Chapter 6
I broke every speed limit getting to my mother’s house.
Detective Blake followed with two patrol cars.
The front door was open when I arrived.
Maria stood in the driveway, crying.
“She took her.”
I ran inside.
“Where’s the note?”
Maria handed it to me.
My mother’s handwriting.
Daniel,
I know you will hate me for this.
I wish I could explain everything, but there isn’t time.
Lily is safer with me right now.
Do not trust Michael.
Do not trust the police until you know who is working with Vanessa.
Go to 318.
You will understand.
Mom.
I read it twice.
Then a third time.
Blake took the note.
“What is 318?”
I showed him Michael’s text.
Storage unit 318.
Blake stared at it.
“Your brother and your mother both want you to go there.”
“Apparently.”
“That could mean they’re working together.”
“Or both know the same thing.”
“Either way, we don’t rush in blind.”
“My daughter is missing.”
“She’s with your mother.”
“She took her without telling me.”
“I understand.”
“No, you don’t.”
I moved toward the door.
Blake blocked me.
“Daniel, if Vanessa has accomplices and storage unit 318 matters, charging in could put Lily at greater risk.”
I hated that he was right.
Maria suddenly spoke.
“Mrs. Carter didn’t pack Lily’s things.”
We turned.
“What?”
“The bag is still upstairs.”
I ran to the guest room.
Lily’s clothes were there.
Her shoes.
Her stuffed rabbit was missing.
My mother had taken only Lily and the rabbit.
“That means she left in a hurry,” Blake said.
“Or wanted us to think she did.”
I didn’t like how my brain worked anymore.
Every person I loved had become a question.
My mother.
My brother.
My dead wife.
Even Maria.
I looked at her.
She saw it.
“You’re wondering about me too.”
I didn’t answer.
She nodded sadly.
“You should.”
That surprised me.
“After everything happening, you should wonder about everyone.”
She handed me her phone.
“My location is always on. My messages are there. Search anything.”
I pushed it back.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because you already did more for Lily than most people.”
Blake’s phone rang.
He answered.
His expression changed.
“What?”
He looked at me.
“Michael’s car was found.”
“Where?”
“Industrial road near the river.”
“Is he there?”
“No.”
“Blood?”
“We don’t know yet.”
My stomach turned.
Blake started issuing instructions.
I interrupted.
“Storage facility.”
He looked at me.
“We’re going.”
Thirty minutes later, police surrounded the building.
Unit 318 was registered under a shell company.
The company’s mailing address led to an accountant who had died six years earlier.
Blake obtained emergency authorization to enter because of the active missing-person investigation.
The metal door rolled upward.
Dust floated in the flashlight beams.
Inside were filing cabinets.
Boxes.
Old computers.
Photographs.
Hundreds of photographs.
My family.
Me leaving the office.
Emily grocery shopping.
Lily at preschool.
Michael meeting clients.
My mother at church.
I felt sick.
“This goes back years,” an officer said.
Blake opened a box.
Bank records.
Another contained company paperwork.
A third had newspaper clippings about my father.
Then I saw a photograph of Vanessa.
She couldn’t have been older than sixteen.
Standing beside my father.
I grabbed it.
“What?”
On the back someone had written:
Robert Carter and daughter, 2008.
I stared at the words.
Daughter.
“No.”
Blake looked at me.
“What is it?”
“My father didn’t have a daughter.”
At least, that was what I had believed.
Michael and I were his only children.
My father, Robert Carter, had built Carter Systems from nothing.
He died of a heart attack when I was twenty-nine.
His will split company ownership between Michael and me.
Our mother inherited the houses and personal assets.
No daughter.
No Vanessa.
Yet the photograph was real.
My father’s hand rested on teenage Vanessa’s shoulder.
Both were smiling.
I dug through the box.
Birth records.
Legal agreements.
Letters.
And finally a sealed DNA report.
Robert Carter.
Vanessa Monroe.
Probability of paternity: 99.97%.
My knees weakened.
Blake caught my arm.
“She’s my sister.”
The words felt poisonous.
Vanessa.
My wife.
My father’s daughter.
“No.”
I dropped the paper.
“This is impossible.”
Blake looked disturbed.
“When did you meet Vanessa?”
