Part 3
That night, Grant had a public event to present his new book, *The Daughter He Lost in Cairo*. Tara showed me the poster on her phone, her voice cold.
“He made money by missing me.”
“No,” I said. “He made money hiding you.”
Before the event, we went to Grant’s house. When he opened the door and saw Tara, his face went pale.
—Tara —she whispered.
“You remember my name,” she said. “That’s more than I expected.”
Grant tried to explain, but I interrupted him. “Have you decided what we’re going to listen to yet?”
At the book launch, Grant stood before a packed room and read about the pain of losing a child. Then Tara walked out into the hallway.
“Was that before or after you dropped me off at Claire’s apartment?” she asked.
The room fell silent. Tara placed Claire’s confession, her birthday cards, and Grant’s notes on the table.
“My name is Tara,” she said. “I’m the daughter he claims to have lost in Cairo. I didn’t get lost. He hid me.”
A reporter asked him if Grant denied it. He looked around helplessly and said he had only been trying to protect everyone.
I stood next to Tara. “You protected your reputation,” I told her. “You destroyed our lives.”
Later, Tara came home with me. I opened the cedar box I had kept for twenty years. Inside were her ribbons, her little red shoes, a card with a pancake recipe, and old missing persons posters with worn edges.
“I kept what I could,” I told her. “Proof that you were loved.”
The next morning, I made pancakes. The first one burned, the second one broke, but when I was making the third, Tara came into the kitchen wearing my old sweater.
“I’m not ready to call you Mom,” she said softly.
The words hurt, but they were sincere.
“Then call me Cassidy,” I said. “That’s enough for me.”
For twenty years, I believed Egypt had taken my daughter. But it was a lie that took her from me. And finally, the truth brought Tara back to my table.
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