Chapter 6 - The Sister Who Lived
The room remained silent after the phone call ended.
I could hear my own breathing.
Slow.
Shallow.
Afraid.
Mr. Graves was still holding the phone against his ear.
“Your daughter is alive.”
Those words kept repeating inside my head.
Your daughter.
I looked at him.
Then at the photograph in my hand.
My mother.
Nathaniel Graves.
A baby.
I stared at the baby again.
Something about the tiny face felt familiar.
Not because I remembered her.
I couldn’t have.
But because of the small silver bracelet around her wrist.
I had seen that bracelet before.
In my mother’s bedroom.
Inside the wooden jewelry box she never let me touch.
A tiny silver bracelet with a single letter engraved on it.
R.
I had always assumed the R stood for Ruby.
But suddenly, I wasn’t sure.
“Mr. Graves,” I whispered.
He looked at me.
“Who was the baby?”
His eyes filled with tears.
“Her name was Rebecca.”
The name hit me strangely.
Rebecca.
My mother had never mentioned it.
“Was she my sister?”
He nodded.
“Your older sister.”
I looked at the photograph again.
“Then why did you say she died?”
“Because that’s what we were told.”
“Who told you?”
“Your mother.”
I shook my head.
“She wouldn’t lie about that.”
Mr. Graves looked toward the dark windows.
“She was trying to protect you.”
“From what?”
He didn’t answer immediately.
Then Dr. Mercer spoke.
“From your father’s family.”
I turned toward him.
“My father?”
Dr. Mercer nodded.
“Your father wasn’t simply a man who left.”
I stared at him.
“What was he?”
May you like
Mr. Graves answered.
“Someone who knew too much.”
