The Woman Daniel Remembered
Chapter 06 - The Woman Daniel Remembered
Daniel refused to speak until they were home.
Claire followed him into the kitchen.
“Who was June Carter?”
Daniel stood at the sink without turning.
“She worked for my sister.”
Claire felt cold.
“Lydia?”
Daniel nodded.
His older sister had died six years earlier in a car accident in Indiana.
Claire had never liked Lydia.
Few people had.
But she had never imagined her connected to Noah.
“What kind of work?”
“Housekeeping. Errands. Sometimes childcare.”
Claire stared at him.
“Childcare?”
“Not for us.”
“Did she know Noah?”
“I don’t know.”
“Stop lying to me.”
Daniel turned.
“I don’t know!”
The anger in his voice startled them both.
Then he lowered his head.
“I saw June once.”
“When?”
“A week before Noah disappeared.”
Claire gripped the edge of the counter.
“Where?”
“At Lydia’s house.”
“Was Noah there?”
“No.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
Claire did not believe him anymore.
That hurt almost as much as everything else.
Alvarez arrived that evening.
She had reopened the original investigation.
June Carter, she explained, had died eighteen months earlier in a county hospital in Wisconsin.
No fixed address.
No known relatives.
But there was something else.
For nearly five years, June had listed a child as her dependent on various assistance forms.
Elias Carter.
Approximate age matched Noah.
Claire closed her eyes.
“Why didn’t anyone catch this?”
“Different state. Different name. No birth certificate was ever submitted.”
“How do you just create a child?”
Alvarez looked tired.
“You don’t. You create enough confusion that nobody asks the right question.”
Daniel remained silent.
Alvarez noticed.
“You know something.”
“No.”
Claire laughed bitterly.
“That word doesn’t mean much in this house anymore.”
Daniel looked at his wife.
Then at the detective.
Finally, he spoke.
“My sister couldn't have children.”
Alvarez waited.
“After Noah was born, Lydia became... attached.”
“How attached?” Claire asked.
“She wanted him constantly. Weekends. Overnight visits.”
Claire remembered.
Lydia buying toys.
Lydia calling Noah “my little man.”
Lydia crying at his second birthday.
Claire had thought it was love.
Now the memories felt different.
Alvarez closed her notebook.
“I need access to Lydia’s old financial records.”
Daniel's head snapped up.
“Why?”
“Because someone paid June Carter’s rent for four years.”
Claire stared at him.
Alvarez continued.
“The payments came from an account connected to your family.”
Daniel whispered, “Whose account?”
May you like
Alvarez looked directly at him.
“Your mother's.”
