Chương 6
“No.”
“That means you were.”
For a brief second, the tension broke.
Not disappeared.
Just loosened.
Lucy watched them.
“She would have liked that.”
Mariana’s expression changed.
“Liked what?”
“That you argue.”
Mariana frowned.
“That is a strange thing to say.”
“She always said people who cared enough to argue were people who still wanted to stay.”
The words landed harder than Mariana expected.
She looked down at the old note.
Her mother’s handwriting.
Her mother’s fear.
Her mother’s love.
All existing at the same time.
Nothing was simple anymore.
Lucy continued.
“When you were born, your mother discovered something about the hospital.”
“What?”
“She found files that did not match.”
“About babies?”
Lucy nodded.
“About people.”
Alejandro opened his folder.
“My grandfather wrote about a pattern.”
“What pattern?”
“Certain records disappeared.”
Mariana looked at him.
“Disappeared how?”
“Names changed.”
“Why would someone change names on medical records?”
Nobody answered immediately.
That silence told Mariana enough.
Not everything.
But enough.
Lucy spoke.
“Because some people wanted certain children separated from certain families.”
A chill moved through Mariana.
“Why?”
Lucy looked at the floor.
“Money.”
Alejandro shook his head.
“Not only money.”
Lucy looked at him.
“You found more?”
He hesitated.
“Yes.”
Mariana noticed.
“What?”
Alejandro unlocked his phone.
He showed them a photograph of a handwritten page.
“My grandfather believed someone inside the hospital was helping arrange illegal adoptions.”
Mariana stared.
The words felt unreal.
But Lucy did not look surprised.
She looked devastated.
“You knew.”
Lucy shook her head quickly.
“Not the whole thing.”
“But you suspected.”
“Yes.”
“Then why didn’t you tell anyone?”
Lucy’s face tightened.
“Because I was scared.”
The honesty stopped Mariana.
Lucy continued.
“I had a baby in my arms.”
Mariana looked at her.
“You mean me.”
Lucy nodded.
“Your mother believed someone was watching her.”
“Was someone?”
Lucy looked toward the door.
“I don’t know.”
The uncertainty bothered Mariana.
She wanted a villain.
Someone clear.
Someone she could blame.
Instead, she had a collection of frightened people making choices in the dark.
“What happened after?”
Lucy looked at the floor.
“Your mother disappeared.”
Mariana felt her chest tighten.
“You said she left to protect me.”
“Yes.”
“Where did she go?”
Lucy hesitated.
“I don’t know.”
The answer came too quickly.
Mariana noticed.
“You do.”
Lucy looked at her.
“I know where she planned to go.”
“Where?”
Lucy swallowed.
“She was supposed to meet someone.”
“Who?”
“A man named Daniel.”
Alejandro looked up.
“Daniel Mercer?”
Lucy’s face changed.
“You know him?”
Mariana looked between them.
The room shifted again.
Another name.
Another missing piece.
Alejandro slowly nodded.
“My grandfather mentioned him.”
“Who was he?”
Alejandro stared at the phone in his hand.
“He was the person my grandfather believed could expose everything.”
Mariana felt a new fear settle in.
Not the fear of discovering the past.
The fear that the past might still be alive.
Daniel Mercer’s name stayed in the room after Alejandro stopped speaking.
It did not feel like a name from the past.
It felt like someone had just walked through the front door.
Mariana looked at Alejandro.
“You know him.”
Alejandro shook his head.
“Not personally.”
“But you know who he is.”
“I know who he was.”
Lucy’s fingers tightened around the edge of her sweater.
“Was?”
Alejandro looked at her.
“My grandfather wrote that Daniel died.”
“When?”
“Three years after your mother disappeared.”
Lucy stared at him.
“That is impossible.”
“Why?”
“Because Clara was waiting for him.”
Mariana looked between them.
“Waiting for him where?”
Lucy looked uncomfortable.
“I don’t know.”
“You said you knew where she planned to go.”
“I knew where she told me she was going.”
“And you never followed?”
Lucy’s expression changed.
“I was trying to protect you.”
Mariana looked away.
That answer no longer comforted her.
It had become a wall people hid behind.
“I was a baby,” Mariana said.
“You keep saying you protected me.”
Her voice became quieter.
“But nobody protected me from growing up without knowing anything.”
Lucy lowered her head.
The words hurt.
Mariana saw that.
She hated that she saw it.
Because part of her still wanted Lucy to be the person responsible.
It would have been easier.
A single person to blame.
A single wound with a name.
Instead, she had a room full of people who had all been afraid.
Alejandro placed his phone on the table.
“There is something else about Daniel.”
Mariana looked at him.
“What?”
“My grandfather’s notes said Daniel was not just investigating the hospital.”
Lucy looked up.
“What was he investigating?”
Alejandro hesitated.
“Families.”
Nobody moved.
“What does that mean?”
“He believed the altered records were connected to more than adoptions.”
Lucy stared at him.
“More than?”
“He thought someone was changing identities.”
Mariana felt a strange pressure in her ears.
“Changing identities?”
Alejandro nodded.
“Not just names on paper.”
The idea sounded impossible.
Then again, so did everything else that morning.
“My grandfather wrote that Daniel believed there were people living under names that were not theirs.”
Lucy looked pale.
“Clara knew.”
Mariana turned toward her.
“What?”
Lucy looked like she regretted saying it.
“Clara knew something.”
“Something about what?”
“I don’t know.”
“You do.”
Lucy looked down.
“I knew she was scared.”
“That is not the same thing.”
“No.”
Lucy swallowed.
“It isn’t.”
The old woman looked at Mariana.
“She never told me everything because she thought knowing less would keep me safer.”
Mariana gave a small, bitter smile.
“That sounds familiar.”
Lucy accepted the criticism.
“I deserved that.”
A quiet moment followed.
The refrigerator hummed in the background.
A car horn sounded outside.
Someone in the neighboring building laughed loudly.
Ordinary life continued pressing against the walls of a house where nothing felt ordinary anymore.
Mariana sat down again.
Her anger had not disappeared.
It had simply become too exhausted to stand.
“What happened after my mother disappeared?”
Lucy looked at the old key on the counter.
“I waited.”
“For how long?”
“Years.”
“For her?”
May you like
“For news.”
Mariana watched her.
