Chapter 1
On the first morning after my wedding, I walked past my five-year-old daughter’s room and heard my new wife whisper, “Be a good girl and forget that dead mother of yours.” Then I saw her yanking my daughter’s hair backward.
I pushed the door open so hard it hit the wall.
My daughter, Lily, was crying and trembling beside her bed.
“Let go of her.”
My wife, Vanessa, froze.
Her hand was still tangled in Lily’s hair.
I crossed the room and slapped Vanessa across the face.
She stumbled backward.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” I shouted.
Lily ran into my arms.
“Daddy, please don’t leave me with her.”
Those words cut through me.
Vanessa touched her cheek and stared at me.
“You hit me over a child throwing a tantrum?”
“She’s five.”
“She needs discipline.”
“You were pulling her hair.”
Vanessa rolled her eyes.
“She keeps talking about her mother like she’s coming back.”
Lily buried her face in my chest.
Her mother, Emily, had died two years earlier.
Since then, Lily slept with Emily’s old scarf under her pillow.
Vanessa had always acted understanding about it.
At least when I was around.
I looked at Lily.
“Has she done this before?”
Vanessa answered first.
“Daniel, don’t encourage this.”
I ignored her.
“Lily?”
My daughter slowly nodded.
My stomach dropped.
“She pinches me when you go downstairs.”
Vanessa’s face changed.
“That is a lie.”
“She threw Mommy’s picture away too.”
I looked at the empty spot on Lily’s nightstand.
The framed photo of Emily was gone.
“Where is it?”
Vanessa crossed her arms.
“I threw it in the trash.”
I stared at her.
“You had no right.”
“I’m your wife now.”
“You are not her mother.”
The words hit harder than the slap.
Vanessa’s eyes filled with rage.
Then she said something I didn’t understand.
“You really think Emily was the saint you remember?”
The room went quiet.
“What does that mean?”
Vanessa smiled bitterly.
“Nothing.”
I stepped closer.
“You knew Emily?”
She looked away.
That was when Lily tugged my sleeve.
“Daddy, she has Mommy’s necklace.”
I turned.
Vanessa immediately covered the chain around her neck.
I had noticed it at the wedding.
A small silver heart.
I thought it was hers.
But now I recognized the tiny scratch across the front.
Emily had worn that necklace every day for ten years.
It disappeared after the car accident.
I reached toward it.
“Where did you get that?”
Vanessa stepped back.
“It’s mine.”
“No.”
My hands started shaking.
“That belonged to Emily.”
Vanessa’s face went pale.
Lily began crying again.
Then she whispered, “Vanessa told me Mommy gave it to her before she died.”
I couldn’t breathe.
Emily died alone on a highway outside Nashville.
At least that was what the police told me.
I grabbed Vanessa’s wrist.
“How did you get my dead wife’s necklace?”
She pulled away.
Then someone knocked hard on the front door downstairs.
Three times.
I carried Lily with me and opened it.
A police detective stood on the porch holding a folder.
“Daniel Carter?”
“Yes.”
He looked past me and saw Vanessa standing on the stairs.
His face changed immediately.
May you like
Then he said, “Sir, we need to talk about your first wife’s death.”
Vanessa turned and ran.
