Chapter 4
Maria stared at Lily as if the entire world had disappeared around her.
“Ana?”
Lily nodded.
“She had hair like yours.”
Maria covered her mouth.
“When?”
Lily looked confused.
“When Daddy was gone.”
I crouched beside her.
“Which trip, sweetheart?”
“The one where you brought me the purple airplane.”
I remembered immediately.
Chicago.
Seven weeks earlier.
I had brought Lily a purple toy airplane from the airport gift shop.
Maria began crying.
“My sister was alive seven weeks ago.”
Vanessa shouted from the stairs.
“This is absurd!”
One officer told her to stay quiet.
She ignored him.
“That child can barely understand time!”
Rachel stood.
“She understands enough to recognize someone.”
Vanessa laughed harshly.
“Oh, please. Maria has been filling her head with stories.”
Maria stood too.
“I never showed Lily a photograph of Ana.”
Vanessa went silent.
That mattered.
I looked at Lily.
“What did Ana give you?”
She pointed at the memory card.
“She said hide it.”
“Did she say why?”
“She said Madam couldn’t find it.”
Vanessa bolted.
She ran up the stairs.
The officer beside her grabbed her arm.
“Stop!”
She twisted free and made it three steps before another officer blocked her.
“Get off me!”
She screamed so loudly Lily covered her ears.
“I know my rights!”
The older officer stepped forward.
“You’re now being detained while we investigate possible child endangerment, assault, destruction of evidence, and other matters arising from what we found upstairs.”
Vanessa stared at me.
“Daniel, tell them to stop.”
I didn’t move.
“Daniel!”
I looked at the woman I had slept beside for almost three years.
I remembered meeting her at a charity dinner.
Her warm smile.
The way she spoke about Emily with such tenderness after we began dating.
The way she told Lily, “I’m not here to replace your mommy.”
I had believed her.
I had wanted to believe her.
That was the part I hated most.
“I don’t know who you are,” I said.
Her eyes hardened.
“You know exactly who I am.”
“No.”
I looked toward Lily.
“I knew who you pretended to be.”
The officer took Vanessa into another room.
Her voice followed us down the hall.
“You’re making a mistake!”
Maria handed the memory card to the detective who had just arrived.
He introduced himself as Detective Owen Blake.
He was in his late forties, calm, careful, and clearly bothered by what he had already seen.
“We can examine this,” he said, “but I want to be clear. It may become evidence.”
“Do it,” Maria said.
He looked at me.
“You too?”
“Yes.”
While another officer documented the house, Blake took statements.
Maria explained everything.
Ana had worked for Vanessa four years earlier.
Back then Vanessa used her maiden name, Vanessa Monroe.
Ana had been hired as a live-in assistant.
After six months, Ana told Maria that her employer was obsessed with a married businessman.
Me.
Maria hadn’t known my name then.
Ana only called me “the man from the photographs.”
My stomach turned.
“What photographs?”
“She said Vanessa had an entire folder about him. His house. His company. His wife.”
I sat down slowly.
“And his daughter?”
Maria nodded.
“Yes.”
I looked at Lily.
She was coloring at the dining table with Rachel.
My throat tightened.
“What happened to Ana?”
“She quit.”
“Then why did she disappear?”
Maria wiped her eyes.
“She called me one night. She was terrified. She said she had taken something from Vanessa because she thought someone was in danger.”
“The memory card?”
“Maybe.”
“She never told you?”
“She said she would explain when we met.”
Maria swallowed.
“She never arrived.”
Blake wrote something down.
“Was a missing-person report filed?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Bridgeport, Connecticut.”
He nodded and sent another detective to make calls.
I asked the question I was afraid to ask.
“Did Ana ever mention Emily?”
Maria closed her eyes.
“Once.”
My heart pounded.
“What did she say?”
“She said, ‘The wife knows too much.’”
The words sat between us.
Blake leaned forward.
“Exact words?”
“Yes.”
“When did Ana say that?”
Maria thought.
“Maybe two weeks before Mrs. Carter died.”
I stood so quickly the chair scraped backward.
“No.”
Blake watched me carefully.
“Daniel?”
“Emily’s accident was investigated.”
“I’m sure it was.”
“The police said the road was wet.”
“I’m not saying otherwise.”
“Her brakes—”
I stopped.
The memory came back.
The investigator telling me Emily’s brake line had been damaged in the crash.
They couldn’t determine if it happened before or during impact.
At the time, there had been no reason to suspect anything else.
Now I felt sick.
“Her brakes were damaged.”
Blake’s expression sharpened.
“Was that in the report?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll need a copy.”
“I have everything.”
Vanessa began yelling again from the other room.
“I need my attorney!”
Blake didn’t react.
“That’s her right.”
A few minutes later, an officer came back carrying Vanessa’s laptop.
“She attempted to remotely wipe this from her phone.”
Blake looked toward the room where Vanessa sat.
“Did it wipe?”
“Not completely. We disconnected it.”
I stared.
