Chapter 3 - The Secret of Saint Anne’s
“No.”
Margaret’s answer came before Emily had even lowered the phone.
“You are not going anywhere alone.”
Emily stared at the photograph of Helen’s open front door.
“I didn’t say I was.”
“You were thinking it.”
Emily looked up.
Margaret was frightened.
Not for herself.
For Emily.
That realization unsettled her more than the message itself.
Thomas reached for the phone.
“Let me see.”
Emily pulled it away.
“No.”
“Emily, this could be dangerous.”
She laughed sharply.
“You don’t get to suddenly become protective.”
Thomas’s face tightened.
The words hurt him.
Emily was glad.
Then immediately hated herself for being glad.
Daniel took out his phone.
“Call the police.”
Thomas stepped toward him.
“No.”
Everyone turned.
Margaret stared at her husband.
“Why not?”
Thomas hesitated.
“That message may be connected to people who don’t want police involved.”
Emily’s eyes narrowed.
“What people?”
Thomas rubbed his temple.
“There are details I haven’t explained.”
Margaret gave him a look of disbelief.
“That sentence is becoming your entire personality.”
Even Daniel almost smiled.
Thomas didn’t.
“Saint Anne’s wasn’t only a convent.”
Emily frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“It had a private clinic.”
“I know that.”
“No. Not just for abandoned children.”
Daniel took over.
“Women who wanted discreet deliveries. Adoptions that wealthy families wanted kept quiet. Donor arrangements. Sometimes records were altered.”
Margaret stared.
“You knew?”
Thomas nodded reluctantly.
“My sister discovered irregularities.”
Emily’s stomach tightened.
“Helen adopted me through them?”
Daniel shook his head.
“No.”
Emily looked at him.
“Then how did she get me?”
“That’s what we need to find out.”
Margaret looked toward the window.
The rain had intensified.
She turned to Mr. Collins.
“Is there a private room?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Please take us there.”
Thomas objected.
“Margaret—”
She turned.
“You may come if you intend to tell the truth.”
He said nothing.
“Otherwise leave.”
For the first time in perhaps decades, Thomas Ashford looked uncertain of his authority.
He followed.
The restaurant manager guided them through a narrow corridor into a private dining room.
Emily removed her apron.
Her hands were shaking.
Margaret noticed.
“Sit.”
“I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not.”
Emily almost snapped at her.
Then she looked at Margaret’s face and stopped.
Neither of them was fine.
They sat.
Daniel remained near the door.
Thomas stood by the window.
Emily called Helen again.
Still nothing.
She sent a message.
Mom, please answer.
The word Mom felt suddenly complicated.
Not less real.
Just heavier.
Margaret saw the message but looked away respectfully.
Emily noticed that too.
She began to understand that Margaret did not want to replace Helen.
At least not yet.
Maybe not ever.
She simply wanted to know what had happened to the daughter she had lost.
Emily looked toward Thomas.
“Tell me everything.”
He stared outside.
“Thomas,” Margaret said.
He turned.
His voice was exhausted.
“Rebecca came to me two days after the fire.”
“Your sister?”
“Yes.”
“She told me the baby was at Saint Anne’s.”
Margaret closed her eyes.
“So you knew she was alive within forty-eight hours?”
“Yes.”
Margaret’s hands tightened.
Emily asked,
“Why didn’t you bring me back?”
Thomas swallowed.
“Rebecca showed me the blood results.”
“You already said that.”
“I thought Margaret had betrayed me.”
Margaret whispered,
“I didn’t.”
“I know.”
“When did you learn the truth?”
“Years later.”
“How many?”
Thomas looked at the floor.
“Seven.”
Margaret stood.
“Seven?”
He nodded.
“You knew Emily wasn’t the result of an affair when she was seven years old?”
“Yes.”
“And you still left her wherever she was?”
Thomas’s voice cracked.
“I didn’t know where she was by then.”
Daniel scoffed.
Thomas turned.
“I didn’t.”
Daniel stared at him.
“You stopped looking.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
“It is to the child.”
Emily looked away.
She did not want to cry.
Not in front of Thomas.
Not for him.
But the sentence struck somewhere deep.
It is to the child.
Thomas continued.
“Rebecca moved the baby because she became frightened.”
“Of you?” Emily asked.
Thomas nodded.
“She regretted what she’d done.”
Margaret stared.
“What had she done?”
“I asked her to keep Emily hidden for a few days.”
Margaret’s face twisted.
“You mean kidnap her.”
Thomas flinched.
“Yes.”
Silence.
“I told Rebecca we needed time to determine the truth.”
Margaret whispered,
“You told me my baby was dead.”
Thomas’s voice became defensive.
“The hospital had lost records in the fire. Everything was chaos. I told myself I would fix it.”
