Her bedroom window was open.
The yellow curtain billowed into the room.
Junie stood beside her bed, shaking.
Everett scanned the window.
Junie pointed outside.
“The man was there.”
Claire rushed to the window.
The backyard was empty.
“What man?”
Junie began sobbing.
“The silver watch man.”
Everett ran downstairs.
By the time Claire reached the back door, he was already across the yard.
A gate stood open.
Beyond it, a gray sedan accelerated away.
Everett sprinted into the street but couldn’t reach it.
He returned, breathing hard.
“Was it Daniel?”
“I couldn’t see the driver.”
Junie came downstairs.
Her face was white.
“He wants me.”
“No one is taking you.”
Junie shook her head.
“He says I belong to him.”
Everett’s face darkened.
Claire whispered, “Who says that?”
Junie pointed toward the darkness outside.
“The man who gave me away.”
They left ten minutes later.
Everett called three members of his motorcycle club.
No police.
Not yet.
Claire hated that decision, but after what her father had told her, she didn’t know who could be trusted.
They drove to Dolores Knox’s farmhouse.
Dolores opened the door and stared at Junie.
Then at Claire.
Then back at Junie.
Her face crumpled.
“Oh my God.”
Junie hid behind Claire.
Dolores immediately stepped back.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart.”
Junie peeked around her mother.
“You’re Maya’s grandma.”
Dolores covered her mouth.
Everett turned away.
Claire felt tears sting her eyes.
Dolores whispered, “How do you know that?”
Junie touched her temple.
“She remembers you.”
Dolores sank into a chair.
“She remembers your pancakes.”
Dolores began sobbing.
“My mother made pancakes shaped like stars.”
“With blueberries.”
Dolores cried harder.
Claire wanted to reject all of it.
Dreams.
Ghosts.
Memories.
Impossible connections.
But there was too much.
Junie had never met these people.
Yet she knew them.
Dolores stood and approached slowly.
“May I hug you?”
Junie looked at Claire.
Claire nodded.
Junie opened her arms.
Dolores hugged her gently.
Everett watched with tears sliding silently into his beard.
Then Junie whispered something into Dolores’s ear.
Dolores released her.
Junie repeated it louder.
“Maya says you kept the red box.”
Everett’s head turned.
Dolores’s face changed.
“What red box?”
Claire asked.
Dolores stared at her son.
“I never told you.”
Everett stepped forward.
Dolores walked toward the pantry.
Behind old cookbooks sat a small red metal box.
She placed it on the table.
“I found it in Maya’s room after she disappeared.”
Everett looked hurt.
“You hid evidence?”
“I didn’t know what it was.”
Inside were childish drawings.
A teddy bear.
Three marbles.
A plastic bracelet.
And a Polaroid photograph.
Everett picked it up.
Maya stood beside a smiling woman none of them recognized.
On the back, written in adult handwriting:
Rachel, if anything happens, ask Frank.
Everett whispered, “Rachel?”
Claire stared.
“Your ex-wife?”
Dolores shook her head.
“I thought Maya wrote it.”
“She couldn’t spell ‘anything.’”
Everett flipped it over.
The woman in the photograph was Rachel Knox.
Claire studied her face.
Then felt the room tilt.
“I know her.”
Claire’s hands shook.
“She was my nurse.”
“When I gave birth to Junie.”
Everett sat down.
Claire could hear the refrigerator humming.
“She called herself Rebecca Lane.”
Everett whispered, “Rachel became a nurse?”
The hospital room came back in fragments.
Bright lights.
Pain.
Bleeding.
Her mother crying.
A nurse holding her hand.
A woman with dark hair saying, Your baby is safe.
Claire opened her eyes.
“That was her.”
Everett stood.
“My ex-wife was in the room when Junie was born?”
Dolores whispered, “Because this was planned.”