Chapter 8: Lila’s Confession
We found Lila through an old address written on the back of the photograph.
She lived in a small town two hours away, under a married name, with gray in her hair and guilt in her eyes before I even spoke.
When she saw Emily and Grace standing beside me, she covered her mouth.
“She was right,” Lila whispered. “You found them.”
I could barely keep my voice steady.
“Why didn’t you come forward?”
Lila cried then.
Not politely.
Like someone who had carried a coffin inside her chest for eighteen years.
“My father threatened me,” she said. “He said if I told you, he would have the girls taken somewhere you’d never find them. Anna made me promise to leave them at that beach because Chris had already booked the trip. She knew he would drag you there.”
I remembered Chris throwing the duffel bag into my truck.
My best friend had thought he was saving me from grief.
He had unknowingly driven me straight to my daughters.
Epilogue: The Towels Came Home ⬇️