“My sister would never have—”
Aunt Sondra abruptly went silent. She looked strange. Inexplicably horrified.
“What’s wrong?” Raven said.
“Oh my god,” Aunt Sondra whispered. She took out her phone and typed something into it. As she scrolled her finger on the screen, Raven and Jackie looked at each other. He was as confused by her aunt’s actions as Raven was.
Her aunt stopped scrolling and stared at her phone. She pressed her hand to her mouth.
“What?” Raven said. “What are you reading?”
“Oh god . . . Audrey. What have you done?” Tears spilled from her eyes. The most brazen person Raven had ever known was crying.
“Why are you crying?”
She held the phone out so Raven could see. There was a news article.
Granddaughter of Senator Bauhammer Abducted. Search Widens Beyond New York.
“This happened sixteen years ago. She took you, Raven.”
“You’re wrong! That has nothing to do with me!”
Her aunt typed into her phone again and scrolled some more. She whispered, “Dear god.” She gave the phone to Raven. “Does that woman look familiar?”
The caption on the photograph said the woman was Ellis Bauhammer.
Raven stared at the woman’s face. It was almost like looking in a mirror.
PART FIVE
DAUGHTER OF THE MIRACULOUS UNIVERSE
1
RAVEN
The limousine stopped at a gray stone building with shiny gold letters that said, YORK, BAUHAMMER & SCHIFF LLP. The driver opened the door. “I don’t know how long we’ll be inside,” Raven’s aunt told him.
“I’ll stay close,” he said.
Raven followed her aunt into the building. They entered a tiny room that made Raven nervous, her first time inside an elevator.
“Sondra Lind Young to see Mr. Bauhammer,” Aunt Sondra said to the receptionist behind a desk. The woman showed them to a wooden door down the hall. The nameplate said, JONAH M. BAUHAMMER III, ESQ. The receptionist knocked lightly before she opened it. “Mrs. Lind Young is here.”
“Send her in,” a man inside said.
Aunt Sondra went ahead of Raven. The man was standing next to a big desk. He had wisps of white in his thick, dark hair, and he looked a tiny bit like Jackie might look when he grew up, except with blue eyes. He was wearing a gray suit, white shirt, and purple patterned tie. Behind him, tall windows looked out at the sky and city buildings.
“Thank you for seeing me on short notice,” Aunt Sondra said, extending her hand. “My father met your father on several occasions. He spoke well of him.”
The man shook her hand, glanced at Raven, then looked back at her more closely.
Aunt Sondra stepped away to observe his response.
The man kept staring, and Raven’s heart beat like a trapped bird was trying to fly out of her chest.
Aunt Sondra sighed. “I thought so.”
“You thought what? Who is this?” the man asked.
“Does she look familiar?”
“She looks like . . .” He gazed at Raven, didn’t finish the sentence.
“Your ex-wife?”
Ex? Raven didn’t know they were divorced. She’d been told almost nothing. And she hadn’t asked. She didn’t want to know anything about these people. She only wanted to go back to her house and Jackie and school.
“Who is she?” the man demanded.
“I think she may be your daughter.”
Again, the man stared at her.
“Obviously we’ll have to do a paternity test.”
“Viola . . . ,” the man said. He stepped toward her.
She backed away. If he thought he would hug her, he was very much mistaken.
“My name is Raven,” she said.
“Raven?” the man said.
“She’s been called that since she was a baby,” Aunt Sondra said.
“Where did you find her? Have you gone to the police?”
“I wanted to talk to you before police got involved. I’d like to do the genetic testing first. If she’s your daughter, I’m hoping we can keep this as quiet as possible. She’s already badly traumatized. She had no idea she’d been abducted. She’s been living out in Washington.”
“Washington! Do you know who took her?”
“The woman she believes to be her mother is dead.”
“She is my mother!” Raven said.
“You see?” Aunt Sondra said to the man. “We need to keep this from becoming a media spectacle so she can come to terms with it in a quiet atmosphere.”
Raven didn’t like the way she talked about her as if she were a child who didn’t understand anything.
“But who took her?” the man asked. “Was it the woman who raised her?”
Aunt Sondra looked down for a few seconds. When she lifted her head, she said, “I’m very sorry to say, my sister, who had mental problems all her life, probably took her.”
“She doesn’t have mental problems!” Raven shouted.
“Please lower your voice,” her aunt said.
“I want to go home!”
The man raised his palm to his forehead and whispered, “My god.”
“Yes, it’s going to be a difficult situation,” Aunt Sondra said. “That’s why I’m speaking to you privately. I hope we can agree on a plan that will protect her. And, I admit, I’d like to keep my company as uninvolved as possible.”
The man turned a critical look on her.
“I’m sure you’d rather not dig up this mess again,” Aunt Sondra said. “It can only bring negative attention to your family and law firm.”
“How so?” the man said sharply. “I was the one who had a child abducted.”
“Do you want your boys and mother dragged through it all again?”
“That can’t be avoided.”
“It can be minimized. You’re an attorney for celebrities. You must have your ways.”
The man looked angry again.
“My sister left everything she owns to Raven—significant assets and investments, including two large properties. I’m willing to let the inheritance stand without contest even if she isn’t my niece.”
“Are you bribing me to keep this quiet?”
“I’m being pragmatic. It’s in everyone’s interest to make this transition as smooth as possible.”
“Your sister has to be held accountable for what she did.”
“My sister is dead.”
“Are you sure?”
“That’s another problem.”
“What is?”
“I’m certain she’s dead—I have her last will and testament—but I have no body. I believe she ended her life somewhere on her acreage in Washington, and we haven’t yet located her body. I’d have to get police and cadaver dogs in there.”
“You will
