Chapter 9: Seventy-Two Hours
Lily didn't ask questions while I talked.
She sat very still, the way she did when something was too large to react to in pieces.
When I finished, she was quiet for a long time.
"Emily is alive," she said finally.
"Yes."
"She's been alive this whole time."
"Yes."
She stood up and walked to the window.
Her arms were crossed tight over her chest.
"All those years," she said.
"All those years I missed her.
I used to talk to her.
Did you know that?
At night, sometimes.
I'd just — talk to the other side of the room like she was still there."
"Lily—"
"I'm not falling apart." She turned around.
Her eyes were bright but her voice was steady.
"I just need a minute."
I gave her the minute.
Then she said, "When do I get to meet her?"
"After the arrests.
It has to be done carefully.
She doesn't know yet."
"She doesn't know she was taken?"
"She doesn't know anything.
She's lived her whole life thinking she's someone else." I paused.
"We have to be patient.
She'll need time."
Lily nodded slowly.
"What about Dad?"
"He's coming for dinner tomorrow."
She looked at me for a long moment.
"How do you feel about that?"
"I don't know yet."
"That's honest, at least." She almost smiled.
"Okay." She uncrossed her arms.
"What do we do until the arrests happen?"
"We act normal.
We don't contact Dennis Hale.
We don't tell anyone."
"Dennis." Her face changed.
"He was here.
He hugged me."
"I know."
"He knew the whole time that Emily was alive and he—" She stopped herself.
"Okay.
Normal.
I can do normal."
Carl came for dinner the next evening.
I opened the door and he and Lily stood in the hallway looking at each other.
She was taller than he'd last seen her.
He looked older than she'd last seen him.
Neither of them spoke for a moment.
Then Lily said, "You look different."
"So do you," he said.
"You look like your mother."
"People keep saying that." She stepped back to let him in.
"Come on.
Mom made too much food."
It wasn't easy.
It was awkward in the way that thirteen years of absence makes everything awkward.
But they talked.
Carl asked about her life and listened carefully to the answers.
Lily asked him questions I wouldn't have dared to ask, direct and without softening, and he answered all of them.
At one point she said, "Were you scared?
The whole time?"
"Every day," he said.
"But you kept going."
"Yes."
She looked at him for a moment.
"Okay," she said, and went back to her food.
It wasn't forgiveness.
But it was a door left open.
The call came on the morning of the third day.
Agent Marsh.
Seven-fifteen.
"The warrants were executed this morning," she said.
"Garrett Voss was taken into custody at six a.m.
Dennis Hale was apprehended at his home at six-forty.
Both are in federal custody.
Their attorneys have already been contacted."
I was standing in the kitchen.
Carl was at the table.
I put the call on speaker.
"What about the hospital?" I said.
"Three additional individuals connected to Hargrove Memorial have been detained.
We expect further charges as the documentation is processed." A pause.
"Sarah.
It's done."
Carl put his face in his hands.
I stood very still and let it land.
"When can we talk about Emily?" I said.
"I'd like to meet with you and Carl this week.
Before we make contact with her family.
I want to walk you through how that conversation will go and what to expect." Her voice was careful but not cold.
"She's going to need time.
And she's going to need to know that you're not going anywhere."
"We're not going anywhere," I said.
After the call ended, the kitchen was quiet.
Carl looked up.
His eyes were red.
"It's over," he said.
"The first part is," I said.
He nodded.
He understood what I meant.
May you like
The harder part — the part that required patience and gentleness and the willingness to let a seventeen-year-old girl find her own way toward a truth that would rewrite everything she knew — that part was just beginning.
But for the first time in thirteen years, it was beginning in the right direction.
