Chapter 3
Daniel opened the door.
Evelyn screamed at him not to.
He did it anyway.
Jonathan Hale stood beneath the porch light with rain beginning to collect on the shoulders of his coat.
For a man whose name had just shattered three generations of our family, he looked strangely ordinary.
Tired.
Cold.
Almost frightened.
His eyes moved first to Daniel.
He stopped breathing.
“You look like me.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“Apparently.”
Jonathan looked past him.
His gaze found Evelyn.
Something painful passed between them.
“Hello, Evie.”
“Don’t call me that.”
Thirty-eight years disappeared from her face.
For one second, Evelyn wasn’t the cold woman who had slapped my daughter.
She looked young.
Terrified.
Heartbroken.
Then she hardened again.
“You have no right to be here.”
“I didn’t know Daniel was mine.”
Evelyn laughed bitterly.
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I was told the baby died.”
The room went silent.
Daniel turned to his mother.
“What?”
Jonathan stepped inside.
Evelyn backed away.
“You’re lying.”
“I’m not.”
“You knew I was pregnant.”
“Yes.”
“And you left.”
“I was forced out.”
“You took money.”
Jonathan’s expression changed.
“I took money because your husband told me you wanted me gone.”
Evelyn looked stunned.
“My husband?”
“He showed me a letter.”
“What letter?”
“A letter saying you had chosen Richard and wanted nothing to do with me.”
Evelyn’s lips parted.
“I never wrote that.”
“I know that now.”
Robert cursed under his breath.
Daniel rounded on him.
“You knew about this?”
“No.”
“Stop lying to me!”
Robert raised both hands.
“I swear.”
Jonathan looked toward me.
“Are you Claire?”
I didn’t answer immediately.
“Yes.”
His gaze moved across my face.
“You look like Anna.”
My knees felt weak.
“You knew my mother.”
“Yes.”
“Were you involved with her?”
Jonathan hesitated.
Evelyn laughed.
“There it is.”
He ignored her.
“Anna and I were friends.”
“Friends?”
“Yes.”
“Margaret says she saw my mother pregnant after you disappeared.”
“She did.”
“Then how can you be sure I’m not your daughter?”
Jonathan reached inside his coat.
Daniel immediately stepped forward.
“What are you doing?”
Jonathan slowly removed an envelope.
“Nothing dangerous.”
He placed it on the table.
“My answer is in there.”
I stared at it.
“What is it?”
“A letter from Anna.”
My mother had been dead for six years.
Seeing her handwriting on the envelope made my chest ache.
Claire.
Just my name.
Nothing else.
I picked it up.
My hands shook.
“When did she give this to you?”
“Twenty-nine years ago.”
I looked up sharply.
“You saw her when I was a child?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because she needed help.”
“With what?”
Jonathan looked toward Lily.
Then back at me.
“Maybe we should talk without the little girl here.”
Evelyn snapped.
“She has already caused enough trouble.”
Daniel spun around.
“That’s it.”
He pointed toward the stairs.
“Mom, walk away.”
“This is my house.”
“And that is my daughter.”
Evelyn started to answer.
Robert touched her shoulder.
For once, she listened.
She moved into the sitting room.
Margaret followed.
Daniel crouched beside Lily.
“Sweetheart, Uncle Robert is going to show you the TV room.”
Lily looked at Robert suspiciously.
“Grandma won’t come?”
“No.”
“Promise?”
Daniel’s face tightened.
“I promise.”
Robert took Lily gently by the hand.
“I have cartoons.”
“And cookies?”
“I think we can find some.”
She looked at me.
I nodded.
When she was gone, I opened the envelope.
Inside were four pages.
The first sentence made me sit down.
Jonathan,
If you are reading this, then Thomas has found me again.
I stopped.
“Thomas?”
Jonathan nodded.
“Thomas Bennett.”
“My father?”
“The man Anna married.”
My mouth went dry.
“So he was real?”
“Yes.”
I felt relief.
It lasted less than five seconds.
Jonathan continued.
“But he wasn’t the man you believed he was.”
Daniel sat beside me.
“What does that mean?”
Jonathan pointed toward the letter.
“Keep reading.”
I did.
Anna wrote that Thomas had become controlling after their marriage.
He monitored her calls.
Her money.
Her friends.
When she discovered she was pregnant, she tried to leave.
Thomas convinced her to stay.
Then something happened.
Something terrible.
A woman disappeared.
A woman named Rebecca Cole.
I looked up.
“Who was she?”
Jonathan stared at the floor.
“My younger sister.”
Evelyn appeared in the doorway.
“What?”
Jonathan looked at her.
“That was the crime Richard threatened me with.”
Daniel frowned.
“Rebecca’s disappearance?”
“Yes.”
“Were you accused?”
“Not officially.”
