The Beggar Girl Said My Dead Wife Was Alive
CHAPTER 2 — The Woman in the Attic
Lucy led Daniel to a decaying boarding house behind an abandoned train station.
They climbed three flights of stairs to a freezing attic room.
Amelia lay beneath a worn blanket.
For seven years, Daniel had imagined this impossible moment. He expected to run to her, hold her and tell her that everything would be all right.
Instead, he stood paralyzed.
Amelia was thinner and older, but unmistakably alive.
"Amelia?"
Her eyes opened.
The instant she recognized him, terror crossed her face.
"Stay away from Lucy!"
Daniel stopped.
"I would never hurt her."
"You told us to disappear."
"I didn't know you were alive."
Amelia pulled a bundle of letters from beneath her pillow. Every envelope was addressed to Daniel. Each had been returned with cruel handwritten messages.
Stop begging.
The child is not mine.
Contact me again, and I will destroy you.
Daniel recognized the handwriting.
Vanessa had managed his private correspondence after Amelia's disappearance.
An ambulance rushed Amelia to the hospital. Doctors diagnosed pneumonia, severe malnutrition and damage caused by years of improperly prescribed medication.
Lucy refused to leave her mother's side.
Daniel called Vanessa.
"Where are you?" she asked.
"At St. Catherine's Hospital."
Silence.
Then Vanessa's voice softened.
"Daniel, whatever you've found, don't believe it."
She arrived thirty minutes later with two attorneys and a psychiatrist.
Vanessa claimed the woman was an impostor who had studied Amelia's life. She demanded that Lucy be placed in protective custody.
Daniel stepped between them.
"Get away from my daughter."
Vanessa's face tightened.
"You don't know that she's yours."
A nurse entered with Amelia's medical bag.
Inside were prescription bottles issued by a private clinic owned by Vanessa's brother.
One bottle contained sedatives Amelia had never been prescribed.
The attending doctor examined the label.
"These pills would cause memory loss and confusion."
Daniel turned toward Vanessa.
She had already begun walking toward the exit.
Detective Hannah Grant stopped her at the elevator.
Then Amelia woke and spoke one name.
Not Vanessa's.
Not Daniel's.
"Find Thomas," she gasped. "He was driving the other car."
