“Who else had access to your file back then?” Mara asked, her voice dropping to a whisper.
Evelyn did not answer, her mind racing back to the quiet afternoons in the private wing of the clinic.
She remembered Claire visiting her twice, bringing small baskets of green apples and magazines that Evelyn had been too tired to read.
“Claire was there the day before the labor started,” Evelyn said, her voice flat. “She brought me a cup of chamomile tea.”
“We need to find out who authorized this,” Mara said, her eyes dark with a sudden, sharp anger.
At ten o’clock, Mara left for the courthouse, leaving Evelyn in the quiet of the living room with the weekly laundry.
Lily stood by the sofa, folding a pile of warm white bath towels and stacking them with neat, deliberate movements.
The seventeen-year-old girl twisted the hem of her gray cardigan with her left hand while holding a pillowcase with her right.
“Evelyn,” Lily said, her voice hesitant and quiet. “Do you think people can remember things from before they were three?”
Evelyn stopped folding a flannel shirt, looking up at the girl she had taken in two years ago.
“Sometimes we keep fragments,” Evelyn said. “A color, or a sound. Why do you ask?”
Lily set the pillowcase on the stack, her shoulders dropping slightly as she looked down at her sneakers.
“I had that dream again last night,” Lily whispered. “The one with the long hallway and the lady in the white coat.”
Evelyn set her iron down on its metal stand, the steam hissing softly into the quiet room.
“The lady with the white coat,” Evelyn repeated. “Does she say anything to you?”
“No,” Lily said, her fingers tightening on her cardigan. “But she has very shiny hair, and she carries a small metal box with a red light on it.”
Evelyn felt a cold stillness settle in her chest as she watched the young girl’s hands.
Lily had been placed in the foster system with no birth certificate, only a temporary card from a county three hours away.
“Did the lady in the coat ever touch you?” Evelyn asked, keeping her tone light and conversational.
