Everett tightened his grip.
Daniel coughed.
“Ask your father.”
Claire whispered, “I did.”
Daniel’s eyes sharpened.
“What did Frank tell you?”
“That you trafficked children.”
Daniel laughed.
Actually laughed.
Then Everett drove him harder against the wall.
Daniel gasped.
“That’s what he told you?”
“What’s funny?”
Daniel looked at Claire.
“Your father built this.”
The room went silent.
Claire shook her head.
Daniel nodded toward the bracelets.
“Franklin Whitman.”
“He ran the identity program.”
Everett released Daniel slightly.
“What identity program?”
Daniel rubbed his throat.
“Children declared d.e.a.d. Children without families. Children whose records could be rewritten.”
Claire felt dizzy.
“Money. Insurance. Adoption. Witness relocation. Whatever paid.”
Everett whispered, “Maya?”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“Maya discovered something she shouldn’t have.”
Everett grabbed him again.
“Rachel was working with us.”
Everett’s face shattered.
Daniel continued.
“Maya saw her mother at a clinic.”
“She recognized her.”
Everett’s breathing became ragged.
“She followed Rachel inside.”
Daniel pointed around the white room.
“This place.”
Everett looked at the bed.
“Rachel panicked.”
“What did she do?”
“She called Frank.”
Claire whispered, “My father.”
Daniel nodded.
“Frank ordered me to make Maya disappear.”
Everett raised his fist.
Claire shouted, “Wait!”
Daniel looked at him.
“I didn’t hurt her.”
“I moved her.”
Daniel stared at Claire.
“To a new identity.”
Claire’s heart stopped.
Daniel whispered, “Your family.”
Claire’s face went numb.
Everett looked between them.
Daniel spoke slowly.
“Not as Junie.”
Claire almost collapsed.
Everett grabbed Daniel.
“Rachel was terrified Frank would find Maya.”
Claire whispered, “So?”
“So she changed Maya’s records.”
Everett’s eyes widened.
“Maya became someone else.”
Daniel looked directly at Claire.
“You.”
Nothing in the room moved.
Claire laughed once.
A tiny, broken sound.
Daniel said, “Claire Whitman did exist. She d.i.e.d at nineteen months old.”
Claire shook her head violently.
“Frank and his wife couldn’t have another child.”
“They bought a replacement identity.”
“And years later, when Frank needed Maya hidden, he gave her that identity.”
Claire pressed both hands to her ears.
Everett whispered, “How old is Claire?”
“Thirty-five.”
Maya would have been twenty-one.
The math didn’t work.
Daniel smiled faintly.
“That’s because Frank changed the birth year.”
Everett stared.
“How old are you actually?”
Claire whispered, “I don’t know.”
“You were six when you became Claire Whitman.”
Claire backed into the wall.
Images crashed through her mind.
Nightmares she’d had since childhood.
A river.
A bridge.
A brown bear.
A woman crying.
A man with a silver watch.
Her father telling her she had been adopted as an infant.
Except he never said adopted.
He had said, You were our miracle.
Everett stared at Claire as though afraid to believe what his eyes were telling him.
Daniel’s voice softened.
“Look at her wrist.”
Slowly, she looked down.
A pale crescent-shaped birthmark rested beneath her watch.
She had seen it every day of her life.
Everett began to cry.
Claire whispered, “It’s common.”
Everett stepped closer.
“It doesn’t mean anything.”
“Maya broke her left wrist when she was five.”
Claire’s breathing stopped.
“There was a scar.”
Everett pointed.
“Two inches below the birthmark.”
Claire slowly removed her watch.
A thin white scar crossed the skin.
She stared at it.
Everett covered his mouth.
Claire whispered, “I broke my wrist falling off a swing.”
Everett shook his head.
“That’s what they told you.”
Claire’s knees gave out.
Everett caught her.
She fought him.
“No!”
He let go immediately.
Claire collapsed onto the tile floor.
Daniel watched her.
“Frank used hypnosis, medication, fabricated photographs. He built childhood memories around the new identity.”
Claire screamed.