Chapter 5: The Letters My Wife Never Sent
The police took Nora into a private office at the chapel while an officer photographed the threatening note.
I hated letting her out of my sight, but Rachel insisted that we needed to cooperate.
“She's safer with two officers watching the door,” she told me.
I stared through the glass partition as Nora sat beside my mother, her small feet dangling above the floor.
“Safer?”” I whispered.
“Someone photographed her outside school this morning.””
Rachel closed her eyes.
“I know.””
“You've known these people for six years, and you still don't know how to stop them?””
The moment the words left my mouth, I regretted them.
Rachel flinched as though I had struck her.
I rubbed a hand over my face.
“I'm sorry.””
“No,” she said quietly.
“You're entitled to be angry.””
She lowered herself into a chair, wincing as she adjusted her injured leg.
“I don't expect you to understand what it was like. But I need you to understand why I couldn't come home.””
“Then tell me.””
For a moment, she simply looked at me.
Then she opened her handbag and removed the bundle of letters she'd shown me at the altar.
The ribbon was frayed. Several envelopes had softened at the edges, as though they had been handled too many times.
“I wrote the first one three weeks after the accident,” she said.
She placed it in my hands.
The envelope was addressed to Nora in Rachel's handwriting.
I opened it carefully.
Inside was a single sheet of paper.
My sweet girl,
You're too little to remember my face for long, and that thought keeps me awake at night. I don't know when I'll see you again. I don't even know whether I will be allowed to come home.
But if you ever read this, I want you to know that I didn't leave because I stopped loving you.
I left because someone promised to hurt you if I stayed.
Please don't grow up thinking your mother chose to disappear.
I am fighting to come back.
Every day.
Mommy.
I couldn't finish reading.
My vision blurred, and I pressed the letter against my chest.
Rachel wiped her cheeks.
“There are more than forty.””
“Forty?””
“One for every birthday, every Christmas, every important day I missed. I wrote one when Nora started kindergarten. One when she lost her first tooth. One when I imagined her asking why I wasn't there.””
She swallowed.
“I didn't know any of those things had happened until I saw photographs.””
I looked up sharply.
“Photographs from whom?””
“Someone who wanted me to believe Nora was happy without me.””
“Who?””
Rachel hesitated.
Then she said, “Vanessa.””
My stomach twisted.
“She sent you pictures of our daughter?””
“Not directly. She used intermediaries. At first, the photographs came with messages telling me to stay away. Later, they came with demands.””
“What demands?””
Rachel's hands trembled.
“She wanted the original documents I had taken from her office before the accident.””
I leaned forward.
“What documents?””
“Bank transfers. Company records. Names of people who had been paid to move money through fake investment accounts.””
She paused.
“Your father had unknowingly invested in one of those companies.””
I stared at her.
“My father?””
“Yes. He believed he was investing in a legitimate development project. By the time I realized the money was connected to Vanessa, a substantial amount had disappeared.””
I thought about the inheritance Vanessa had been so desperate to access.
“How much?””
“Enough to ruin several families.””
“Why didn't you go to the police?””
“I did. That's why I disappeared.””
She explained that she'd taken copies of the records to a detective she'd been introduced to through a lawyer. The detective promised to arrange protection.
But before she could testify, her car's brakes failed.
After she was pulled from the wreckage, Marcus Voss took her to a private medical facility. She remained there for several weeks, heavily sedated and unable to walk without assistance.
When she recovered enough to understand what had happened, she was told that the police had identified her body and that her family had held a funeral.
“They told you I buried you?””
Rachel nodded.
“And you believed them?””
“At first, I didn't. I demanded to call you. They showed me the funeral announcement and a copy of your statement identifying my belongings.””
“My statement?””
“They said you'd confirmed my identity.””
I felt sick.
“I never identified anything.””
“I know that now.””
She reached for my hand.
