Chapter 2 - The Woman in the Locked Room
Adrien spun toward the sound.
One security man moved immediately toward the rear hallway while the other remained near Luca and me.
"Nobody leaves," Adrien said.
The calm in his voice was more frightening than shouting.
The guard disappeared into the kitchen.
I stared at the photograph still pressed against the front window.
The woman outside looked terrified.
"Let her in," I said.
Adrien didn't move.
"Adrien."
"We don't know who she is."
"You just said she was Elena's nurse."
"I said she worked around Elena."
"That's more than we know about whoever opened my back door."
That shut me up.
The guard returned.
"Door's open."
"Anyone there?"
"No."
"My bakery stays locked," I said.
He looked at me.
"Apparently not tonight."
Adrien gestured toward the woman.
"Bring her in."
When the door opened, she rushed inside.
"My name is Teresa Moretti."
Adrien's expression changed.
"Teresa?"
"You remember me."
"I remember my wife mentioning you."
Teresa looked at Luca in my arms and pressed a hand over her mouth.
"He's alive."
"Why wouldn't he be?"
Her eyes snapped toward Adrien.
"I need to speak with Emma."
"You're speaking to both of us."
"No."
Teresa shook her head.
"Elena told me Emma first."
I felt Luca shift against my shoulder.
"Why did Elena know me?"
Teresa handed me the photograph.
I studied it.
The woman beside Elena looked exactly like me from a distance.
Same body type.
Same dark hair.
Same round face.
But something was wrong.
Then I saw it.
A scar above her eyebrow.
I didn't have one.
"This isn't me."
Adrien took the photograph.
"Then who is she?"
"My sister."
The words left my mouth before I had time to understand them.
Adrien looked at me.
"You have a sister?"
"Had."
My voice weakened.
"Rachel died six years ago."
Teresa closed her eyes.
"No."
I stared at her.
"What?"
"Rachel didn't die."
Every sound in the bakery disappeared.
I laughed once.
It wasn't humor.
"My sister's car went into the Hudson."
"Her car did."
"Stop."
"Emma—"
"They found her coat."
"I know."
"Her phone."
"I know."
"Blood."
Teresa's eyes filled.
"They never found Rachel."
I knew that.
Of course I knew it.
For six years I'd tried not to know it.
No body.
No funeral with a coffin.
Only a memorial service and a detective telling my mother that sometimes rivers didn't give people back.
"What does Rachel have to do with Elena?"
"Everything."
Adrien stepped between us.
"Start talking."
Teresa looked toward the windows.
"Not here."
"This seems to be everyone's favorite sentence tonight," I said.
"We need to leave."
"Why?"
Teresa pointed toward the photograph.
"Because Elena didn't hide that for you."
Adrien frowned.
"Then who?"
"For the person who has been searching for Rachel."
The lights went out.
Darkness swallowed the bakery.
Luca startled.
I held him tighter.
"Emma."
Adrien's voice came from somewhere beside me.
"I'm here."
A flashlight snapped on.
Then another.
The guards.
"Power outage?" I asked.
"No," one answered.
"How do you know?"
"Buildings across the street still have power."
Adrien moved closer.
"Stay behind me."
I almost laughed.
"I'm holding a newborn. I'm not planning a charge."
"Back office."
"No."
"Emma."
"There's one door in there."
"Exactly."
"And no exit."
Adrien paused.
Fair point.
Dr. Kaplan moved toward Luca.
"We need to keep him warm."
Teresa looked at the rear hallway.
"We need to go."
"Where?" I asked.
"Somewhere Elena prepared."
Adrien's eyes narrowed.
"My house?"
Teresa gave a humorless laugh.
"Especially not your house."
That landed hard.
Adrien stepped closer.
"Explain."
"Your wife was afraid of someone inside it."
One of the security men turned.
"Sir."
"What?"
"Movement outside."
A dark vehicle had stopped across the street.
Adrien looked through the window.
"Yours?"
"No."
"Police?"
"No."
Teresa whispered, "They found us."
Adrien didn't ask who.
He pulled out his phone.
"Car around back."
The guard nodded.
I stared at him.
"I'm not going anywhere until someone tells me what's happening."
Adrien turned.
"Luca needs you."
That was unfair.
He knew it.
I knew it.
But Luca made a small sound against my chest.
I looked down.
And my argument died.
Ten minutes later, I was sitting inside an armored SUV beside a man I had met less than an hour earlier.
Luca slept against me.
Adrien sat opposite.
Teresa beside him.
Dr. Kaplan followed in another vehicle.
