Chapter 2
I stared at the locked door.
I had passed it hundreds of times.
It was a narrow storage room beside the laundry room, barely large enough for shelves and cleaning supplies.
At least that was what I thought it was.
I looked at Vanessa.
“Open it.”
She folded her arms.
“You’re overreacting.”
“Open the door.”
“Daniel, you just walked in. You’re exhausted. You have no idea what’s been happening here while you’re gone.”
Maria stepped forward.
“I have an idea.”
Vanessa glared at her.
“You need to leave my house.”
“My house,” I said quietly.
Vanessa turned to me.
“What?”
“I said open the door.”
Lily’s fingers tightened around my shirt.
I felt her trembling.
That was all I needed.
I handed Lily carefully to Maria.
“Stay with her.”
Then I walked toward the door.
Vanessa rushed after me.
“You can’t just—”
I grabbed the handle.
Locked.
“Key.”
She said nothing.
“Vanessa.”
Her face changed.
Not guilt.
Calculation.
“I lost it.”
Maria spoke behind us.
“She wears it around her neck.”
Vanessa touched her chest instinctively.
A tiny silver chain disappeared beneath her blouse.
I stared at it.
“Take it off.”
She backed away.
“Daniel, listen to me.”
“Take it off.”
“You’re scaring me.”
I almost laughed.
She was scared?
My five-year-old daughter had red knees from scrubbing a grown woman’s shoes.
My housekeeper had just been slapped.
My daughter had told me she slept behind a locked door.
And Vanessa wanted to talk about being scared.
I reached toward the chain.
She slapped my hand away.
“Don’t touch me.”
“Then give me the key.”
For several seconds, neither of us moved.
Then Vanessa yanked the necklace over her head and threw it at me.
“Fine.”
The little brass key hit my chest and fell to the floor.
I picked it up.
My hand was shaking so badly it took two tries to fit it into the lock.
The door clicked.
Lily whimpered behind me.
“No, Daddy.”
I turned.
Her eyes were huge.
“Sweetheart?”
“Don’t open it.”
My stomach dropped.
I crouched.
“Why?”
She buried her face against Maria.
“Because Madam gets angry when anybody sees.”
Vanessa snapped.
“Stop calling me that.”
Lily flinched.
I turned so fast Vanessa stepped backward.
“You will not speak to her again.”
“She is my daughter too.”
“No.”
The word came out before I even thought about it.
Vanessa blinked.
“What did you say?”
“You heard me.”
I opened the door.
The smell hit me first.
Stale air.
Dust.
Something sour.
There was no window.
No bed.
A thin gray blanket lay on the floor beside a small pillow.
A plastic cup sat in the corner.
Beside it was a child-sized plate.
On a shelf were Lily’s stuffed bear, two picture books, and the framed photograph of her mother that normally sat beside her bed.
My chest tightened.
I stepped inside.
The room was barely six feet wide.
There were scratches on the inside of the door.
Small scratches.
At a child’s height.
I touched one.
“Daddy?”
I couldn’t answer.
Maria started crying.
Vanessa remained silent.
Then I noticed something under the blanket.
A notebook.
Pink cover.
Glitter stars.
I recognized it immediately.
Lily used to draw in it every night.
I opened it.
The first pages were normal.
Rainbows.
Dogs.
Pictures of me holding her hand.
Then the drawings changed.
A tall woman with black hair.
A tiny girl kneeling.
A door.
A lock.
A black square with a child inside it.
On one page, Lily had drawn me in an airplane above the house.
Underneath, in shaky letters, she had written:
DADDY COME HOME.
I stopped breathing.
“Daniel,” Vanessa said softly.
I turned around.
She had tears in her eyes now.
Real or fake, I couldn’t tell.
“I can explain.”
“Explain the scratches.”
“What?”
I pointed.
“Explain why my daughter scratched the inside of this door.”
Vanessa swallowed.
“She had tantrums.”
“So you locked her inside?”
“For a few minutes.”
Lily cried out.
“No!”
Everyone looked at her.
She was crying hard now.
“She leaves me all night.”
Vanessa shook her head.
“That’s not true.”
“When Daddy goes on the airplane, you say bad girls sleep in the dark.”
“Lily—”
“You said I took Mommy away!”
Silence.
My body went numb.
Lily’s biological mother, Emily, had died three years earlier in a car accident.
Lily was two.
For years, I had tried to make sure my daughter never believed she had anything to do with it.
Now she was sobbing into Maria’s shoulder.
“You said Mommy died because she didn’t want me.”
I looked at Vanessa.
She whispered, “I never said that.”
Maria raised her phone again.
“Yes, you did.”
Vanessa’s face collapsed.
“What else did you record?” I asked.
