The father was a twenty-one-year-old mechanic named Ryan Cole.
They were terrified.
Diane was furious.
Not because Kate was pregnant.
Because people would know.
The Bennetts were prominent in their town.
Diane served on charity boards.
Her husband, Thomas, owned half of a successful construction company.
Their children attended private schools.
Kate’s pregnancy did not fit the family picture.
Diane arranged for her daughter to spend the final four months of the pregnancy with an aunt in another state.
Luke remembered that.
Everyone had been told Kate was completing an internship.
She gave birth to Lucy there.
Kate wanted to keep her.
Ryan wanted to help.
Diane fought them.
Eventually Thomas intervened.
He told Diane that Lucy was their granddaughter and would come home.
Kate returned when the baby was six weeks old.
By then Luke was away at college and rarely visited.
Whenever he did, Diane arranged for Kate to be somewhere else.
“You met her once,” Kate whispered.
Luke looked horrified.
“What?”
“You came home for Thanksgiving.”
“I would remember.”
“She was sleeping upstairs.”
Luke sat down slowly.
“You told me she was Aunt Linda’s friend’s baby.”
Kate laughed through tears.
“That sounds like Mom.”
“What happened?”
Lucy became sick at eleven months.
A severe infection.
Hospital.
Complications.
She died four days later.
Claire looked at Luke.
Tears ran down his face.
“Why didn’t anyone tell me?”
“I wanted to.”
“Why didn’t Dad?”
“Mom told everyone I needed privacy.”
Luke shook his head.
“That doesn’t explain afterward.”
“No.”
Kate’s voice changed.
“This does.”
After Lucy’s funeral, Diane removed nearly every photograph of the baby from the house.
She packed the crib.
Clothes.
Toys.
Everything.
When Kate objected, Diane told her continuing to display the photographs would prevent her from moving forward.
Three months later, on what would have been Lucy’s first birthday, Kate placed a small cake beside the baby’s photograph.
Just for herself.
Diane found her.
“She told me it was unhealthy,” Kate said.
Luke covered his face.
“I told her to leave me alone.”
Kate breathed slowly.
“She picked up the cake.”
Claire already knew.
“No,” Luke whispered.
“She pushed it into my face.”
Luke stood abruptly.
“Jesus Christ.”
“She said if I wanted to behave like a child, she would treat me like one.”