Chapter 7
Olivia Voss was standing outside Clara’s room when we got back.
She was tall, with the same dark hair as my dad, the same sharp blue eyes. She was wearing navy blue scrubs, a stethoscope around her neck, a lanyard with her ID badge clipped to her pocket. The name on the badge read: O. VOSS, RN.
She looked up as we approached.
“Hi,” she said, her voice calm. “I’ve been waiting for you.”
Robert stopped three feet away from her, like he was scared to get too close.
“Olivia?” he whispered.
She nodded.
“Hi, Dad.”
Robert let out a broken sob and pulled her into his arms. She stiffened for half a second, then hugged him back, her eyes closing.
“I’m so sorry,” he said, over and over. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t there. I didn’t know. I swear to God, I didn’t know you existed.”
“I know,” she said softly. “I read the letters. I know Diane intercepted them. I know you thought Mom and Clara and I were dead. It’s not your fault.”
She pulled back and looked at him, a small smile on her face.
“You look exactly like I imagined you would,” she said.
Robert laughed through his tears.
“You look just like your mother,” he said. “Same eyes. Same smile. God, Eleanor was so beautiful.”
Olivia’s smile faded a little.
“Come on,” she said. “We should talk somewhere private. Clara’s room is probably bugged by the press. My break room is down the hall. No cameras. No reporters.”
We followed her down the hallway to a small, windowless room with a couch and a coffee maker. She closed and locked the door behind us.
“First off,” she said, turning to me. “I’m the one who dropped off the envelope. The letters and the birth certificate. I’ve had them for years. Mom gave them to me when I turned eighteen. She told me to hold onto them, to only give them to you if something happened to her or Clara.”
“Why now?” I asked.
“Because Clara’s getting worse,” she said quietly. “The doctors don’t think she has more than a few weeks left if we don’t find a match. Dad’s the only one who’s even close so far, but he’s not a perfect match. I thought if you knew about me… if we got tested… maybe I’d be a match. I’m her sister. There’s a twenty-five percent chance, right?”
Robert stared at her.
“You’ve been working here for six months,” he said. “Taking care of Clara. And you never said anything?”
“Mom made me promise,” Olivia said. “She said she never wanted to be a burden to you. She said she’d rather die than let you know she was still alive, that she’d ruined your marriage to Margaret. She thought if you found out about her, you’d leave Margaret, and it would be all her fault. I respected that. Until Clara got sick. Then I couldn’t stay silent anymore.”
“Where is she?” Robert said, his voice urgent. “Where’s Eleanor? I need to see her. I need to talk to her. I need to apologize.”
Olivia hesitated.
“She’s in Michigan,” she said. “A small town up north. She runs a diner there. She’s lived there for twenty years. She changed her name. No one knows who she really is.”
“Take me to her,” Robert said. “Please.”
“I can’t,” Olivia said. “She made me promise I’d never tell anyone where she was. Not even Clara. She’s scared, Dad. Scared you’ll hate her for not telling you about us. Scared Margaret will hate her. Scared she’ll destroy everything all over again.”
“I could never hate her,” Robert said. “I’ve spent twenty-two years grieving her. I’ve spent twenty-two years wondering what I did wrong, why she left without a word. I just want to see her. To talk to her. That’s all.”
Olivia thought for a long moment.
“Okay,” she said finally. “I’ll take you. But not alone. Ava, Ethan, you two come too. And Lila. Clara can’t travel right now, but Lila deserves to meet her grandma. We’ll leave tomorrow morning. Early, before the press figures out what we’re doing.”
“Thank you,” Robert said, his voice thick with emotion. “Thank you so much.”
Olivia smiled.
“Family is family, right?” she said. “No matter how much time passes. No matter how many secrets there are.”
She turned to Ethan.
“And for the record? I don’t blame you for sending the money. It paid for a lot of Clara’s treatment. You did a good thing. Even if you should have told everyone sooner.”
Ethan let out a small laugh.
“Fair enough,” he said.
Olivia looked at her watch.
“I have to get back to work,” she said. “I’ll text you the address of the house we’re staying at tonight. We’ll leave at five a.m. sharp. No exceptions. If the press catches wind of this, we’ll never get out of the city.”
She unlocked the door and walked out.
Robert watched her go, a look of pure wonder on his face.
“Two daughters,” he whispered. “I have two daughters. And a granddaughter. I never thought I’d be this lucky.”
Ethan put a hand on his shoulder.
“You deserve it, Robert,” he said. “After everything you’ve been through. You deserve this.”
We walked back to Clara’s room. Olivia was already there, checking her vitals, her professional mask back in place. She winked at Lila when she thought no one was looking. Lila giggled.
I stood in the doorway, watching them. Clara laughing at something Olivia said. Robert watching his two daughters like he couldn’t believe his eyes. Lila coloring at the foot of the bed, surrounded by her new family.
For the first time in a week, the room felt light. Happy. Like maybe all the bad stuff was finally behind us.
Then my phone buzzed.
It was a text from an unknown number.
A photo.
It was Diane. She was out of jail. She was standing in front of the hospital, holding a sign that said: I WILL GET MY FAMILY BACK.
The next text made my blood run cold.
You think you’ve won? You haven’t seen anything yet. I’m going to take everything from you. Everything you love. Starting with the little girl.
May you like
I looked up.
Lila was gone.
