PART 17 – THE DAY SIMONE DIED

Daniel did not sit down immediately. He remained near the window of Robert Hale’s conference room, holding the old photograph with both hands as if it were something fragile enough to break under the weight of his memories. Felix and Oscar were still at school, and for once, that absence felt necessary. Whatever Daniel was about to tell us belonged in an adult room.

I looked at Joshua. He had gone completely still.

“Someone was there when Simone died,” Daniel repeated.

Robert closed the folder in front of him. “Before we go further, I want everyone to understand something. Daniel has given me permission to discuss what he knows, but some of this concerns records we have never been able to verify completely.”

“I don't need perfect,” I said. “I need honest.”

Daniel finally pulled out a chair.

He placed the photograph on the table between us. The picture was old and slightly faded. Simone was standing beside a hospital window, thinner than she had been in the photographs I had seen before. One newborn rested against her chest. Daniel stood beside her, smiling at the camera. The second baby was in his arms.

The boys.

“They were one day old,” Daniel said quietly. “Simone had barely slept. She kept telling me they were beautiful.”

My throat tightened.

“What happened afterward?”

Daniel looked at Joshua.

Joshua lowered his eyes.

“I left,” Daniel said. “Not immediately. I stayed as long as I could. Simone wanted me there. But there was a lot happening. She was sick. She was angry. And she was terrified about what would happen to the boys.”

“Terrified of what?” I asked.

“Being erased.”

The words landed harder than I expected.

Daniel explained that Simone had spent months trying to make arrangements for the twins in case her illness worsened. She had contacted Robert, written down names, stored photographs, and kept notes about people she trusted. But there was one name she avoided writing down except in private recordings.

Joshua.

“She didn't know whether he would come back,” Daniel said.

Joshua swallowed.

“I did,” he said.

Daniel looked at him. “You came back once.”

Joshua's face changed.

I turned toward him.

“You never told me that.”

“I know.”

“When?”

“After the boys were born.”

Daniel nodded slowly. “That's what Simone told me.”

Joshua stared at the photograph.

“I went to the hospital,” he said. “I didn't stay long.”

“Why?”

“Because I was afraid.”

Daniel's jaw tightened.

Joshua didn't defend himself. “I know how that sounds.”

“It sounds exactly like what it was,” Daniel said.

Robert raised a hand before the conversation could become an argument. “Let's stay with the timeline.”

Daniel reached into his coat and removed a folded piece of paper.

“This is a copy of something Simone wrote.”

I read the first line.

If I disappear, don't let them disappear with me.*

My fingers went cold.

Daniel explained that Simone had given him the note several weeks before she died. At the time, he thought she was talking about losing custody because of her illness. Later, he realized she meant something more.

“She told me she didn't trust certain people around her,” he said.

“Who?”

Daniel hesitated.

“Not Joshua.”

Joshua looked up.

Daniel shook his head. “She was angry with you. Hurt by you. But she didn't say you were going to hurt her.”

“Then who?”

“I don't know.”

The uncertainty was almost worse.

Daniel told us that during Simone's final weeks, an unfamiliar man had begun appearing near the building where she received treatment. He was never identified. Simone noticed him more than once. She wrote down the description but never filed a police report.

“She thought he was following her,” Daniel said.

“Why didn't she report it?”

“She didn't want anyone asking questions about the boys.”

Robert opened another file.

“There are references to this in Simone's medical notes,” he said. “Nothing definitive. A concern about someone watching her. No name.”

Joshua rubbed both hands over his face.

“I never saw anyone.”

Daniel looked at him.

“Maybe not.”

That answer made Joshua flinch.

I asked Daniel what happened on the day Simone died.

He said he had been out of town. Simone had called him that morning, but he missed the call. When he returned it, she didn't answer. Later, he learned she had been taken to the hospital.

“Did she leave anything for you?”

“A voicemail.”

“Do you still have it?”

Daniel nodded.

Robert looked at me before Daniel played it.

The recording was short.

Simone's voice was weak, breathless, but unmistakable.

“Daniel, if you get this, don't panic. I'm okay for now. The boys are safe. Just promise me something. If I don't come home, don't let anyone tell them they weren't wanted. They were. Every single day.”

The recording ended.

Nobody spoke.

I closed my eyes.

Those words were not meant for me, but somehow they reached directly into the part of me that had spent months wondering whether the boys' beginning had been built on lies.

Daniel continued.

“That was the last time I heard her voice.”

“What happened after that?” I asked.

“She died that evening.”

“Natural causes?”

Robert answered carefully. “The official record says complications related to her illness.”

Daniel looked down.

“But you don't believe that tells the whole story.”

“No.”

“Why?”

“Because of the missing hour.”

He explained that Simone's records showed she was seen by staff shortly before an unexplained period in which there was no documentation of who had visited her. Later, someone had apparently removed personal items from her room before Daniel arrived.

“What items?”

“Her notebook. A second phone. And a folder.”

“What was in the folder?”

Daniel looked at Joshua.

“Pictures of the boys.”

Joshua closed his eyes.

I felt something inside me shift.

Not because I believed Daniel was accusing Joshua.

Because I realized how much had been missing from the story I had been given.

PART 17 END PART