The Storage Unit
Chapter 12 - The Storage Unit
Claire took Alvarez with her.
She did not trust herself to open the unit alone.
Inside were twelve cardboard boxes.
Lydia's name appeared on six.
Evelyn's on three.
Daniel's handwriting marked the rest.
Photographs.
Bank records.
Letters.
And a small wooden train.
Claire dropped to her knees.
She remembered buying it for Noah's second birthday.
One wheel was still missing.
Alvarez found the photograph first.
A boy standing outside a grocery store.
Thin.
Five or six years old.
Blurry.
But unmistakable.
Noah.
Claire pressed the photograph against her chest.
Three lost years.
Three years Daniel could have saved.
Then Alvarez found a letter.
Written by Lydia.
Never sent.
Claire,
I don't know how to return what I took.
I told myself you didn't deserve him. I told myself you already had everything, while I had nothing.
Then he cried for you every night.
I became afraid.
Not of the police.
Of you seeing what I had done.
Claire stopped reading.
Alvarez continued silently.
Lydia had taken Noah intending to keep him for one weekend.
June helped.
Then a missing-child alert spread nationally.
They panicked.
June drove Noah across state lines.
Lydia promised to follow.
She never did.
Fear became silence.
Silence became years.
Then Claire found something else.
A list of payments.
Evelyn had supported June.
Daniel had paid the investigator.
But another name appeared repeatedly.
Thomas Reed.
Claire did not recognize it.
Alvarez did.
“June's former boyfriend.”
“What did he do?”
The detective's face darkened.
“He was released from prison two months ago.”
“For what?”
“Fraud. Assault. Child endangerment.”
Claire felt suddenly cold.
“Did Eli know him?”
Alvarez checked another document.
“I think Thomas lived with June.”
Claire thought of Eli sleeping in alleys.
His fear of adults.
The way he flinched when touched.
“Where is he now?”
Alvarez didn't answer immediately.
Then her phone rang.
She listened.
Her expression changed.
“What?”
Claire demanded.
Alvarez ended the call.
“Thomas Reed just contacted family court.”
Claire's heart began pounding.
May you like
“Why?”
“He says Eli is his legal son.”
