Chapter 4: The Woman We Buried Twice
“Who is Rebecca?””
Danielle asked the question without looking away from my phone.
The message remained on the screen.
*I KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR DAUGHTER.*
Below it, the second message waited like a threat.
*ASK YOUR WIFE WHO LILY WAS TRYING TO FIND.*
Officer Brooks moved closer to examine the screen, but I pulled the phone against my chest before I realized what I was doing.
“Marcus,” she said evenly, “I need you to preserve those messages. Don't delete anything or respond until we've documented them.””
I nodded.
My fingers had gone numb.
Danielle stood beside the sofa, clutching her phone so tightly that the edges pressed into her palm.
“Answer me,” she said.
“Who is Rebecca?””
I looked at my wife.
For fourteen years, Danielle had known nearly everything about me. She knew how I took my coffee, which songs I played when I couldn't sleep, and why I refused to drive past the cemetery where my father was buried.
But there was one chapter of my life I had never told her in full.
A chapter I had closed so tightly that I had convinced myself it no longer existed.
“Rebecca was someone I knew before we met,” I said.
Danielle's expression didn't change.
“That's not an answer.””
“She was important to me.””
“How important?””
I looked down at the phone.
“Marcus.””
“She was my girlfriend.””
Vanessa let out a quiet breath behind me.
I continued before Danielle could interrupt.
“We were young. I was twenty-nine. She was twenty-five. We lived in Atlanta, and we thought we were going to get married.””
Danielle stared at me.
“You told me your previous relationship ended because she moved away.””
“It did.””
“You said you hadn't spoken to her in years.””
“I haven't.””
“Then why is someone using her name to threaten you?””
“I don't know.””
Danielle's mouth tightened.
“You always say that when the truth becomes inconvenient.””
The words hit harder because they were true.
Officer Brooks glanced between us.
“Mr. Reed, did Rebecca have any connection to your daughter?””
I opened my mouth.
Then closed it.
Because the answer was not simple.
Rebecca had disappeared from my life nine years earlier, after a night that had changed everything between us. She had called me from an unknown number, crying so hard I could barely understand her. She told me she needed to see me.
I hadn't gone.
By then, I had started dating Danielle. I was building a career, paying off debt, trying to become the kind of man my father had never managed to be.
Rebecca's problems felt like a door opening into a past I wanted to leave behind.
Two days later, she sent me a letter.
I never answered it.
A year after that, I heard she had left Georgia.
And eventually, I stopped asking questions.
“I don't believe Rebecca has any connection to Lily,” I said.
Danielle gave me a long, exhausted look.
“Then why did someone tell me Lily was trying to find her?””
“I didn't say that.””
“You didn't have to. The message did.””
Officer Brooks gently interrupted.
“Mrs. Reed, did Lily ever mention Rebecca to you before she died?””
Danielle rubbed her forehead.
“Not by name. At least, not that I remember.””
She hesitated.
“Actually, there was something strange about her tablet.””
My stomach tightened.
“What?””
“About a month ago, Lily started guarding it. She used to leave it on the kitchen counter. Suddenly, she kept it in her bedroom and closed the door whenever she was talking to someone.””
“Why didn't you tell me?””
Danielle looked at me as though the question itself had offended her.
“Because you were always somewhere else.””
I had no defense.
She continued.
“One night, I walked past her room and heard her say, 'You promised you wouldn't tell Daddy yet.'' When I asked who she was talking to, she said it was a surprise for your birthday.””
“My birthday is in six months.””
“I know.””
“Did you check the tablet?””
“No. I believed her.””
Danielle swallowed.
“She was our daughter, Marcus. I thought she was doing something innocent.””
Officer Brooks took out her notebook.
“Did Lily have access to any social media or messaging applications?””
“Just the family account and a children's messaging app,” Danielle answered.
“We set it up so she could contact relatives.””
“Do you know whether she could communicate with someone outside the approved contact list?””
Danielle shook her head.
“I thought the settings were secure.””
Officer Brooks made a note.
“That's something investigators can verify.””
I looked at Danielle.
“Why didn't you tell me she was talking to someone?””
Her face crumpled.
“Because every time I tried to talk to you about Lily, you said you were busy. Because when she asked whether you'd be home for dinner, I learned to say maybe instead of yes. Because she stopped expecting you to keep your promises, and I was too ashamed to admit how normal that had become.””
She drew a trembling breath.
“And because I didn't know she was talking to someone who might know Rebecca.””
The living room fell silent.
I could see Lily in my mind, sitting cross-legged on her bed, her small fingers tapping out messages to someone whose identity we hadn't yet discovered.
Had she been frightened?
Had she been excited?
Had she believed she was doing something kind?
I would never know unless we could uncover the truth.
Officer Brooks looked at me.
“Mr. Reed, you mentioned a letter from Rebecca. Do you still have it?””
I stared at her.
For a moment, I considered lying.
Then I remembered Lily's voice on Danielle's recording.
Please come get me.
“I think so,” I said.
“Where?””
“In my desk drawer. At home.””
