Chapter 3: Sarah
I knew her voice.
Eleven years couldn't erase it.
“Sarah?””
I rushed through the doorway.
“Ryan, wait!””
Thomas grabbed my shoulder.
I shoved him away.
“Don't touch me.””
The basement room was dimly lit by a single lamp.
There was a bed.
A table.
Shelves filled with canned food.
Then someone moved in the corner.
My heart stopped.
Sarah Mitchell stepped into the light.
She was thinner.
Her dark hair was streaked with gray.
A scar ran along her temple.
But it was her.
The woman whose photograph I had kept hidden in a box for years after she disappeared.
She covered her mouth.
“Oh my God.””
I couldn't move.
Neither could she.
Then Sarah crossed the room and threw her arms around me.
I stiffened.
For one impossible second, I was twenty-four again.
Then reality crashed back.
I pulled away.
“Emma.””
Sarah's expression changed.
“You found her?””
“She was living inside my wall.””
“She wasn't supposed to leave this level.””
“Why does she call me Daddy?””
Sarah stared at me.
“Because you are.””
I felt the floor disappear beneath me.
“No.””
“Ryan—”
“No.””
I stepped backward.
“I haven't seen you in eleven years. Emma is five.””
“I know.””
“Then explain the math.””
Sarah looked toward Thomas.
“Tell him.””
Thomas shook his head.
“You should.””
Sarah's hands trembled.
“Emma wasn't conceived five years ago.””
I stared at her.
“What does that mean?””
“She was born five years ago.””
“Sarah.””
“There are things your family never told you.””
I laughed bitterly.
“That list is getting pretty long.””
Footsteps sounded behind us.
Claire entered.
I turned instantly.
“I told you to stay with the girls.””
“They’re safe.””
“With who?””
“Lily locked the closet door.””
Despite everything, I almost smiled.
That sounded exactly like my stubborn little girl.
Claire looked at Sarah.
Sarah's face hardened.
“You.””
Claire stopped.
“I didn't know they would bring you back.””
“You helped them.””
“I helped you escape.””
“You helped them find me first.””
I moved between them.
“Enough!””
Both women fell silent.
“I want the truth. Beginning to end.””
Thomas sat at the table.
Sarah remained standing.
“When we were together in college,” she said, “I became pregnant.””
My pulse jumped.
“You never told me.””
“I tried.””
“When?””
“The night before I disappeared.””
I remembered that night.
Sarah had called seventeen times.
My phone had been broken after I dropped it outside a bar.
By the time I replaced it, she was gone.
“I came to your apartment,” Sarah continued.
“Your mother was there.””
“My mother?””
“She told me you didn't want the baby.””
“That’s a lie.””
“I know that now.””
I looked at Thomas.
“What did she do?””
“My mother believed our family had something valuable,” Thomas said.
“Money?””
“Not exactly.””
He pulled a folder from beneath the table.
Inside were medical records.
Old ones.
Some dated before I was born.
“Our family participated in a private fertility study beginning with your grandfather,” Thomas explained.
I stared at him.
“What does that have to do with Emma?””
Sarah answered.
“Everything.””
She pulled out a photograph.
A laboratory.
My mother stood beside two men in white coats.
Claire appeared behind me.
“I found those records nine years ago.””
I looked at her.
“So that's why you approached me?””
“Yes.””
Our entire marriage suddenly felt contaminated.
“Was any of it real?””
Claire's face crumpled.
“Lily was real.””
“That isn't what I asked.””
“I love you, Ryan.””
Sarah scoffed.
“You lied to him every day.””
Claire snapped toward her.
“And I kept him alive!””
Thomas slammed his palm on the table.
“Stop!””
The lamp trembled.
He looked at me.
“Your mother wasn't simply involved in that study. She continued it.””
“After it ended?””
“It never ended.””
My skin prickled.
Thomas pointed toward Sarah.
“When Sarah became pregnant, your mother saw an opportunity.””
Sarah's voice dropped.
“She had me taken.””
I stared at her.
“For eleven years?””
“No. I escaped after eight months.””
“Then where were you?””
“Hiding.””
“From my mother?””
“From the people financing her.””
I struggled to process every sentence.
“And Emma?””
Sarah sat down.
“The pregnancy didn't survive.””
The room went silent.
I looked toward the ceiling, imagining Emma upstairs.
“Then she isn't—”
“She is yours.””
Sarah pulled another document from the folder.
“Before I escaped, they took samples from both of us.””
I stared at the paperwork.
Words blurred together.
Embryo.
Cryopreservation.
Transfer.
My stomach turned.
“They kept embryos?””
Sarah nodded.
“One was implanted years later.””
“Into who?””
Nobody answered.
“WHO?””
Claire began shaking.
Thomas stared at the floor.
Sarah looked directly at Claire.
I slowly turned toward my wife.
“No.””
Claire whispered, “Ryan…”
“No.””
Tears rolled down her face.
“I didn't know at first.””
I backed away.
“You carried Emma?””
Claire shook her head.
“Not me.””
“Then who?””
Thomas stood.
“That is the question that brought me back.””
He removed one final photograph from his coat.
Unlike the others, this one looked recent.
Emma was standing beside a woman outside a motel.
The woman's face was partly turned away.
But I recognized her.
I had seen that face in photographs my entire childhood.
My mother.
The woman I had buried six years earlier.
I grabbed the picture.
“This is impossible.””
Thomas pointed to the handwritten date on the back.
Three months ago.
Sarah whispered, “Your mother isn't dead, Ryan.””
My hands began trembling.
Claire stepped closer.
“There’s more.””
I looked at her.
“What could possibly be worse?””
Claire's eyes moved toward the ceiling.
Toward Lily.
“Emma isn't the child your mother came back for.””
A terrible silence filled the room.
May you like
Then Claire whispered the words that made my blood run cold.
“She came back for Lily.””