Jonathan’s voice hardened.
“Because Richard knew I didn’t do it.”
Evelyn stepped closer.
“You told me you were in trouble.”
“I was.”
“You never told me your sister was missing.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“From what?”
Jonathan looked at me.
“Thomas.”
I felt cold.
“My father?”
Jonathan nodded.
“Rebecca worked with Anna at a small accounting office.”
He paused.
“One night Rebecca called me. She said she had found financial records that scared her.”
“What records?”
“Payments.”
“To whom?”
“Police officers. Contractors. Local politicians.”
Daniel leaned forward.
“You’re saying Thomas was involved in corruption?”
“More than that.”
Jonathan looked at me with sympathy.
“Thomas Bennett was not a salesman like Anna told you.”
I could barely speak.
“What was he?”
“He collected debts for people who didn’t use courts.”
Daniel’s face changed.
“A criminal?”
“Yes.”
I shook my head.
“No. My mother wouldn’t marry someone like that.”
“She didn’t know at first.”
Jonathan pointed at the letter.
“Anna found out later.”
I kept reading.
The words became harder.
My mother wrote that Rebecca had discovered documents linking Thomas to a construction company laundering money.
She planned to take them to the police.
Then Rebecca vanished.
The next day, Jonathan was visited by Richard Whitmore.
Daniel’s legal father.
Richard told Jonathan that witnesses could place him near Rebecca’s apartment.
He told him drugs had been found in Jonathan’s car.
He told him Evelyn wanted him gone.
And he offered him money.
Leave Massachusetts.
Never contact Evelyn.
Never contact Anna.
Or go to prison for Rebecca’s disappearance.
Jonathan chose to leave.
Daniel stood.
“You abandoned my mother because of a threat?”
“I was twenty-six.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“I was terrified.”
“My mother was pregnant.”
“I didn’t know she intended to keep the baby.”
Daniel laughed angrily.
“What did you think happened?”
“Richard told me she had lost it.”
Daniel looked at Evelyn.
She was crying silently now.
“Did Richard ever tell you Jonathan thought the baby was dead?”
“No.”
“Did he ever tell you he threatened him?”
“No.”
“Then the man I worshipped my whole childhood…”
His voice cracked.
Jonathan finished quietly.
“Was controlling both of us.”
Daniel walked away.
I kept reading.
The last paragraph made my hands shake harder.
Jonathan, if something happens to me, protect Claire. Thomas believes she belongs to him. But he is not her biological father. I never told him because I knew what he would do if he learned the truth.
I stopped.
Daniel turned.
“What?”
I read it again.
The words didn’t change.
“Thomas wasn’t my biological father.”
Jonathan nodded.
“Then who was?”
He looked at me for a long time.
“I don’t know.”
I slammed the letter down.
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I’m telling you what Anna told me.”
“You knew my mother for years!”
“I knew one part of her life.”
“Then why did Evelyn think you were my father?”
Evelyn wiped her face.
“Because I found a photograph.”
She walked to the cabinet and pulled out another envelope.
Inside was a picture of my mother and Jonathan standing together.
Young.
Smiling.
His arm around her shoulders.
On the back, my mother had written:
To J. Thank you for keeping us safe.
Evelyn stared at me.
“I found this three months ago with old papers Richard left behind.”
“So you assumed.”
“I knew Jonathan had been involved with Anna before he met me.”
Jonathan shook his head.
“We kissed once.”
Evelyn’s expression twisted.
“You told me she was only a friend.”
“She was.”
“You kissed her.”
“Before I met you.”
Margaret whispered, “Evelyn.”
But Evelyn kept staring at him.
“You lied to me.”
Jonathan’s voice softened.
“So did you.”
Her face crumpled.
Daniel stepped between them.
“Enough about thirty-eight years ago.”
He pointed toward me.
“Claire deserves an answer.”
Jonathan nodded.
“She does.”
“So who was her father?”
“I told you. I don’t know.”
The front door opened.
Robert appeared.
His face was white.
Daniel frowned.
“Where’s Lily?”
Robert didn’t answer.
I stood immediately.
“Where is my daughter?”
“Claire…”
My heart stopped.
“What?”
“She was watching television.”
“Where is she?”
“I went into the kitchen for maybe two minutes.”
I ran past him.
The television room was empty.
A cartoon still played on the screen.
Lily’s coat lay on the couch.
Her shoes were by the rug.
The back door stood open.
Cold rain blew inside.
I screamed her name.
Daniel ran past me into the yard.
“LILY!”
Jonathan followed.
Robert called the police.
I saw something white near the back steps.
A folded piece of paper.
I picked it up.
Three words were written across it.
STOP ASKING QUESTIONS.
May you like
Underneath was a second sentence.
THE GIRL COMES HOME WHEN CLAIRE STOPS DIGGING.
