Chapter 10 - AUNT SARAH
Sarah Mercer opened her apartment door and didn't look surprised to see Ryan.
That frightened him more than if she had.
“You finally found out.”
Ryan stayed in the hallway.
“Did you put notes outside my door?”
Sarah glanced toward the camera above the elevator.
“Come inside.”
“No.”
“Ryan.”
“Answer me.”
She sighed.
“Yes.”
The hallway seemed to narrow.
“The messages?”
“Yes.”
“The photograph?”
“Yes.”
“The note about my mother's garage?”
“Yes.”
Ryan stared at her.
“Why?”
“Because neither of them was going to tell you the truth.”
“So you stalked me to expose the fact that they were stalking me.”
Sarah gave a humorless smile.
“When you say it like that, the family resemblance sounds terrible.”
Ryan wasn't amused.
“Did you put the AirTag in my car?”
“No. That was Evan.”
“Did you know?”
“After he did it.”
“And you let me think there might be some unknown third stalker.”
“I needed you to keep looking.”
Ryan stepped closer.
“You needed?”
Sarah's expression softened.
“I watched my brother become obsessed after Linda disappeared with you. I watched Linda disappear into another identity. I spent seventeen years being told it wasn't my business.”
“It wasn't.”
“You were my nephew.”
“I was a child.”
“Exactly.”
Ryan shook his head.
“You all talk about seven-year-old me like I'm still standing in front of you.”
Sarah flinched.
He continued.
“I am twenty-four. Stop making decisions for me.”
Sarah reached toward the doorframe.
“I thought you deserved the truth.”
“I did.”
Ryan looked straight at her.
“But truth delivered through anonymous messages and surveillance is still manipulation.”
Sarah's shoulders lowered.
For the first time, someone in the family seemed to actually hear him.
“There is one more thing,” she said.
Ryan almost laughed.
“Of course there is.”
Sarah disappeared briefly and returned with a small envelope.
She didn't hand it to him.
She placed it on the floor between them.
“Your mother didn't just hide you from Evan.”
Ryan looked down.
“What does that mean?”
“She hid you from everyone.”
“That isn't news.”
“No.”
Sarah shook her head.
“I mean after you turned eighteen.”
Ryan frowned.
Sarah continued.
“I contacted Linda when you were eighteen. I told her I wouldn't give Evan her address. I only wanted to know if you wanted contact with your father's side of the family.”
“What did she say?”
Sarah hesitated.
“She said you'd already made your decision.”
Ryan felt something cold settle inside him.
“I didn't know you existed.”
“I know.”
“What exactly did she tell you?”
Sarah swallowed.
“She told me you knew the full story and wanted all of us to stay away.”
Ryan looked toward Linda's apartment folder still fresh in his memory.
The sealed letters.
The background checks.
The tracking device.
His mother had not just protected him from a dangerous custody fight.
She had continued choosing his reality long after he became capable of choosing it himself.
Ryan picked up Sarah's envelope.
Inside was a birthday card.
His eighteenth birthday.
It contained only one handwritten sentence.
If you ever want to know us, the choice should be yours.
Ryan stood silently in the hallway.
For seventeen years, every member of his family had claimed to be fighting over his right to belong.
May you like
Not one of them had understood the simplest thing.
Ryan did not belong to any of them.
