Page 62

“It’s not that.I don’t have a thirty-year-old daughter.”

“Okay, then thank you,” Abby said, disappointed.

She was about to hang up when Brian added, “But I did have two daughters I haven’t seen since they were small.”

“What were their names?”Abby asked.

“Morgan and Charlotte.”The man sounded choked up.

Morgan and Charlie were stunned.

“Morgan and Charlie are my sisters,” Abby said.“They’re here too.”

“Hello, this is Morgan,” she said quietly.

“How old are you?”he asked.

“If you’re my father, then you tell me,” Morgan said.

“My Morgan would be thirty-four.And Charlotte would be thirty-two,” he said, his voice cracking.

Abby put the phone down on the coffee table.Morgan’s hands shook as she moved closer to the speaker.

“Where were we born?”Morgan asked.

“Maimonides Hospital in Brooklyn, New York.”

“Yes!”Charlie yelled as if she’d been picked as a contestant on a game show.

“Is that Charlotte?”Brian asked.

“I go by Charlie now.”

“I can’t believe this,” Brian said, sounding both elated and shocked.“I’ve been looking for you two since Carla disappeared.”

Abby moved toward the phone.“What about me?”Abby asked.

“I’m sorry, Carla wasn’t pregnant when she left me.Are you sure you’re mine?”

Abby didn’t say anything.She walked away and let Morgan and Charlie continue to talk to him.Morgan told Brian that Carla had passed away, and he said he was sorry to hear that.

“How did she die?”

“She committed suicide,” Morgan said.

“I can’t believe Carla would do something like that.She was destroyed when her brother killed himself,” Brian said.

Morgan couldn’t stop blinking.“We had no idea,” Morgan said.“We knew her brother had died when she was young, but she never told us how.”

“I wonder if that’s why she thought it was a valid way out,” Charlie said.

“Well, it wasn’t.It only left us with unanswered questions,” Morgan said.

As Morgan and Charlie continued their conversation with Brian, Abby stared out the window at the house across the street.The fire had eaten the exterior, and most of the front windows were broken or warped from the heat.The archway at the front door had collapsed, and soot and grime were on the walkway and the grass.

I feel like that house,Abby thought.Abandoned, forgotten, no one wants me.Abby shuddered; her insides felt singed and burned.Oh, Mom, I could really use you right now.Abby stayed at the window and silently cried for all the things she might never have.

CHAPTER 28