Danielle stepped forward.
“You kept a letter from your ex-girlfriend for nine years, but you never told me about it?””
“I forgot it was there.””
“No, Marcus. You chose not to think about it.””
She turned away.
Officer Brooks asked whether I would retrieve the letter with her present, and I agreed. Before we could move, Vanessa spoke from the doorway.
“Rebecca wasn't just his ex-girlfriend.””
Everyone turned toward her.
I stared at her.
“What did you just say?””
Vanessa's eyes widened, as though she hadn't intended to speak aloud.
“Nothing.””
“You said Rebecca wasn't just my ex-girlfriend.””
She looked at Danielle, then at Officer Brooks.
“I heard Marcus talking about her once.””
“When?”” I demanded.
“Months ago.””
“You told me you'd never heard that name.””
“I didn't think it mattered.””
“Why would you think it didn't matter?””
Vanessa pressed her lips together.
Officer Brooks stepped closer.
“Ms. Cole, if you have relevant information, now would be the time to share it.””
Vanessa shook her head.
“I don't know anything about what happened to Lily.””
“That's not what he asked.””
Vanessa looked at me.
“You were drunk. We were at your apartment, before the Savannah trip. You were talking about how you almost married someone else. You said you had a daughter you never got to meet.””
The room seemed to stop breathing.
Danielle turned slowly.
“What?””
I couldn't look at her.
Vanessa continued, her voice dropping.
“You said Rebecca had told you she was pregnant, but you thought she was lying because she was angry that you were leaving.””
Danielle's face went white.
“Marcus?””
I closed my eyes.
There it was.
The secret I had spent nine years pretending was nothing more than a misunderstanding.
Rebecca had told me she was pregnant.
I had accused her of trying to trap me.
She had cried, called me selfish, and said I would regret refusing to listen.
I had told her that if she wanted to keep the baby, that was her decision.
Then I had blocked her number.
I never saw proof of the pregnancy.
I never learned whether she had given birth.
And eventually, I convinced myself that she had moved on with her life.
“I didn't know if the child was mine,” I whispered.
Danielle stared at me.
“You never told me you might have another child?””
“I thought it was over.””
“You thought it was over?””
“I was young. I was scared.””
“So was she!””
Danielle's voice cracked.
She pressed a hand to her mouth and turned toward the photograph of Lily.
For one terrible moment, I thought she might collapse.
Officer Brooks remained beside the sofa, her expression grave.
“Mr. Reed, is it possible that Rebecca had a child who would now be approximately Lily's age?””
I nodded slowly.
“Yes.””
“Could that child have contacted Lily?””
“I don't know.””
Danielle turned back to me.
“If Rebecca had a child, and that child knew Lily, then we need to find out how.””
She wiped her cheeks with her sleeve.
“And we need to find out why someone is telling us Lily was trying to find Rebecca.””
My phone vibrated again.
A new message appeared from the unknown number.
*SHE DIDN'T WANT MONEY. SHE WANTED HER FAMILY.*
Then another.
*CHECK THE BACK OF THE LETTER.*
I felt as though someone had reached through the phone and gripped my heart.
Officer Brooks read the messages over my shoulder.
“Don't reply,” she said.
“We'll document these.””
I nodded, barely hearing her.
The letter.
I knew exactly where it was.
My study was at the end of the hallway, behind a door I had kept closed since returning home.
I walked toward it, with Officer Brooks following several steps behind me. Danielle stayed in the living room.
Vanessa remained near the entrance.
As I reached the study, I heard her whisper my name.
I didn't turn around.
Inside, everything was as I'd left it before the trip: unopened bills, a stack of work folders, a coffee mug with a dried brown ring at the bottom.
I opened the desk drawer.
Beneath an old passport and a bundle of tax documents lay a yellowed envelope.
Rebecca's handwriting was unmistakable.
My fingers trembled as I pulled it free.
The envelope had never been opened.
Officer Brooks watched without touching it.
“Is that the original?””
“Yes.””
I turned it over.
On the back, beneath the flap, someone had written a date.
Not the date Rebecca had mailed it.
A date three years later.
And beneath that date, in handwriting I had never seen before, were five words.
*SHE HAS YOUR DAUGHTER'S EYES.*
I stared at the inscription.
Then I opened the envelope.
Inside was a single sheet of paper and a small photograph.
The photograph showed Rebecca standing outside a brick building, holding a baby wrapped in a pale pink blanket.
The child's face was turned toward the camera.
Even as an infant, she had my eyes.
And on the back of the photograph, Rebecca had written a name.
*Lily.*
I dropped into the desk chair.
Officer Brooks leaned forward.
“Mr. Reed?””
I couldn't answer.
The baby in the photograph was not the Lily I had raised.
It was a different child.
A child I had never met.
And suddenly, I understood why someone had sent that message.
The person who had contacted my daughter might not have been a stranger at all.
It might have been someone who knew exactly who Lily was.
May you like
Someone who knew what I had done.
Someone who had been waiting nine years for me to discover that I had abandoned a daughter before I ever had the chance to become her father.