PART 7 – The Night Nobody Wanted to Remember
I kept staring at the message on my phone.
An unknown number.
A few words.
Yet enough to change everything once more.
"Ask her about the night Elena disappeared."
I read the sentence multiple times.
My first thought was that someone had made a mistake.
That someone had mistaken me for someone else.
Deep down, however, I knew that wasn't true.
After everything I had uncovered over the past few days, I knew one thing for certain:
There were still pieces of the truth being kept hidden from me.
I walked into the living room where Daniel and Lucas were sitting.
They looked up immediately when they saw my face.
"What is it, Mom?"
I handed my phone to Daniel.
He read the message.
His eyes darkened.
"Who sent this?"
"I don't know."
Lucas looked back and forth between us.
"Is it about my mother?"
Nobody answered right away.
And that lack of answer was actually enough.
Lucas slowly stood up.
"You guys know something."
I felt pain in my heart.
That same feeling once again.
A child noticing that adults were keeping things from them.
I took his hand.
"No, Lucas. We are trying to finally understand everything."
He looked at me.
"But everyone knew things except me."
Those words lingered.
Because he was right.
Too often adults had decided what a child was or wasn't allowed to know.
And too often children were the ones who bore the consequences.
That evening, I called Anna again.
This time, she answered.
"Sofia?"
Her voice sounded cautious.
"Anna, we need to talk."
A long silence.
"Did you find him?"
I stiffened.
Not because she knew who I was talking about.
Yet because she immediately knew what I meant.
"So you knew Lucas was with me?"
Anna sighed.
"I knew this day would come eventually."
My hands grew cold.
"Where are you?"
"At home."
"I'm coming over."
She wanted to say something.
However, I hung up.
Daniel wanted to come along.
I shook my head.
"Not this time."
He looked surprised.
"Why not?"
"Because I need to ask my sister why she let me live a lie for twelve years."
Lucas looked at me.
"I want to know what happened."
I knelt in front of him.
"I promise you I will come back with answers."
He nodded slowly.
Yet I saw the fear in his eyes.
The fear that people would vanish again.
"I'm coming back," I said once more.
This time not just to him.
But to myself as well.
* * *
Anna still lived in our parents' old house.
The house where we grew up.
When I arrived, the door was already open.
As if she knew she could no longer run away.
She sat at the kitchen table.
Just like old times.
Only we were no longer the same people.
"Sofia…"
I sat down opposite her.
"Tell me about Elena."
Anna closed her eyes.
I could see instantly that she knew this moment would arrive.
"What do you want to know?"
"Everything."
She swallowed hard.
"She and Daniel met when he was young."
"I know that."
"No, Sofia. You don't know everything yet."
Those words silenced me.
Anna stared at her hands.
"Elena wasn't just scared when she found out she was pregnant."
"Of what?"
"Your father."
I felt a chill run through me.
"My father?"
Anna nodded.
"He was angry. Not because he didn't want Lucas. But because he was afraid Daniel would make the same mistakes he had made in the past."
I didn't understand.
"What mistakes?"
Anna looked at me.
"Our father had once left someone behind too."
My breath caught.
"What?"
She nodded slowly.
"A woman before he married your mother."
I remained silent.
My whole life I had thought I knew my father.
Apparently, however, I only knew the part he had allowed me to see.
"What does that have to do with Elena?"
"He saw himself in Daniel."
Anna wiped away a tear.
"He wanted to prevent Daniel from ruining his life."
"Instead, he ruined it completely."
Anna nodded.
"I know."
I felt my anger rising.
"Why did you help?"
She looked away.
"Because I thought I was doing the right thing."
"Everyone says that."
My voice broke.
"Everyone thought they were doing the right thing. But nobody thought of Lucas."
Anna began to cry.
"I know."
"Where was Elena that night?"
Anna fell silent.
Very silent.
I knew immediately this was the answer I was waiting for.
"Anna."
She looked at me.
"She came to our house."
My heart beat faster.
"When?"
"The night before she left."
"Left?"
Anna nodded.
"She wanted to speak to Daniel one last time."
"And?"
"He didn't come."
I felt sorrow.
Not just for Lucas.
But for Elena as well.
A woman who perhaps waited that night for someone who never arrived.
"Why didn't Daniel come?"
"Because your father had stopped him."
I closed my eyes.
"And you?"
Anna looked down.
"I knew about it."
"So you let her go?"
She wept.
"I thought she would start a new life somewhere else."
"But she took Lucas with her."
"Yes."
"And nobody looked for her?"
Anna shook her head.
"That's not true."
I looked surprised.
"What do you mean?"
Anna took a deep breath.
"Your father did look for her."
"But?"
"He found her."
I felt my heart pound.
"When?"
"A few months later."
"And why didn't anyone tell me that?"
Anna looked at me with tears in her eyes.
"Because he discovered then that Elena was seriously ill."
I fell silent.
"And?"
"He wanted to help."
"But?"
Anna swallowed.
"He discovered that Daniel never knew Elena had left one final letter for him."
My heart skipped a beat.
"Which letter?"
Anna looked at me.
"The letter in which Elena explained everything."
"Where is it?"
She stared at the floor.
"I don't know."
"Anna."
"I swear, Sofia. I don't know."
Then something happened.
Her phone rang.
She looked at the screen.
Her expression changed.
As if she had seen a ghost.
"Who is it?" I asked.
She didn't answer.
I saw only the name on the screen.
A name I hadn't expected.
Robert.
My heart began to beat faster.
Because if Robert was calling now…
That meant one thing.
He knew we were beginning to find the truth.
And perhaps he also knew where Elena's final letter was hidden.
