Chapter 9 - My Sister Had Been Alive All Along
Anna Calder lived in Vermont.
She was forty years old.
A married kindergarten teacher with two children.
I stared at her school photo until the face stopped looking like a stranger.
She had my eyes.
Not similar eyes.
Mine.
Noah sat across from me.
"You don't have to contact her today."
"I've waited my whole life without knowing I was waiting."
Detective Ross arranged the first contact through local police and a family-services liaison.
Anna agreed to a video call.
When her face appeared on the screen, neither of us spoke.
Finally, she said, "So... you're Claire."
"Yeah."
She laughed through tears.
"I always knew something was wrong with my adoption story."
I showed her a picture of our father.
She covered her mouth.
"That's him."
"What?"
"I dreamed about that face when I was little."
Then Anna asked the question I feared.
"Why did our mother get rid of me?"
"I don't know."
But I did know part of it.
Because Marlene had nearly killed her.
Because a living baby with unexplained drugs in her blood could bring questions.
Because dead babies can't testify.
Anna listened while I told her about Sofia.
"She did it again."
"Almost."
"No. I mean the pattern. Hurt the baby. Become the grieving mother. Control the story."
That night, my phone rang from a blocked number.
I answered without thinking.
Silence.
Then Marlene whispered, "You found her."
I sat up.
"How are you calling me?"
"Listen carefully. Anna is not your sister."
"DNA will tell us."
"If you test her, people will die."
"Is that a threat?"
"It's a warning."
"From who?"
The line went quiet.
Then she said something that made no sense.
"Your father wasn't investigating me when he died."
"What are you talking about?"
"He was investigating his brother."
My uncle Stephen.
The man who handled my grandfather's estate.
The man who had comforted me at my father's funeral.
Marlene whispered one last sentence.
May you like
"Ask Stephen why he paid for the brake job."
Then the call disconnected.
