“Daniel.”
“Not now.”
“It’s the sheriff’s department.”
“Tell them to speak to social services.”
“They found Lily’s mother alive.”
His hands stopped.
“Alive?”
“Barely. The ambulance is bringing her here.”
Relief passed across his face.
Then Maria continued.
“They found an envelope addressed to you.”
Daniel stared at her.
“What?”
“And a photograph.”
The color drained from his face before she even showed him.
Maria held up the image the deputy had sent.
Daniel stepped backward.
The photograph had been taken twelve years earlier.
He remembered the exact day.
His graduation from medical school.
Anna Carter had worn a blue dress and cried when his name was called.
They had planned to marry.
Then, seven months later, she disappeared.
No note.
No phone call.
No explanation.
Her apartment had been emptied.
Her number disconnected.
Her mother told him Anna had left the state with someone else and wanted no contact.
Daniel had written letters.
They were returned unopened.
He had spent years believing she had chosen another life.
Now he stared at the photograph in Maria’s hand.
“Where did they find this?”
“On the table beside her.”
He looked toward the treatment room where Lily sat wrapped in his coat.
The girl had Anna’s eyes.
He had noticed it the moment she arrived.
He simply had not allowed himself to follow the thought.
“How old is Lily?” he asked.
“Seven.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Eight years earlier, Anna had vanished.
“Daniel,” Maria said softly, “are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
He did not answer.
At 4:02 p.m., the ambulance carrying Anna Carter arrived.
Doctors rushed her into a trauma bay.
She was severely dehydrated, dangerously anemic, and suffering from a serious postpartum infection.
She had given birth at home approximately six days earlier.
Without medical care, the infection spread through her body.
The medical team started antibiotics, fluids, oxygen, and medication to stabilize her blood pressure.
Daniel stood outside the room.
He was not assigned to her case.
He was not permitted to treat her.
He watched through the glass as strangers fought to save the woman he had once expected to spend his life with.
Deputy Price handed him the envelope.
“We found this beside her hand.”
Daniel’s fingers trembled.
“Has anyone opened it?”
“No. It was addressed to you.”
He broke the seal.
Inside were six pages written in blue ink.
The first page began with his name.
Daniel,
If Lily reaches the hospital, then she has done something no child should ever have been asked to do.
I am sorry.