“A lot.”
“How long?”
Maria hesitated.
“Six weeks.”
My anger shifted.
“Six weeks?”
She lowered her eyes.
“I didn’t understand at first.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I tried.”
“What?”
Maria unlocked her phone.
She opened our message thread.
Dozens of messages.
Every single one marked undelivered.
“I texted you.”
I pulled out my phone.
Nothing.
Maria continued.
“I emailed too. Then your wife told me you had instructed her to handle household problems while you traveled.”
“I never said that.”
“I know that now.”
Vanessa suddenly moved.
She grabbed Maria’s phone.
Maria shouted.
Vanessa ran toward the kitchen.
I chased her.
She hurled the phone against the marble floor.
It shattered.
“No!” Maria screamed.
Vanessa stomped on it.
Once.
Twice.
Then I grabbed her wrist.
“What are you doing?”
She stared at me with wild eyes.
“Protecting my family.”
“You destroyed evidence.”
“It was illegally recorded!”
“You abused my daughter!”
“I disciplined her!”
My vision blurred.
Behind me, Lily started screaming.
“Daddy!”
That snapped me back.
I released Vanessa immediately.
She stumbled against the counter.
I took out my phone.
“What are you doing?”
“Calling the police.”
Her face changed again.
“Daniel.”
I dialed.
“Put the phone down.”
“No.”
“If you call them, you destroy everything.”
“You already did.”
“You think this is simple?”
I said nothing.
She stepped closer.
“You think Maria is innocent?”
Maria froze.
Vanessa pointed at her.
“Ask her why she waited six weeks.”
“I told him why.”
“No. Tell him the real reason.”
Maria went pale.
Vanessa smiled.
For the first time since I came home, she looked confident.
“You want the truth, Daniel?”
I stared at her.
She pointed toward the broken phone.
“Ask Maria what she wanted from me in exchange for those recordings.”
Maria whispered, “She’s lying.”
“Am I?”
Vanessa moved closer.
“Ask her why she demanded fifty thousand dollars.”
I looked at Maria.
Her lips parted.
Nothing came out.
My stomach sank.
“Maria?”
She started crying.
“It wasn’t like that.”
Vanessa gave a quiet laugh.
“Of course it wasn’t.”
“Maria,” I said. “Did you ask her for money?”
“Yes.”
The room felt like it tilted.
“But not for what she says.”
Vanessa folded her arms.
“Here we go.”
Maria looked directly at me.
“I asked her for money because she owed it to me.”
“For what?”
“My sister.”
Vanessa’s confidence flickered.
I noticed.
“So now we’re talking about your sister?” Vanessa said.
Maria nodded.
“Yes.”
Then she looked at me.
“My sister worked for Vanessa before you married her.”
I stared at Vanessa.
“What?”
Maria wiped her cheek.
“She worked in Vanessa’s home in Connecticut.”
Vanessa’s voice hardened.
“Be careful.”
Maria ignored her.
“My sister disappeared three years ago.”
Every hair on my arms rose.
“Disappeared?”
“She told me Vanessa was dangerous.”
Vanessa laughed.
“This is insane.”
Maria looked toward the locked room.
“Before she disappeared, my sister sent me photographs of another room exactly like this one.”
Nobody spoke.
Then sirens sounded in the distance.
Vanessa looked toward the front windows.
Her eyes widened.
“You actually called them?”
“Yes.”
She suddenly rushed toward the stairs.
I blocked her.
“Where are you going?”
“To get my things.”
“You’re staying right here.”
“You cannot hold me prisoner.”
“No. But the police can decide what happens next.”
Vanessa stared at me.
Then smiled.
It was a strange smile.
Too calm.
“You really believe you know your daughter?”
I stepped closer.
“Don’t.”
“There’s something Lily hasn’t told you.”
Lily buried her face against Maria.
I felt cold.
“What?”
Vanessa looked toward my daughter.
“Tell him why you were locked in the room last night.”
“Stop talking to her.”
Vanessa’s eyes stayed on Lily.
“Tell Daddy what you found.”
Lily began shaking again.
I crouched beside her.
“What did you find, sweetheart?”
Vanessa whispered behind me.
“Go ahead.”
Lily slowly lifted her face.
“In Madam’s closet.”
“What was in the closet?”
She sniffled.
“A box.”
“What box?”
“The red one.”
Vanessa’s expression vanished.
Lily looked at me.
“And inside it was Mommy’s necklace.”
My heart stopped.
Emily’s necklace had disappeared the night she died.
Police told me it was never recovered from the wreckage.
I slowly stood.
Vanessa backed toward the staircase.
“Daniel, wait.”
May you like
I took one step toward her.
“How do you have my dead wife’s necklace?”
