Chapter 7 - THE MOTHER WITH TWO STORIES“DADDY ISN’T THE ONE THEY WANT.”
Lily’s voice trembled when Daniel finally reached her by phone.
Police had moved her and Eleanor into a secured room inside the newer Mercer mansion. Officers guarded every entrance, but Lily refused to sleep.
She kept staring at the staircase.
Waiting for her mother to return.
“Lily,” Daniel said carefully, “tell me exactly what happened.”
The girl swallowed.
The woman had entered through the kitchen during a brief power failure. She looked older than Lily remembered, thinner, with a scar along her temple.
But Lily recognized her voice.
Catherine had hugged her.
Then she had whispered something strange.
“If anyone asks, you never saw me.”
Seconds later Michael entered the room.
He froze.
For four years he had mourned his wife.
Now she stood twenty feet away.
Alive.
Michael demanded answers, but Catherine only said, “I came back because they found Lily.”
Then the lights went out again.
Lily heard fighting.
When emergency power returned, Michael and Catherine were gone.
On the kitchen floor was Michael’s watch.
Daniel closed his eyes.
“Did your mother hurt him?”
“No.”
Lily’s answer came immediately.
“Someone else was there.”
Daniel straightened.
“Who?”
“I couldn’t see his face.”
The child hesitated.
“But he called Mommy by another name.”
Daniel’s heart slowed.
“What name?”
Lily whispered:
“Rebecca.”
Across town, detectives searched records connected to Catherine Grant Mercer.
Within minutes, they found something impossible.
Rebecca Grant had existed.
She was Catherine’s identical twin sister.
According to official records, Rebecca had died at seventeen in a house fire.
Daniel stared at the photograph investigators sent him.
Two teenage girls stood beside Eleanor.
Identical faces.
Identical smiles.
Catherine.
Rebecca.
One supposedly died as a teenager.
The other supposedly died four years ago.
Yet at least one of them was alive tonight.
Daniel called Eleanor.
There was silence when he mentioned Rebecca.
Then Eleanor began crying.
“You were never supposed to find out.”
“Which woman came to the house?”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel’s voice hardened.
“You’re their mother.”
“That’s why I don’t know.”
Eleanor explained that Rebecca had survived the fire but disappeared soon afterward. Robert Grant had hidden her identity after discovering someone was targeting their family.
Years later, Catherine married Michael.
Rebecca remained hidden.
Then Catherine discovered Robert’s ledger.
The sisters secretly reunited.
And from that moment forward, nobody—not even Eleanor—could always tell which sister was living under which name.
Daniel stared into the rain outside.
The mystery was no longer whether Lily’s mother had returned.
May you like
The terrifying question was simpler.
Which sister had raised Lily?
