Chapter 23 - UNIT 214
The storage facility manager remembered Adam.
Not well.
Enough.
“He'd come maybe twice a year.”
“When was the last time?”
The manager checked.
“Seven months before he died.”
Ryan looked at Nora.
Five years after Lily's birth.
Adam had still been maintaining something connected to Mara.
Unit 214 opened with Nora's key.
No dramatic wall of evidence.
No secret fortune.
No second family.
Boxes.
Baby clothes.
A crib frame.
Mara's college books.
Two lamps.
Then Ryan saw a metal file cabinet.
Locked.
Nora found the key taped underneath.
Inside were folders labeled by year.
LILY — MEDICAL.
LILY — SCHOOL.
GRANT PAYMENTS.
ADAM.
RYAN.
Ryan stared.
Nora looked at him.
“You want me to stay?”
“Yes.”
That answer came quickly.
They opened ADAM first.
Receipts.
Birthday gifts.
Cash transfers.
Never huge.
Fifty dollars.
Two hundred.
Four hundred.
Adam had helped quietly too.
Ryan found photographs.
Lily at one.
Lily at two.
Lily at three.
Most were clearly sent by Mara.
On one, Adam had written:
She has Ryan's angry eyebrows.
Ryan laughed unexpectedly.
Then stopped.
There was an audio recorder in the back.
Cheap.
Old.
Nora pressed play.
Mara's voice.
“If you're listening to this, it's because I'm finally cleaning out the unit or I died before I got organized.”
Nora sat down hard.
Ryan didn't move.
Mara continued.
“Adam says audio is dramatic.”
A male voice in the background:
“It is.”
Adam.
Ryan closed his eyes.
Mara laughed.
“Shut up.”
Then her voice became serious.
“This is for Ryan.”
Ryan opened his eyes.
“If you ever hear this, I'm sorry.”
Silence filled the storage unit.
“I told myself you rejected Lily.”
A breath.
“Grant told me.”
“Claire told me.”
“Then the message from your number told me.”
“But the truth is...”
Mara paused.
“I needed to believe you rejected us.”
Ryan's face tightened.
“Because the other possibility was that I had let everyone else decide whether you deserved to know.”
Nora wiped her face.
Mara continued.
“Adam wanted to tell you after the test.”
Ryan looked toward the recorder.
“He tried twice.”
Ryan frowned.
“Then I stopped him once.”
Nora looked up.
Mara's voice trembled.
“I told him if he told you, Claire might leave, Ethan's home might break, and Lily would grow up believing she caused it.”
Ryan whispered:
“No.”
The recording continued.
“I thought I was protecting my daughter.”
A long silence.
“I was also protecting myself from finding out you might actually want her.”
Ryan sat down.
That hurt more than the lies.
Because it was honest.
Then Adam's voice came from the recording.
“Mara.”
“What?”
“You need to tell him the other part.”
Silence.
Mara sighed.
“Fine.”
She spoke directly into the recorder.
“Adam did eventually decide to tell you.”
Ryan leaned forward.
“He wrote you a letter.”
Ryan stared at Nora.
May you like
Mara continued.
“And Grant found it first.”
