Her name was Anna.
She was twenty-four years old and lived in Richmond.
Susan had given birth to her after rebuilding her life.
Anna knew she had older siblings.
She had never met them because Susan believed Daniel wanted no contact and Lena wanted nothing to do with the family.
Another lie had survived simply because nobody compared versions.
Daniel laughed once when Susan explained it.
It was not amusement.
It was disbelief exhausted into sound.
“Dad managed to control this family for years after he died.”
Lena corrected him gently.
“No. The lies did.”
Claire watched Daniel absorb that.
On the drive home, he apologized to Lena.
Not elegantly.
Not enough to cover twenty-three years.
But honestly.
“I thought you sold me out.”
“I know.”
“I hated you.”
“I know that too.”
“I don’t know how to fix this.”
Lena looked through the windshield.
“Neither do I.”
Then she added, “We can stop making it worse.”
At home that night, Daniel opened the anniversary project Claire had abandoned.
The deleted photo archive was gone from the laptop, but Claire still had the four pictures she had secretly saved on her phone.
Daniel looked at the courthouse photograph where he held Lena’s hand.
“That wasn’t a courthouse,” he said.
“What was it?”
“A family-services building. That was the day I told them I wanted to stay with the Bennetts.”
Claire studied Lena’s expression in the picture.
“She looks devastated.”
“She was.”
“Why was she holding your hand?”
Daniel swallowed.
“Because I was scared.”
Claire leaned against him.
He looked at the old photograph for a long time.
Then his phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
A young woman’s voice said, “Hi. Is this Daniel? My name is Anna.”