“But you didn’t.”
“No.”
“Why?”
Thomas’s eyes finally met hers.
“Because after I believed she wasn’t mine, I was angry.”
Margaret’s tears returned.
“At a newborn?”
“At you.”
“So you punished her.”
Thomas looked toward Emily.
“Yes.”
Emily stared at him.
There was no excuse disguised inside the answer.
That almost made it worse.
She stood.
“I need air.”
Margaret rose.
“I’ll come.”
Emily shook her head.
“Please.”
Margaret stopped.
Emily left the room.
She walked through the service corridor and into the empty employee lounge.
The door closed behind her.
She pressed both hands against the counter.
Her reflection in the dark microwave door looked unfamiliar.
Twenty-two.
Waitress.
Foster daughter.
Possibly Margaret Ashford’s child.
Possibly the victim of a kidnapping.
Possibly the center of a lie created before she could speak.
Her phone rang.
Helen.
Emily answered instantly.
“Mom?”
A shaky breath.
“Emily?”
“Are you okay?”
“Yes.”
“Where are you?”
“At home.”
“Why was your door open?”
Silence.
Emily’s heart pounded.
“Mom?”
“Someone came here.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did they hurt you?”
“No.”
Emily closed her eyes.
“Thank God.”
Helen’s voice trembled.
“Emily, where are you?”
“At work.”
“Stay there.”
“I’m with Margaret Ashford.”
Silence.
A very long silence.
Emily slowly straightened.
“Mom?”
Helen whispered,
“She found you.”
Emily felt cold.
“You know who she is.”
Helen began to cry.
“Yes.”
Emily’s knees weakened.
“How long?”
“Since the day you came to me.”
Emily gripped the counter.
“You knew?”
“Yes.”
Every answer was becoming another wound.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I was trying to protect you.”
Emily laughed bitterly.
“Everyone keeps saying that.”
“Emily—”
“No. Tell me the truth.”
Helen sobbed softly.
“I promised Rebecca.”
Thomas’s sister.
Emily stared at the wall.
“You knew Rebecca Ashford?”
“She brought you to me.”
“Where?”
“At Saint Anne’s.”
“So you worked there?”
“No. I volunteered.”
Emily closed her eyes.
Memories shifted.
Helen bringing canned food to church shelters.
Helen refusing to drive past Saint Anne’s ruins.
Helen keeping a box locked in the attic.
“Why you?”
“Because I had recently lost a baby.”
Emily’s anger stopped.
Helen continued.
“My son was stillborn three months before. Rebecca knew. She knew I had an empty nursery.”
Emily covered her mouth.
“She came to me terrified. She said powerful people were manipulating adoption records and that if she kept you at Saint Anne’s, someone would find you.”
“Thomas?”
“She didn’t say his name at first.”
Emily whispered,
“Did she tell you Margaret thought I was dead?”
Helen’s crying intensified.
“Not immediately.”
“When?”
“Three months later.”
Emily’s breath caught.
“And you still kept me?”
“I was going to return you.”
“But?”
“Rebecca disappeared.”
Emily froze.
“What do you mean disappeared?”
“No one could find her.”
Emily hurried back toward the private room while keeping the phone to her ear.
Margaret looked up when she entered.
Emily put the call on speaker.
“Helen, say that again.”
Helen hesitated.
“Rebecca disappeared three months after she gave Emily to me.”
Thomas went pale.
Margaret stared at him.
“You told me she moved to Europe.”
Thomas whispered,
“That’s what I was told.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“No.”
Thomas looked at him.
Daniel’s face had hardened.
“She never went to Europe.”
Margaret said,
“How do you know?”
Daniel removed another object from his coat.
A key.
Old brass.
A small metal tag hung from it.
SA-214.
Emily stared.
“What is that?”
Daniel replied,
“A storage locker under Saint Anne’s chapel.”
Thomas backed away.
“No.”
Margaret turned.
“You know about it.”
Thomas shook his head too quickly.
Daniel continued.
“Rebecca gave me this the week before she vanished.”
Emily whispered,
“What’s inside?”
Daniel looked at Thomas.
“I never opened it.”
“Why?”
“She told me only to open it if Margaret ever found Emily.”
Every person in the room fell silent.
Margaret reached for the key.
Daniel placed it in her palm.
Thomas moved forward.
“Don’t.”
Margaret looked up.
Thomas was terrified.
And this time, everyone saw it.
Emily whispered,
“What’s in that locker?”
Thomas looked at her.
His voice was almost pleading.
“You don’t want to know.”
Emily closed her fingers around Margaret’s hand and the key inside it.
“Yes,” she said.
“I do.”
May you like
And twenty-two years after Saint Anne’s had hidden a stolen baby, the last surviving secrets of the convent were about to be opened.
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