Clara did not answer.
He sat across from her.
“I know you’re angry.”
“Angry?” Clara laughed bitterly. “You brought the woman who destroyed my childhood into our bedroom.”
Daniel lowered his eyes.
“I didn’t know what else to do.”
“A hospital.” Clara snapped. “A care facility. Anywhere else.”
“She refused treatment.”
“Then let her refuse!”
The words exploded out before Clara could stop them.
Silence followed.
Heavy.
Ugly.
Daniel looked at her carefully.
“You don’t mean that.”
But Clara wasn’t sure anymore.
Because every time she closed her eyes, memories returned.
Her mother locking Anna outside during winter because she forgot her piano sheet music.
Her mother calling Clara worthless after she failed a mathematics exam.
Her mother standing emotionless at Anna’s funeral.
No tears.
No grief.
Only disappointment.
As if death itself had been an inconvenience.
A sudden sound interrupted Clara’s thoughts.
A crash.
Upstairs.
All three of them ran toward the bedroom.
The sight inside stopped Clara cold.
Her mother was standing barefoot beside the bed, trembling violently.
And smiling.
Not warmly.
Not weakly.
Smiling with terrifying recognition.
“Anna,” she whispered again.
Clara’s pulse spiked.
“I’m not Anna.”
The old woman’s smile widened.
“You always lie when you’re frightened.”
Noah moved closer to Clara.
“Mom…”
But Clara could barely hear him.
Because something had changed.
The confusion in her mother’s eyes was gone.
For the first time since Clara entered the apartment, the old woman looked fully aware.
Fully awake.
And then she said something that hollowed the air from the room.
“I know what really happened at the lake.”
Clara’s knees nearly buckled.
Daniel stared at her.
“What lake?”
Clara said nothing.
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