Chapter 7 - The Sister Nobody Mentioned
My mother had another daughter.
Twenty-three years ago.
The math hurt.
I was eleven.
Daniel was fourteen.
Mom had apparently given birth to a baby girl and placed her for adoption.
Impossible.
I remembered that year.
Mom disappeared for three months, supposedly to care for Aunt Linda after surgery.
My father traveled constantly.
Nobody explained anything.
Children accept absences when adults give them names.
Sophie Lane had been born Sophie Mercer.
Her birth certificate listed no father.
Mother:
Karen Mercer.
My mother.
I drove to her house.
She was pruning roses.
Of course she was.
Ordinary things become obscene when secrets surround them.
“Mom.”
She smiled.
Then saw Sophie’s photograph.
The shears fell.
“Where did you get that?”
“Who is she?”
Silence.
“Mom.”
“She wasn’t supposed to find you.”
Not deny.
Not ask.
Find.
My throat tightened.
“You knew she was here?”
Mom sat down.
Sophie contacted her two years earlier.
She wanted answers.
Mom refused.
Then Sophie began contacting Daniel.
“He told me he handled it.”
Handled.
Family word for burying something uncomfortable.
“Who’s her father?”
Mom looked away.
“Someone I worked with.”
“Dad knew?”
“Yes.”
Another blow.
“Why give her up?”
“She wasn’t safe with us.”
“What does that mean?”
Mom’s eyes filled.
“The man was dangerous.”
“Name.”
She refused.
I nearly left.
Then she grabbed my wrist.
“Emily, Sophie isn’t after your money.”
“How do you know about the trust?”
Mom released me.
Too late.
“You lied about Grandma’s estate too.”
“She made me promise.”
“Everyone in this family is apparently drowning in promises.”
Mom started crying.
“Your grandmother created the trust because she knew your father wasn’t Daniel’s biological father.”
I stopped.
“What?”
She had lost me.
Daniel.
Sophie.
Different fathers?
Mom whispered:
“Your family is not arranged the way you think.”
Then someone knocked on the front door.
Daniel entered without waiting.
He saw me.
Saw Mom.
Saw Sophie’s photograph.
“Damn it.”
I stood.
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“Eight years.”
“Why hide her?”
“Because she blackmailed me.”
Mom gasped.
Daniel laughed bitterly.
“Did you really think she just wanted hugs?”
According to him, Sophie discovered the trust and demanded money for silence.
“How much?”
“Initially fifty thousand.”
“Initially?”
He had paid her repeatedly.
Then stopped.
She threatened to expose something else.
Not her identity.
The identity of my biological father.
I stared at Mom.
She went pale.
Daniel said:
“And that’s the part Julian doesn’t know.”
Before he could say more, Mom slapped him.
Hard.
“Do not.”
Daniel looked at her.
Then at me.
“Emily deserves to know why someone has spent nearly a year trying to have her declared mentally incompetent.”
He took a breath.
May you like
“Because if they succeed, the trust doesn’t go to Julian.”
“It goes to your biological father.”
