Andrew took one step back.

“No,” he whispered. “You’re dead.”

The maid’s face crumpled.

“That’s what they told you.”

The woman in blue shook her head violently.

“She’s lying. She’s sick. She saw your grief and copied everything.”

The older boy screamed, “Stop it! You always say that!”

Andrew turned slowly toward her.

“Always?”

The maid reached into her apron with shaking fingers and pulled out a burnt silver necklace.

Andrew’s wedding ring was hanging on it.

He had placed it in his wife’s coffin himself.

His knees nearly gave out.

“How do you have that?”

She held it to her chest.

“Because I woke up before they buried me.”

The room went silent.

The woman in blue began backing away.

The maid’s voice trembled.

“I remembered smoke. Screaming. Then a hospital room. No name. No family. When my memory came back, I came here.”

Andrew’s eyes filled with tears.

“And you came as a maid?”

“I tried to see you at the gate,” she cried. “She told security I was dangerous.”

The woman in blue snapped, “I protected this family!”

The maid looked at her through tears.

“You protected your wedding.”

Andrew stared at the woman he had planned to marry.

“You knew?”

She said nothing.

That silence destroyed him.

The younger boy ran back into the maid’s arms.

“Mommy, please don’t leave again.”

Andrew covered his mouth as the truth finally broke through him.

He had mourned a living woman.

His sons had cried for a mother kept behind the kitchen door.

He dropped to his knees in front of her.

“Emma?”

The maid sobbed at the sound of her name.

Andrew reached for her face, terrified she would disappear if he touched her too quickly.

“I buried you,” he whispered.

She pressed his hand to her cheek.

“I know.”

Behind them, the woman in blue turned toward the hallway, but the older boy pointed at her.

“She hid Mommy’s photo in the fireplace.”

Andrew looked up, his grief turning cold.

“Call security.”

The woman in blue began to cry.

“Andrew, I loved you.”

He pulled Emma and the boys into his arms.

“No,” he said. “You loved the life you thought you could steal.”

And in the middle of the dining room, with both children wrapped around them, Andrew held the wife he thought he lost while the house finally heard the lullaby again.