PART 2
For several seconds, I thought I had heard my mother wrong.
“My brother?”
Mom’s eyes filled with tears.
The passenger who had yelled at us earlier lowered his magazine, while Captain Daniel stood beside our seats with an expression that frightened me even more than his words.
There was guilt in his face.
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
Mom reached into her purse and pulled out an old envelope with my name written across it.
“I was going to give you this after we landed.”
Inside was a photograph of two boys beside a lake.
One was about ten. The other looked around seven.
I flipped it over.
Thomas and Daniel. Summer 1987.
I looked at the captain.
“That’s you?”
He nodded.
“And Thomas?”
Mom whispered, “My son.”
I stared at her.
“You had another child?”
“Yes.”
“What happened to him?”
“Thomas disappeared when he was seventeen.”
I felt cold.
“Disappeared?”
Mom nodded.
“For years, I believed he was dead. Until three weeks ago.”
Daniel pulled another envelope from his jacket.
“I received a letter.”
Inside were only a few lines:
Daniel,
If Eleanor Bennett is still alive, tell her I kept my promise.
Tell Emily I’m sorry.
And tell them not to look for me.
My hands trembled.
“How does he know my name?”
Mom covered her mouth.
“There are things about our family I never told you.”
Daniel finally explained that Thomas had vanished after telling him he had discovered something involving the family business.
Our family had once owned Bennett Transport, one of the largest freight companies in the area.
Thomas didn’t want the company. He wanted to become a musician.
The night before he disappeared, he called Daniel and said he had found something important.
Daniel never made it to their meeting because his father suffered a heart attack.
By morning, Thomas was gone.
He left almost everything behind, including the guitar he loved.
“I never believed he ran away,” Daniel said.
Then I noticed the line in the letter again.
I kept my promise.
“What promise?”
Mom went silent.
Finally, she whispered, “Thomas promised to protect you.”
“Protect me from what? I wasn’t even born.”
Daniel suddenly stood.
“Ask her about the hospital bracelet.”
Then he walked away.
Mom opened her purse again and pulled out a faded bracelet.
A date was printed on it.
It was three years before my official birth date.
“This is yours,” she whispered.
I stared at her.
“That’s impossible.”
“No. That’s the day we brought you home.”
“From where?”
Mom began crying.
“From your grandmother.”
I felt like the floor had disappeared.
Then she finally told me the truth.
Before Thomas disappeared, Mom had another daughter named Rebecca.
Rebecca became pregnant at eighteen and disappeared after refusing to reveal the father of her child.
She eventually gave birth to me in secret and left me with my grandmother.
Mom had raised me as her own daughter ever since.
For thirty-six years, I had called my grandmother “Mom.”
I could barely speak.
“Why did you lie?”
“We wanted to protect you.”
“From what?”
Mom looked toward the window.
“Rebecca disappeared again after leaving you. Thomas believed she was in danger.”
Everything suddenly connected.
The photograph.
The letters.
Thomas’s promise.
And the secret surrounding my birth.
“Do you think Rebecca is alive?”
“I don’t know.”
“And Thomas?”
“We know he was alive three weeks ago.”
Then Mom revealed why we were actually flying to Denver.
Someone had contacted Daniel and instructed Mom to come alone if she wanted to learn what happened to Thomas.
She had brought me because her doctor warned her she might not have much time left.
Before I could process that, the passenger from earlier approached us.
“I’m sorry for what I said before,” he told me.
He handed me a business card.
Michael Ross — Private Investigator.
Mom suddenly went pale.
“You’re Michael Ross?”
He nodded.
“You worked for Bennett Transport.”
Michael stared at her.
“How do you know my father?”
Mom swallowed.
“Before he died, he told me Thomas had found the missing ledger.”
“What ledger?” Michael asked.
“I never found out.”
The plane landed forty-five minutes later.
At the gate, Daniel gave me another envelope.
“This was delivered to the airline office. It’s for you.”
Inside was a motel key card.
Room 214.
There was also a recent photograph of a gray-haired man standing outside a diner.
It was Thomas.
On the back, someone had written:
HE IS NOT YOUR ONLY FAMILY STILL ALIVE.
Then another line:
ASK ELEANOR WHAT REALLY HAPPENED TO REBECCA.
I slowly looked at Mom.
Her face had gone completely white.
“Mom?”
She stared at the photograph.
Then she whispered:
“She found us.”
“Who?”
Mom looked at me with terror in her eyes.
“Your mother.”
