Chapter 4 - What Rosa Knew
Rosa did not faint.
She did something worse.
She ran.
Dominic caught up to her in the hall.
"Stop."
Rosa froze near the staircase, one hand pressed to her mouth.
Hannah followed.
"Why did you call me Sofia?"
Rosa shook her head.
"I was confused."
"No, you weren't," Dominic said.
The softness vanished from his voice.
"You have cared for my daughters since the day they came home. You knew Sofia better than almost anyone. Look at Hannah and tell me you were confused."
Rosa's eyes filled.
"I promised her."
Dominic's expression changed.
"Promised her what?"
Rosa looked toward the stairs.
"Not here."
They went into a small sitting room and closed the door.
Rosa sat on the edge of a chair, twisting a tissue between her fingers.
"Sofia was afraid before the crash," she said. "She kept saying somebody in the family was watching her."
Dominic's jaw clenched. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because she told me not to. She said if she was wrong, she'd destroy your family for nothing. If she was right... she said telling you too early could get you killed."
"That sounds like Sofia," Dominic said bitterly. "Protecting me by lying to me."
Hannah leaned forward. "Did she know my father?"
Rosa nodded.
"She found an old hospital record after the girls were born. Something about her adoption. A missing signature. A second infant."
Hannah could hear her pulse.
"Second infant?"
Rosa looked at her.
"You."
The room became very small.
"She believed you were her twin."
Hannah stood so fast the chair legs scraped.
"No. My father would have told me."
Rosa cried openly now. "Maybe he tried."
She reached into her sweater pocket and removed a tiny brass key.
"Sofia gave me this the night before she vanished. She said if anything happened to her, I had to give it to Daniel Mercer."
Hannah stared at it.
"Did you?"
"Yes."
"Then why do you have it?"
Rosa looked terrified.
"Because your father mailed it back to me three months before he died."
Dominic took the key.
A paper tag was tied to it with red thread.
On the tag was a storage number.
Q-417.
Hannah recognized the company name immediately.
Queensboro Self Storage.
Her father's old unit.
She had never cleaned it out.
Never had the strength.
Dominic stood.
"We're going now."
Hannah nodded.
Then every light in the townhouse went out.
A second later, Vincent's voice thundered from the hallway.
"DOWN!"
May you like
Glass shattered upstairs.
And one of the triplets screamed.