“Three years after Dad died.”
“Did she ever tell you she knew him?”
“Never.”
I backed away.
I wanted to tear my skin off.
I had married my half-sister without knowing.
Lily wasn’t Vanessa’s biological child, but that did nothing to stop the horror spreading through me.
An officer found another envelope.
Inside was a copy of my father’s original will.
Not the one used after his death.
This version divided the company three ways.
Daniel.
Michael.
Vanessa.
Attached was a handwritten letter.
My sons,
There is something I should have told you years ago.
Before I married your mother, I had a relationship with a woman named Christine Monroe.
We had a daughter.
Her name is Vanessa.
I have provided for her privately, but she deserves acknowledgment.
I intend to tell you both—
The letter ended there.
No signature.
A draft.
Another paper showed a revised will removing Vanessa entirely.
Dated two weeks later.
Then a memo from my father’s attorney.
Client reports daughter made threats against Daniel Carter’s fiancée, Emily Parker. Client wishes to revoke inheritance immediately.
I sat on a box.
Emily had been my fiancée then.
Vanessa had known her for years.
“Why would she marry me?” I whispered.
Blake didn’t answer.
Maria did.
“Revenge.”
We looked at her.
She was pale.
“My sister once told me Vanessa believed the Carter family stole her life.”
Blake asked, “Did she know Daniel was her half-brother?”
“Yes.”
I closed my eyes.
“She knew.”
Maria nodded.
“I’m sorry.”
My phone rang.
My mother.
I grabbed it.
“Where is Lily?”
“She’s safe.”
“Where are you?”
“Did you find the box?”
“You knew.”
Silence.
“You knew Vanessa was Dad’s daughter.”
“Yes.”
The word almost destroyed me.
“And you let me marry her?”
“No!”
Her voice broke.
“I didn’t know Vanessa Monroe was the same girl.”
“How could you not?”
“I never met her. Your father kept that entire part of his life hidden from me until the final year.”
“You had a photograph.”
“I saw one photograph of her as a teenager. Daniel, fifteen years passed. She changed her name, her hair, everything.”
“Why didn’t you tell us Dad had another child?”
“Because he begged me not to.”
“After he died?”
“He was ashamed.”
“And you protected his shame.”
“I thought Vanessa was gone.”
I laughed bitterly.
“She was sleeping in my bed.”
My mother started crying.
“Daniel, I found out the truth yesterday.”
“How?”
“Michael told me.”
My body tightened.
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know.”
“He told me not to trust you.”
“Because he thinks I gave Vanessa information.”
“Did you?”
A long silence.
“Mom?”
“Yes.”
I nearly dropped the phone.
“What did you give her?”
“Not knowingly.”
“What?”
“She contacted me years ago using another name. She said she was writing a biography of your father.”
My anger exploded.
“You gave a stranger information about us?”
“Old information. Stories. Family photographs.”
“Lily’s schedule?”
“No!”
“Emily?”
My mother stopped.
“Mom.”
“She asked about Emily.”
I felt sick.
“What did you tell her?”
“That Emily was worried about your work hours. That you two argued sometimes.”
Vanessa had built her entire attack using details my mother handed her.
“How could you?”
“I didn’t know.”
“Where is my daughter?”
“Daniel, someone came to the house this morning.”
“What?”
“A man.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know. He sat outside in a black SUV. When I went to the window, he drove away.”
“Why didn’t you call police?”
“Because Michael told me someone inside the department had been helping Vanessa.”
Blake heard that.
His expression changed.
“What name?” I asked.
“Michael didn’t know.”
“Where are you?”
“I’m moving.”
“With Lily?”
“She’s beside me.”
“Put her on.”
A few seconds later, Lily’s voice came through.
“Daddy?”
My knees almost gave out.
“Baby, are you okay?”
“Yes.”
“Is Grandma with you?”
“Yes.”
“Are you scared?”
“A little.”
“I’m coming to get you.”
“Okay.”
Then she whispered.
“Daddy?”
“Yes?”
“The black car is behind us again.”
My blood froze.
“Grandma!”
I heard my mother gasp.
Then tires squealed.
The phone fell.
Lily screamed.
“Mom!”
May you like
A crash exploded through the speaker.
Then silence.
