Chapter 1 - Which One Is Lily?
Lily was crying on the kitchen floor when Ethan heard her scream.
He ran toward the sound.
The three-year-old was on her hands and knees beside spilled food, desperately wiping the glossy floor with a small cloth.
Claire stood over her.
Before Ethan could understand what was happening, Claire drove her heel down against Lily’s hand.
“Stay away from her!”
Ethan knocked Claire away from the child.
She crashed beside the dining table, recovered, grabbed a glass bottle and swung.
Ethan blocked.
Glass exploded across the floor.
Claire lunged again.
Ethan caught her arm, turned with her momentum and forced her down.
“Let me go!”
He pinned her shoulders.
Then something slipped from Claire’s hand.
A tiny metal key.
Ethan picked it up.
“What is this?”
Claire stopped fighting.
A sound came from the hallway.
Ethan turned.
Two little blonde girls stood side by side at the far end.
Identical black-and-white dresses.
Identical hair.
Identical height.
Ethan looked behind him.
The crying child he believed was Lily was standing now.
Same dress.
Same blonde hair.
Three girls.
One of the hallway children looked directly at him.
“Daddy... which one is Lily?”
Ethan stopped breathing.
Claire whispered:
“You were only supposed to find one.”
Then one hallway girl raised her hand.
Another identical key rested in her palm.
Ethan stared.
“What did you do?”
Claire began laughing.
Not because anything was funny.
Because she was terrified.
Ethan released enough pressure for her to breathe comfortably but kept her from reaching the children.
“Who are they?”
Claire refused to answer.
The kitchen child ran toward Ethan.
“Daddy!”
That voice.
He knew that voice.
He almost reached for her automatically.
Then one hallway girl cried:
“Daddy!”
Same voice.
Not similar.
Almost exact.
The second hallway girl began sobbing.
She did not call him anything.
Ethan’s certainty collapsed.
He had raised Lily for three years.
He knew the scar beneath her chin from falling against a toy chest.
He knew she hated peas.
He knew which stuffed rabbit she slept with.
Surely a father could recognize his own daughter.
He crouched.
“Lily, show me your chin.”
All three girls had the same tiny scar.
Ethan stared at Claire.
Her expression told him this was not coincidence.
Then he noticed something else.
The key in his hand was engraved:
K-2.
The hallway girl’s key:
K-3.
Ethan slowly looked toward the child from the kitchen.
“Where’s yours?”
She stared at Claire.
Then pointed toward the black cabinetry.
Claire screamed:
“Don’t open that drawer!”
Ethan pulled it open.
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Inside lay a third key.
K-1.
