Chapter 11 - Ghosts from Oregon
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Three days later, I was discharged from the hospital.
I couldn't go back to our apartment. The thought of walking past the closed door of Oliver's nursery was too much to bear. So, Daniel and I stayed at my mother’s house, wrapped in a cloud of grief so thick it felt like drowning.
On our fifth morning there, a delivery truck pulled up, and Daniel was handed a certified letter requiring a signature.
There was no return name on the heavy manila envelope—just a postmark from a small town in Oregon.
Daniel opened it at the kitchen table. Inside was a single piece of paper, typed in plain black font, along with an old, faded photograph.
Daniel,
I have waited thirty-one years for someone in your family to tell the truth. I saw the news about Margaret’s arrest online. If Robert is finally speaking, ask him what happened after I fell down the basement stairs. Ask him who your mother brought home from the hospital six months later.
—Laura
Daniel stared at the page, his breath catching in his throat. He picked up the photograph attached to the note.
It was a picture of two young women standing by a lake in the summer of 1991. One was unmistakably a younger Margaret. The other was a woman who shared her piercing eyes—her sister, Laura.
"Who did she bring home?" I asked, reading the letter over his shoulder.
Without saying a word, Daniel grabbed his car keys. "We're going to my dad's apartment."
When Robert opened the door to his small rented unit, he looked exhausted. But the moment he saw the letter in Daniel’s hand, all the color drained from his face.
"Dad," Daniel said, slamming the paper onto the kitchen counter. "Who did Mom bring home thirty-one years ago?!"
Robert closed his eyes, leaning heavily against the wall. "Oh God... Laura contacted you."
"Answer me!" Daniel yelled. "Who was the baby?!"
Robert took a ragged breath. "Laura went into premature labor months after the fall. She gave birth to a baby girl... named Claire."
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Daniel frowned, confused. "A baby girl? What happened to her?"
Robert looked up, his eyes filled with sheer terror. "Your mother brought Claire home from the hospital. And then... the baby disappeared."
