Edward walked to a painting on the wall—a landscape of the mountains at sunset. He slid it aside to reveal a wall safe, which he opened with a familiar sequence of numbers. From inside, he pulled out a small velvet box and brought it to Lily.
“It was found in the car after the accident,” he explained, opening the box to reveal the silver star pendant. Its chain was broken. “The clasp must have given way in the water.”
Lily stared at the necklace, her fingers hovering over it but not quite touching, as if afraid it might dissolve into mist. “I remember wearing it,” she said softly. “All the time. I never took it off.” She looked at Martha. “Did I have it when you found me?”
Martha shook her head. “No, honey. You had nothing but the clothes you were wearing. And they were soaked through.”
A heavy silence filled the room as the reality of what had happened, and what had almost been lost, sank in. Edward carefully closed the box and set it on the desk next to the photo album.
“There’s no rush,” he said gently. “Your memories are coming back naturally. We’ll take things at whatever pace you’re comfortable with.”
Lily nodded, but her expression turned anxious again. “If I’m Emma…” she said slowly. “Does that mean Lily wasn’t real? That my whole life with Grandma Martha was a pretend?”
“Not at all,” Edward said firmly, kneeling so he was at eye level with her. “The past two years with Martha were completely real. The love between you is real. The experiences you shared are real. Learning you had a life before that doesn’t invalidate anything that came after.”
“Ed is right,” Martha added, joining them. “You are who you are today because of all your experiences—both the ones you remember and the ones you don’t. Emma or Lily, you’re still the same wonderful girl I’ve loved since the moment I found you.”
The medical center lab was a sterile maze of white corridors and glass doors. Lily (or Emma—the name she was gradually accepting as part of her identity) gripped Martha’s hand as they followed a technician into a small exam room. Edward walked beside them, his presence both comforting and unnerving.
“The DNA test is very simple,” Dr. Kaplan explained, addressing Lily directly rather than talking over her head. “I’m just going to take a swab from the inside of your cheek, and then I’ll do the same for Mr. Harrison. It doesn’t hurt at all.”
Lily nodded bravely, though her grip on Martha’s hand tightened. “And this will tell us for sure if I’m really Emma?”
“Yes,” the doctor confirmed. “The results will be conclusive. We should have them within forty-eight hours.”
As they left the hospital, Lily was quiet, staring out the car window at the familiar city landscape. Martha was the first to notice her withdrawal.
“You okay, honey? You were very brave today.”
Lily shrugged, still looking out the window. “What if the test says I’m not Emma? What happens then?”
The question hung in the air, touching on the possibility none of them had fully discussed. Edward caught Martha’s eye in the rearview mirror for a brief second before responding.
“If you’re not Emma,” he said carefully, “then nothing changes about our arrangement. You and Martha still have the apartment, your school enrollment, everything we’ve set up. My commitment to helping you both isn’t dependent on you being my daughter.”
“But you won’t want to spend time with us anymore,” Lily said with a child’s bluntness. “You’ll be sad and you’ll go away.”
Edward pulled the car over, turning to face her. “Lily, listen to me. Yes, I’ll be disappointed. I won’t pretend I won’t be. But over these last few weeks, I’ve come to care about you and Martha regardless of whether you’re biologically related to me. You saved my life. You brought light back into my world when it had gone dark. That doesn’t change, no matter what the test results say.”
Lily studied his face, seemingly measuring the truth of his words. Finally, she nodded, apparently satisfied. “Okay. But I think I am Emma. I keep remembering more things about the house and you.”
Back at the apartment, Martha prepared lunch while Edward received an unexpected call from Detective Brennan.
“We got him,” Brennan said without preamble. “Mercer flipped on Sterling. Gave us everything—the planning, the execution, even recordings of their conversations discussing the kidnapping. Sterling was arrested an hour ago at the Harrison Tech offices.”
Edward took the news with a surprising calm. “What happens now?”
