The nurse's name was Allison Brooks.
She had worked at the hospital for less than a year when Teagan died.
Afterward, she had moved to another medical center.
I called the number listed in the old directory.
A woman answered.
“Hello?”
“Is this Allison Brooks?”
“Yes.”
“My name is Margaret Carter. My daughter was Teagan Carter.”
Silence.
Then a soft breath.
“I remember her.”
I gripped the phone.
“You do?”
“Yes.”
“I need to ask you about the night she died.”
Another pause.
“I was wondering when someone would.”
The words unsettled me.
“Why would you say that?”
“Because Teagan asked me to remember.”
I sat down.
“What does that mean?”
“She knew she might not survive.”
My eyes filled.
“What did she tell you?”
“Not everything over the phone.”
“Then I'll come to you.”
She gave me an address.
When I told Lucas and Daniel, both insisted on coming.
We drove together.
The town was quiet, with low buildings and old trees lining the roads.
Allison met us outside the medical center.
She was older than I remembered.
Or perhaps I had remembered her incorrectly.
She looked at Lucas for several seconds.
“You look like your mother.”
Lucas nodded.
“Everyone says that.”
Allison smiled sadly.
“I used to tell her the same thing.”
We sat in a small conference room.
Allison placed a folder on the table.
“I kept copies of my personal notes.”
I stared at her.
“Why?”
“Because I didn't want to forget.”
Daniel leaned forward.
“What happened that night?”
Allison folded her hands.
“Teagan was frightened.”
“That we already know.”
“She wasn't only frightened about dying.”
I looked at her.
“What else was she afraid of?”
“She was afraid nobody would believe what she had been experiencing.”
“What had she been experiencing?”
“She told me that someone had been following her.”
Lucas looked at me.
Daniel went completely still.
“Who?” I asked.
“She didn't know.”
“Did she give you a name?”
“No.”
“Did she think it was Daniel?”
Allison shook her head.
“No.”
“Then who?”
“She said the person had been asking questions about the baby.”
My heart began pounding.
“What kind of questions?”
“Whether she planned to give the baby up. Whether Daniel was the father. Whether she had told her mother.”
I stared at her.
“Who asked?”
“She wouldn't say.”
“Why?”
“She said she was afraid.”
Daniel stood.
“Did someone threaten her?”
“All she told me was that she wanted the person to leave her alone.”
I looked at Allison.
“Did she say anything about her medical condition?”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“She believed the stress was making everything worse.”
I closed my eyes.
“Did she tell you that she had headaches?”
“She did.”
“Her vision?”
“Yes.”
“Swelling?”
“Yes.”
The medical details were consistent.
But then Allison opened the folder.
“There is something else.”
She removed a photocopy of a note.
Teagan had written it shortly before the emergency.
I recognized her handwriting.
She wrote that she had spoken with someone who knew Daniel.
Someone who had information about him.
Someone who claimed Daniel's parents had been planning to take the baby away.
Daniel stared at the paper.
“My parents?”
Allison nodded.
“Did they come to the hospital?”
“Not that night.”
“But someone mentioned them.”
“Yes.”
Daniel looked sick.
“My mother knew about the pregnancy.”
“How much?”
“Everything.”
“Did she know Teagan was sick?”
“I don't know.”
Allison interrupted.
“She may not have known.”
We all looked at her.
“Teagan specifically told me not to assume.”
I read the note again.
There was another sentence.
If Daniel's family comes, don't let them take Lucas.
My hands began to shake.
“They were planning to take him?”
“Allison shook her head. “I don't know.”
“Then why did Teagan write this?”
“She may have been afraid of something that never happened.”
That possibility was almost as frightening as the alternative.
Lucas spoke quietly.
“Did my mother know she was going to die?”
Allison looked at him.
“I don't think she knew for certain.”
“Then why did she write all this?”
“Because she was eighteen and scared.”
Lucas lowered his eyes.
Allison reached across the table.
“She loved you.”
He nodded.
Then she turned toward me.
“There is one thing I've never told anyone.”
My heart tightened.
“What?”
“After the baby was delivered, Teagan briefly became conscious.”
I stopped breathing.
“What?”
“She opened her eyes.”
“Why wasn't I told?”
“You were outside.”
“What did she say?”
Allison's eyes filled with tears.
“She asked about the baby.”
“Lucas?”
“Yes.”
“What else?”
“She asked whether you were there.”
“I was.”
“I told her you were.”
Allison looked down.
“She tried to say something.”
“What?”
“I couldn't hear her.”
“Then?”
“She grabbed my wrist.”
I leaned forward.
“What did she do?”
“She pointed toward the door.”
“Why?”
“I thought she wanted someone called.”
“Who?”
“She whispered one word.”
Allison hesitated.
“Daniel.”
Daniel's face went white.
“She asked for me?”
“Yes.”
“But I wasn't there.”
“I know.”
“Did she say anything else?”
Allison nodded.
“She said, ‘Tell him I didn't lie.’”
Daniel covered his mouth.
I stared at him.
“What did she mean?”
“I don't know.”
Allison reached into the folder again.
“There was something else.”
She placed a small slip of paper on the table.
It contained an address.
Not Daniel's.
Not his parents'.
A private mailbox.
Allison said Teagan had asked her to keep it safe.
“She told me that if she didn't survive, her mother might eventually come looking for answers.”
I took the paper.
“What's there?”
“I don't know.”
Daniel leaned closer.
“Then we should find out.”
The mailbox was in a town twenty minutes away.
The three of us drove there that afternoon.
The building was old.
The mailbox number matched the paper.
I opened it with the key Allison had given me.
Inside was a single envelope.
My name was written across it.
But this time, the handwriting wasn't Teagan's.
It belonged to someone else.
I turned the envelope over.
There was no return address.
Only one sentence.
For Margaret, when you're finally ready to know why Teagan was afraid.
Lucas looked at me.
“Open it.”
I did.
Inside was a photograph of Teagan standing outside a house I recognized.
Daniel recognized it too.
His parents' house.
On the back of the photograph was a date.
The date was two weeks before Teagan died.
And beneath it were three words.
He came that night.
Click here to continue reading: PART 8: The Photograph Sent Us Back to the Night Before Everything Changed, Where Daniel Discovered a Secret Teagan Had Never Told Either of Us
The Baby Survived, But the Doctor’s First Words Left Me Realizing My Daughter Was Never Coming Home
Part 7 of 20