“Ethan, I was drugged, frightened, and barely able to stand. They moved me between facilities until I stopped asking questions. Every time I tried to escape, someone reminded me that they knew where Nora lived.””
I stared at the letters.
Six years.
Six years of believing my wife was dead while she was somewhere in the world, writing letters she couldn't send.
I had to look away.
“Why didn't you send one anonymously? Why didn't you contact me through someone I didn't know?””
“I tried.””
She pulled another envelope from the bundle.
“This one was returned to me. I sent it to your office under a false name, hoping you'd recognize the handwriting.””
I opened it.
The envelope had been stamped and returned.
Inside was a photograph of me holding a sleeping Nora outside our house.
On the back, someone had written:
*WE CAN REACH HER ANYTIME.*
My hands began to shake.
“They were watching us.””
“Yes.””
“And Ryan?””
Rachel looked down.
“Ryan received similar threats. He was the only person I could contact who might eventually help me.””
I remembered the message on the photograph.
Ask Ryan.
“Why did you write that on the back?””
“Because I knew he'd finally tell you the truth if I returned in person. I also knew Vanessa would try to stop me.””
I looked toward the chapel's main room.
Vanessa was being questioned by two uniformed officers. Her wedding dress was stained with dirt, and her fake pregnancy belly lay in a clear evidence bag on a nearby table.
Even now, she was trying to control the situation.
She spoke softly to one officer, then glanced toward me and gave a small shake of her head, as though I were the unreasonable one.
I stood.
“I'm going to talk to her.””
Rachel caught my wrist.
“Don't let her provoke you.””
“I want answers.””
“So do I. But Vanessa doesn't give answers unless they benefit her.””
I walked into the main room anyway.
The officer questioning Vanessa stood aside when I approached.
“Mr. Miller, you have a few minutes.””
Vanessa looked up at me.
Her eyes were red, but her voice was composed.
“Ethan, thank God. Tell them I didn't hurt anyone.””
“You threatened my daughter.””
“I was trying to protect her.””
“From what?””
She lowered her voice.
“From Rachel.””
I stared at her.
“Rachel is her mother.””
“You have no idea what she was involved in.””
“Then tell me.””
Vanessa glanced at the officer, then back at me.
“If I tell you everything, you'll understand why I had to do what I did.””
“Did you fake your pregnancy to steal my inheritance?””
Her silence was answer enough.
I leaned closer.
“Did you arrange Rachel's accident?””
Vanessa's expression hardened.
“No.””
“Did you know she was alive?””
She looked toward the door.
Then she whispered, “I knew she hadn't died in the crash.””
The room seemed to go silent around us.
“You knew?””
“I didn't know where she was. I swear.””
“You let me bury her!””
“You weren't supposed to get hurt!””
The words burst from her before she could stop them.
I stepped back.
“What does that mean?””
Vanessa pressed her lips together.
The officer immediately moved closer.
“Mrs. Cole, I need you to answer the question.””
Vanessa looked at me, and for the first time, I saw something beyond fear or anger.
I saw regret.
But it didn't look like regret for what she'd done.
It looked like regret for getting caught.
“I never wanted you to know about the money,” she whispered.
“I thought I could fix everything after the wedding.””
“By marrying me?””
“By getting access to the trust.””
“And the baby?””
She closed her eyes.
“The baby was the only way I could make sure you'd marry me quickly.””
I felt something inside me go cold.
“Did you ever love me?””
Vanessa opened her mouth.
No words came.
Then she looked at the officer and said, “I want a lawyer.””
The interview ended.
As I walked away, my phone vibrated.
An unknown number had sent a text.
*Rachel has the wrong documents. If you want to know who ordered the crash, check your father's safe.*
A second message followed.
*And don't tell your brother. He already betrayed you once.*
I stared at the screen.
Then I remembered something I'd almost forgotten.
May you like
My father had died without ever giving me the combination to the old safe in his study.
And Rachel had just told me that his estate was at the center of everything.
