Chapter 5: Gwen’s Confession

Gwen admitted that Clara and the children had arrived as planned. The sisters argued about the forged papers and Gwen’s fixation on Emily. Hoping to calm everyone, Gwen proposed a brief boat ride before dinner.

Clara resisted because clouds were gathering, but Gwen insisted the weather would hold. It did not.

The boat overturned during the squall. Gwen and Emily reached a rocky inlet, but Clara and Matthew disappeared in the waves. Instead of calling for help, Gwen panicked. She feared prosecution over the unsafe boat, the stolen money, and the argument witnesses had overheard.

Worse, she saw Emily’s survival as an answer to her own grief.

With help from a frightened boyfriend, Gwen left Clara’s car on the bridge to redirect the search. She moved away with Emily, changed the child’s surname, and told her that Andrew was a deceased uncle whose place in her memory had become confused after the storm.

“I loved her,” Gwen cried.

“Love does not erase another person’s family,” I replied. “You stole forty years from both of us.”

Gwen signed a complete confession. Then Alvarez gave me the name Emily used now and asked whether I was ready to call my daughter. Continue Reading ⬇️