Nobody spoke until we crossed the bridge.
Finally, I looked at Teresa.
"Rachel."
She nodded.
"Tell me."
"Your sister worked as a private neonatal nurse."
"I know."
"Six years ago, she accepted a position with a wealthy family."
"She never told us who."
"Elena's family."
Adrien frowned.
"Elena didn't have children six years ago."
"No. But her sister did."
Adrien leaned forward.
"Sofia?"
Teresa nodded.
I remembered the name from newspapers.
Sofia Marconi.
Elena's older sister.
She had died several years ago.
"What happened?" I asked.
"Rachel discovered financial records hidden among medical documents."
"What kind of records?"
Teresa looked at Adrien.
"Payments."
"For what?"
"I don't know."
"Then how do you know they mattered?"
"Because Rachel called me the night she disappeared."
My pulse accelerated.
"What did she say?"
"She said she'd found proof that someone was stealing from Elena's family."
Adrien's expression hardened.
"How much?"
"Millions."
"Who?"
"She didn't know yet."
I looked at the sleeping baby.
"And Elena?"
"Rachel trusted her."
"Why?"
"Because Elena was trying to find the same person."
The SUV turned through enormous iron gates.
Adrien noticed my look.
"I thought Teresa said not your house."
"This isn't."
"Whose?"
"My mother's."
That did not comfort me.
We stopped outside a stone guesthouse separate from the main residence.
Inside, the rooms were warm and quiet.
A nurse arrived within minutes.
Medical equipment followed.
I didn't ask how.
Rich people apparently could summon entire hospital departments after midnight.
Luca fed again privately.
When I emerged, Adrien was waiting.
"He's stronger."
His shoulders lowered.
"Good."
"You need sleep."
"So do you."
"I've forgotten how."
Something changed in his face.
Not pity.
Recognition.
"Me too."
For a moment, we were simply two parents who had learned that night was the most dangerous time to be alone with memory.
Then Teresa entered carrying a small wooden box.
"Elena gave this to me four days before Luca was born."
Adrien stared at it.
"Why didn't you bring it sooner?"
"She told me not to."
"She's dead."
"I know."
"Then her instructions almost killed our son."
Teresa flinched.
Adrien immediately looked ashamed.
He turned away.
"I'm sorry."
She nodded.
Then placed the box on the table.
"There are three locks."
I examined them.
Each had a letter.
E.
R.
G.
"Emma," Teresa said. "Elena believed you could open one."
"Why?"
"Because Rachel left the key with your family."
"My mother?"
"No."
"Then who?"
Teresa looked at me.
"Grace."
The room seemed to tilt.
"My daughter was nineteen hours old."
"Elena knew."
My voice rose.
"Don't say my daughter's name unless you're prepared to explain exactly why."
Adrien came closer, but I held up a hand.
"No."
This was mine.
Teresa opened her purse and removed a photograph.
It showed Rachel.
Alive.
Holding something small.
A silver pendant.
I recognized it immediately.
My mother had given it to me after Grace died.
She said Rachel had bought it years earlier and wanted me to have it someday.
I was wearing it now.
My fingers flew to my neck.
Teresa pointed.
"The key."
I unclasped the pendant.
There was a tiny seam along the edge.
Adrien found it.
The pendant opened.
Inside was a microscopic metal key.
Nobody spoke.
I inserted it into the lock marked R.
Click.
The first lock opened.
Adrien whispered, "Rachel."
Teresa nodded.
"Elena had the second key."
"Where?"
"She said Adrien would find it when he was ready to stop trusting the wrong person."
His face hardened.
"And the third?"
Teresa looked toward Luca's room.
"That one belongs to the baby."
I stared at her.
"He's twelve days old."
"I know."
"How can he have a key?"
Teresa walked toward the bassinet.
She carefully lifted the corner of Luca's blanket.
A tiny hospital identification bracelet remained around his ankle.
She turned it over.
There was a number printed beneath the barcode.
Adrien froze.
"What?" I asked.
He whispered:
"That's not Luca's birth date."
"Then what is it?"
He stared at the number.
"My wife's private safe."
Before anyone could move, my phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
A photograph appeared.
My bakery.
Taken from inside.
Then a message.
YOU SHOULD HAVE STAYED THERE, EMMA.
A second message arrived.
This one contained a photograph of a man standing in my bakery office.
He was holding Grace's ultrasound picture.
I recognized him immediately.
Tyler.
May you like
And beneath the photograph were four words.
HE KNOWS ABOUT RACHEL.
