Part 2: The Truth Hidden for Ten Years
Daniel didn't hesitate.
He rushed upstairs, taking the steps two at a time as Lily cried from behind her locked bedroom door.
Emily sprinted after him.
Robert lunged to stop them.
Daniel slammed his shoulder into the older man, sending both crashing against the hallway wall.
"Emily!" Daniel shouted. "Get Lily!"
Emily fumbled with the lock while Noah cried from the nursery across the hall.
The bedroom door swung open.
Lily threw herself into her mother's arms.
"Grandma locked me inside," she sobbed. "She said it was a surprise."
Daniel had already scooped Noah into his arms.
Downstairs, Robert was getting back to his feet.
Linda stood perfectly still.
No panic.
No fear.
Only disappointment.
"You don't understand what we've prevented," she said.
Emily stared at her mother.
"What have you done?"
Linda slowly reached into her cardigan pocket.
Daniel instantly stepped between her and the children.
Instead of a weapon...
...she pulled out an old photograph.
It showed Emily at age seven.
Standing beside another little girl.
A girl Emily couldn't remember.
"Who is she?" Emily whispered.
Linda's hands trembled.
"Your sister."
The room froze.
Emily laughed nervously.
"I don't have a sister."
"You did."
Silence.
Robert lowered his head.
Linda continued.
"Her name was Sophie."
Emily's heartbeat pounded inside her ears.
"I would remember."
"No," Linda whispered. "You can't."
She looked at Robert.
"Tell her."
Robert finally spoke.
"When you were five, Sophie disappeared from a public park."
Emily felt her knees weaken.
"We searched for two years."
"We buried an empty coffin."
"You had nightmares every night."
"You stopped speaking."
"The doctors said the trauma was destroying your mind."
"They recommended a memory specialist."
Emily stared blankly.
Linda continued through tears.
"They erased most of those memories."
Daniel slowly looked at Emily.
"You never told me this."
"I...I don't know this."
"Exactly," Linda replied.
"Because you were never supposed to remember."
Emily looked again at the photograph.
For some reason...
...the little girl's smile felt painfully familiar.
Then Linda revealed the part that made everyone's blood run cold.
"Last month..."
"...someone sent us a picture of Lily."
Emily frowned.
"What?"
Linda reached into the duffel.
This time Daniel didn't stop her.
She pulled out an envelope.
Inside were photographs.
Lily leaving school.
Lily in the playground.
Lily sleeping through the nursery window.
Every picture had been taken without their knowledge.
One message was written across the final photograph.
"History repeats itself."
Daniel's face turned white.
Emily nearly dropped the pictures.
Linda whispered...
"That's why we came."
"We weren't stealing your children."
"We believed someone else was about to."
Just then...
The doorbell rang.
Three slow knocks.
Nobody had called yet.
Nobody was expected.
Every adult in the house looked toward the front door.
Then a man's voice echoed from outside.
"Package delivery."
Daniel looked through the peephole.
There was no delivery truck.
Only a man wearing a fake courier uniform.
May you like
Holding a cardboard box.
And smiling directly into the camera above their front porch.
