Chapter 5 - AUNT HELEN The next morning, David drove across town to Aunt Helen's apartment.
His mother had spent years warning him about Helen.
She's jealous.
She's bitter.
She's unstable.
Don't trust her.
But when Helen opened the door and saw David's face, she immediately understood.
"You found out."
David stopped.
"What?"
Helen stepped aside.
"Come in."
He sat at the kitchen table.
For several seconds, neither spoke.
Then David placed the photograph of the blanket on the table.
Helen stared at it.
Her hands began to tremble.
"She tried again."
David's eyes narrowed.
"Again?"
Helen closed her eyes.
"There was a baby before you."
The room seemed to shrink.
"A girl."
David couldn't speak.
"Her name was Emily."
He swallowed.
"What happened?"
"She died when she was barely a month old."
"SIDS?"
Helen nodded.
"That's what the doctors called it."
David stared at her.
"My mother never told me."
"She couldn't."
Helen looked toward the window.
"Something inside her broke."
David felt a chill.
"After Emily died, your mother became obsessed with the idea that she had failed."
"And then I was born."
Helen nodded.
"You became her second chance."
David's stomach turned.
"Second chance at what?"
"At having the perfect child."
Helen's voice became softer.
"She didn't just love you, David."
She looked directly into his eyes.
"She believed you belonged to her."
The pieces began falling into place.
The phone calls.
The guilt.
The jealousy.
The hatred toward Leah.
Then Helen said something that made David's blood run cold.
"Now you're having a daughter."
David stared at her.
"You think that's why?"
Helen didn't answer immediately.
Then she whispered:
"Your mother lost Emily. Now she's terrified of losing you to another little girl."
David looked down.
His unborn daughter suddenly felt more vulnerable than ever.
And he finally understood.
His mother wasn't simply afraid of losing her son.
She was fighting against a ghost.
May you like
A ghost named Emily.
And she was willing to destroy anyone standing between herself and the past.
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