people have spent my entire life speaking in riddles.”
Daniel flinched.
“I was trying to keep you safe.”
“Everyone says that right before they admit they lied.”
He looked away.
Mara stood.
“I’m going upstairs.”
“Wait.”
She turned.
Daniel opened his hand.
He placed the key on the table.
“There is one more thing.”
“What?”
“The woman who sent the photograph didn't mail it.”
Mara frowned.
“What do you mean?”
“She came here.”
The room seemed to shrink.
“When?”
“Yesterday evening.”
“You saw her?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because Helen told me not to.”
Mara stared at him.
“What did she look like?”
Daniel swallowed.
“Older.”
“That isn't helpful.”
“She had white hair.”
Mara felt something tighten in her chest.
“Anything else?”
“She had the same eyes as your mother.”
Mara sat down again.
“Where is she now?”
“I don't know.”
“What did she want?”
Daniel looked toward the staircase.
“To see Helen.”
Mara's voice became quieter.
“Did she?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because your mother locked herself in the bedroom.”
Mara stood again.
She suddenly remembered the hair.
The clippers.
The fear.
The way Helen had insisted on cutting everything away.
She hurried upstairs.
Helen was no longer sitting on the bed.
Mara found her standing at the dresser, staring into the mirror.
Her hair was almost completely gone.
Only a narrow uneven strip remained near her right ear.
“Mom.”
Helen looked at her reflection.
“She came yesterday.”
Mara stopped.
“You knew?”
“I knew she would eventually.”
“Who is she?”
“My sister.”
“Rose?”
Helen nodded.
Mara stepped closer.
“Why didn't you see her?”
Helen closed her eyes.
“Because I wasn't ready.”
“She has been looking for you for thirty-seven years.”
“I know.”
“She sent me a photograph.”
“I know.”
“She came to this house.”
Helen's face tightened.
“I know.”
Mara's voice broke.
“What happened between you?”
Helen turned.
“Nothing happened between us.”
“Then why are you afraid of her?”
Helen looked toward the mirror.
“Because Rose isn't the person I remember.”
“What do you mean?”
“She remembers something differently.”
Mara waited.
Helen sat slowly on the bed.
“When Rose disappeared, everyone believed she was gone.”
“But you knew she wasn't.”
“Yes.”
“Where did she go?”
Helen stared at the floor.
“She was taken.”
“By whom?”
Helen's lips trembled.
“I don't know.”
“Mom.”
“I don't know.”
“You found her coat.”
“Yes.”
“You saw her that night.”
“No.”
Mara stopped.
“What?”
Helen looked up.
“I didn't see Rose that night.”
“Then how do you know she was taken?”
“Because I heard her.”
Mara waited.
Helen’s eyes filled with tears.
“She was calling my name from inside the locked room.”
The room became silent.
Mara sat beside her.
“What did you do?”
“I tried to open the door.”
“With what?”
“The key.”
Mara looked at the brass key downstairs in her mind.
“You had it?”
“Yes.”
“Then why didn't you open the door?”
Helen's hands began to shake.
“Because your father—my father—caught me.”
Mara's stomach dropped.
“What happened?”
“He told me if I opened that door, Rose would die.”
Mara could not speak.
Helen looked at her.
“I believed him.”
“Did you hear her again?”
Helen nodded.
“Once.”
“When?”
“The next morning.”
“And?”
“She stopped.”
Mara looked at her mother's shaved head.
“Why cut your hair?”
Helen looked confused.
“What?”
“The hair. Why today?”
Helen slowly raised a hand to the remaining strip beside her ear.
“Because Rose sent me a message.”
“What message?”
Helen reached into the drawer.
She removed a folded piece of paper.
Mara opened it.
There was one sentence.
You still have something that belongs to me.
Mara looked at her mother.
“What does she mean?”
Helen shook her head.
“I don't know.”
A floorboard creaked downstairs.
Both women froze.
Daniel's voice came from below.
“Mara?”
She stood.
“Dad?”
No answer.
Then came the sound of the front door closing.
Mara hurried down the stairs.
Daniel was standing in the hallway, staring at the open door.
On the floor was a small wooden box.
It had not been there before.
Mara bent down.
There was a brass lock on the front.
She looked at Daniel.
He was staring at the key on the kitchen table.
“That's what it opens,” he whispered.
Mara picked up the box.
From upstairs came Helen's frightened voice.
“No.”
Mara turned.
Her mother stood halfway down the staircase.
She was staring at the box.
Her face had gone completely white.
“Put it down,” Helen said.
Mara tightened her grip.
“Why?”
Helen looked at her daughter.
“Because I buried that box thirty-seven years ago.”
Click Here to continue read next: PART3: Inside the Box Was Proof of a Promise, a Betrayal, and the One Detail Helen Had Never Been Able to Explain
By the Time the Last Gray Hair Fell, Mara Knew Her Mother Was Hiding Something More Painful Than Fear
Part 2 of 16
