Lily opened the apartment door after Jake knocked twice.
She was younger than I had imagined and somehow exactly as I had pictured her. Dark hair fell loosely around her shoulders, and the small mark beside her left eyebrow was unmistakable. I had stared at that same mark in the photograph Margaret gave me until I could see it with my eyes closed.
“Can I help you?”
Her eyes moved from Jake to me.
I couldn't speak.
Jake stepped slightly forward.
“My name is Jake.”
Something changed in her expression.
Then she looked at me again.
“Susan?”
Hearing my name in her voice nearly brought me to my knees.
“Yes.”
She didn't move.
For a moment none of us knew what to do with the silence.
Then Lily stepped aside.
“Come in.”
Her apartment was small and neat, with books stacked beside a narrow desk and a kettle sitting on the kitchen counter. A white coat hung over the back of a chair. She was studying medicine, just as Margaret had told me.
I looked at it and felt a strange ache.
There were pieces of me in this room that I had never placed there.
Lily closed the door.
“I've known about you for years,” she said.
“I know.”
“Margaret told me.”
“I didn't know you were alive.”
She looked down.
“I know.”
Those two words carried eighteen years between us.
Jake sat down.
I remained standing.
“I don't expect you to forgive me,” I said.
Lily's expression tightened.
“I don't blame you.”
I looked at her.
“You don't?”
“No.”
She crossed her arms.
“I was told you were sick. I was told you couldn't raise me.”
“That isn't true.”
“I know that now.”
Her voice was calm, but her fingers were trembling.
“Then what happened?” she asked.
I sat across from her.
“I was unconscious in a hospital. Your father—”
“Daniel?”
I nodded.
She shook her head.
“He isn't my father.”
My breath caught.
“What?”
“He isn't.”
Jake leaned forward.
“Then who is?”
Lily looked at me.
“You need to hear this from someone who has the complete records.”
“What records?”
“Your medical records. The trust papers. Everything.”
She walked to a drawer and removed a thin folder.
“My adoptive mother kept copies.”
I opened it.
The first page was a birth record.
The father's name was blank.
The mother's name was Susan Bennett.
My maiden name.
I touched the paper.
“I never saw this.”
“I know.”
The second document was a laboratory report.
I recognized Dr. Harris's name.
Lily watched my face.
“He wasn't your doctor by accident,” she said.
“What do you mean?”
“He worked for a private clinic connected to your father's company.”
I looked up.
“My father never owned a clinic.”
“No. But he funded one.”
The pieces shifted again.
My father had always told me his business dealings were complicated. I had never questioned them.
Lily continued.
“Your father suspected someone was using patient records to locate people connected to the family trust.”
“Why?”
“Because the trust had money.”
I looked at the papers.
“And I was the beneficiary?”
“You were the first beneficiary. I became the second.”
“Because I was your mother?”
“Because I was your father's child.”
I stared at her.
“My father's child?”
Lily nodded.
“He wasn't your biological father.”
The words left me speechless.
She looked down.
“Your father raised you. But the man listed in a private family record as your biological father was Daniel Harris.”
My stomach turned.
“No.”
“I thought you knew.”
“I didn't.”
Jake looked between us.
“So Daniel is Lily's biological father?”
Lily shook her head.
“No. That's the problem.”
She pulled out another document.
“There was a DNA test.”
I read the first line.
The sample did not match Daniel Harris.
I looked at Lily.
“Then who?”
She hesitated.
“The name was never confirmed.”
The room seemed to contract.
Before I could ask another question, headlights swept across the apartment wall.
Lily froze.
Jake stood.
“What's wrong?”
She walked toward the window but stopped before looking through it.
“That car.”
I glanced at Jake.
“Which car?”
“The black sedan.”
My heart began pounding.
Lily whispered, “It has been outside twice this week.”
Jake moved toward the curtains.
“Don't.”
She grabbed his arm.
“Don't let them know we're together.”
I felt a chill.
“How long have you been watched?”
“I don't know.”
“Why didn't you tell Margaret?”
“She told me to stay quiet.”
A phone vibrated on the kitchen counter.
Lily looked at the screen.
Unknown number.
She didn't answer.
It stopped.
Then another message appeared.
I watched her face change.
“What does it say?”
She handed me the phone.
The message contained one sentence.
You have what belongs to us.
I looked at Lily.
“What do they think you have?”
“The trust papers.”
I remembered Michael's warning.
The trust documents.
I pulled them from my bag.
Lily stared at them.
“Those are the originals?”
“Copies.”
She shook her head.
“Then the originals are still somewhere.”
“Where?”
She looked at me.
“Your father never trusted anyone with everything.”
Before I could respond, someone knocked on the door.
Three slow knocks.
Lily went pale.
Jake moved between us and the entrance.
“Don't open it.”
Another knock.
Then a man's voice came through the door.
“Susan?”
I knew that voice.
I hadn't heard it in eighteen years.
Daniel.
Lily looked at me.
“That's him.”
I stepped toward the door.
Jake grabbed my arm.
“Mom, wait.”
The voice came again.
“I know you have questions.”
I looked through the peephole.
Daniel Harris stood alone in the hallway.
Older.
Thinner.
But unmistakably the man from my past.
He looked directly at the door.
“I came to tell you the truth before someone else does.”
Click here to continue reading: PART 6: Daniel Returned With Answers I Had Spent Years Chasing, Yet His First Confession Made Me Question Everything I Thought I Knew About 2008
For Eighteen Years I Thought My Husband’s Silence Was Punishment Until One Ordinary Appointment Made the Past Impossible to Ignore
Part 5 of 10