“She was trying to delete files while sitting with police?”
“Apparently.”
Maria whispered, “That’s what she does.”
Blake looked at her.
“What do you mean?”
“She destroys things when she knows someone is close.”
Before she could explain, another detective came downstairs.
“We found a second phone.”
“Where?”
“False bottom in the red jewelry box.”
Vanessa started screaming from the other room when she heard that.
“I want a lawyer!”
Blake stood.
“Then nobody questions her again.”
He turned to us.
“We can continue gathering physical evidence.”
I asked, “Can you arrest her?”
“For what we can establish tonight, possibly. Child endangerment alone may support charges. But I’m not going to speculate beyond the evidence.”
I understood.
But my hands still shook.
Rachel came over.
“Daniel, Lily should not stay here tonight.”
My heart lurched.
“You said you weren’t taking her.”
“I’m not. I’m recommending you take her somewhere she feels safe while this house is processed.”
“Where?”
Lily heard us.
“Grandma.”
My mother.
Of course.
She lived twenty minutes away.
Lily adored her.
I nodded.
“We’ll go to my mother’s.”
Rachel agreed.
Then Lily looked at Maria.
“Maria comes too.”
Maria broke down again.
I went to her.
“You’re coming.”
She shook her head.
“I don’t want to interfere.”
“You protected my daughter when I didn’t even know she needed protecting.”
My voice cracked.
“You’re coming.”
Maria nodded.
We packed one small bag for Lily.
I refused to go into the master bedroom again.
An officer retrieved clothes for me.
As we were leaving, Vanessa was brought into the hallway in handcuffs.
Lily saw her.
She froze.
Vanessa saw Lily too.
Then she smiled.
Not a normal smile.
A warning.
Lily started crying.
I stepped in front of her.
Vanessa looked at me.
“You think this ends tonight?”
“Don’t speak to us.”
“You have no idea what Emily was hiding.”
I stopped.
Blake immediately moved closer.
“Mrs. Carter, your attorney has been requested. Stop talking.”
Vanessa ignored him.
“She lied to you too, Daniel.”
I stared at her.
“What are you talking about?”
Blake stepped between us.
“Do not engage.”
But Vanessa kept going.
“Ask yourself why Emily wrote that letter and never gave it to you.”
My chest tightened.
“She was afraid.”
Vanessa laughed.
“Of me?”
She leaned slightly around the detective.
“No, Daniel.”
Her eyes locked onto mine.
“She was afraid of you.”
I felt something inside me crack.
Blake pushed her toward the front door.
“That’s enough.”
Vanessa shouted over her shoulder.
“Check the date on the hotel key card!”
The door shut behind her.
I stood there.
The hotel key card.
I had barely noticed it inside the red box.
I turned to Blake.
“What date?”
“We’ll examine it.”
“I need to know.”
“Not tonight.”
“She said—”
“She wants you destabilized.”
He lowered his voice.
“And right now, your daughter needs you more than you need answers.”
I knew he was right.
So I left.
At my mother’s house, Lily refused to sleep alone.
She curled beside me in the guest bed and held my shirt with both hands.
Every time I moved, she woke up.
“Daddy?”
“I’m here.”
“You’re not going on the airplane?”
“No.”
“Tomorrow?”
“No.”
“The next day?”
“No.”
I kissed her forehead.
“I’m not leaving you.”
She stared at me.
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
Around two in the morning, she finally fell asleep.
I didn’t.
At 2:37, my phone rang.
Detective Blake.
I answered immediately.
“Did something happen?”
“We accessed the memory card.”
I sat upright.
“What’s on it?”
“Video.”
My skin went cold.
“Of what?”
There was a pause.
“Your wife.”
“Vanessa?”
“No.”
I stopped breathing.
“Emily.”
Blake continued.
“The recording appears to have been made six days before her death.”
I looked at Lily sleeping beside me.
“What does she say?”
“Daniel, I’d rather show you in person.”
“Tell me.”
Another pause.
Then Blake said quietly, “Emily says she discovered someone had been paying a private investigator to follow her.”
“Vanessa.”
“She doesn’t use Vanessa’s name.”
“Then who?”
“She says the payments came from your company.”
I gripped the phone.
“That’s impossible.”
“There’s more.”
“What?”
“She names the executive who authorized them.”
“Who?”
Blake inhaled.
“Your brother.”
I couldn’t speak.
“My brother?”
“Yes.”
“Michael?”
“Yes.”
The room seemed to shrink.
Michael had been my closest friend since childhood.
My business partner.
Lily’s godfather.
The man who stood beside me at Emily’s funeral.
Blake continued.
“And Daniel?”
“What?”
“The hotel key card Vanessa told you to check?”
My stomach tightened.
“Yes?”
“We identified the hotel.”
I waited.
“It was issued the night before Emily died.”
“To Vanessa?”
“No.”
“Who?”
May you like
The silence lasted just long enough for me to know I wasn’t going to like the answer.
“To Michael Carter.”
