Chapter 4 - The Lake House
Jessica refused to bring Lily.
That decision took less than a second.
Richard insisted the message might be a bluff.
Jessica ignored him.
Claire suggested contacting the police.
Mike asked the obvious question.
"And tell them what? My dead father is alive, my dead former sister-in-law is alive, and my girlfriend illegally helped create my biological daughter using my ex-wife's stolen eggs?"
Claire winced.
"When you say it like that—"
"How else would I say it?"
Jessica stopped them.
"We have evidence."
She held up the flash drive.
Richard laughed softly.
"Assuming Claire didn't copy incomplete records."
Claire stared at him.
"You don't know what's on it."
"I know you."
Jessica looked between them.
"We make copies."
They returned to Room 1812.
Mike used the hotel laptop.
The drive contained hundreds of files.
Financial records.
Emails.
Medical records.
Security footage.
Jessica opened one video.
Richard entered the clinic after midnight five years earlier.
Another showed Claire meeting Emily.
Another showed Emily leaving visibly pregnant months later.
Jessica copied everything to three cloud accounts.
Then she emailed copies to herself, Mike, and an attorney she trusted.
Richard watched.
"Very thorough."
Jessica looked at him.
"I learned from surviving your son."
Mike almost smiled.
Wrong moment.
But somehow it broke the tension.
Claire sat with Lily.
The little girl had begun asking for Emily again.
Jessica approached.
"Sweetheart, we're going to find your mom."
"Can I come?"
"No."
Lily's eyes filled.
Jessica knelt.
"I need you to do something very important."
"What?"
"Stay here with Claire."
Lily looked uncertain.
Jessica understood.
The photograph said DON'T TRUST CLAIRE.
Claire understood too.
"I don't blame her."
Jessica studied Claire.
"Should I?"
Claire's eyes lowered.
"I did terrible things."
"That's not an answer."
"I would never hurt Lily."
"Did you hurt Emily?"
Claire looked at her.
"No."
Jessica believed that too.
She didn't forgive Claire.
Believing and forgiving were different.
Mike approached.
"I'm coming with you."
"The message says alone."
"I don't care."
"I do."
"Jessica."
"Mike, if they see you—"
"They already know we're together."
He pointed toward her phone.
"They've been watching us."
Richard interrupted.
"Michael is right."
Jessica stared at him.
"I'm not taking advice from you."
"You don't have to trust me to understand the situation."
"You created the situation."
Richard didn't argue.
Mike looked at his father.
"You're staying here."
Richard smiled.
"You think you're giving orders?"
"Yes."
For once, Richard obeyed.
Jessica and Mike left through the hotel's underground garage.
The lake house was ninety minutes away.
They drove in silence for the first twenty.
Then Mike said, "I didn't know."
Jessica looked out the window.
"I know."
"You believe me?"
"About Lily? Yes."
"About Claire?"
Jessica turned.
"You knew you were cheating."
Mike's face tightened.
"Yes."
"Then there's nothing to misunderstand."
"I'm not asking you to forgive me."
"Good."
"I need you to know I didn't leave because you couldn't have children."
Jessica froze.
That had been the wound she'd never discussed.
During their marriage, every failed fertility treatment had made her feel as though her body was betraying them.
Then Mike had become distant.
Then Claire appeared.
Jessica had connected the dots.
"I thought you blamed me," she said.
"I blamed myself."
"That's convenient."
"I was a coward."
She looked at him.
Mike kept his eyes on the road.
"I couldn't watch you go through another treatment. I couldn't tell you because I thought you'd hear it as me giving up on having a family with you."
"So you slept with Claire."
"Yes."
"Brilliant solution."
"I didn't say it made sense."
Jessica looked away.
"I loved you," Mike said.
"Don't."
"I did."
"You don't cheat on someone you love."
"People do terrible things to people they love."
"That's not romantic, Mike."
"I know."
Silence returned.
After a while, Jessica said, "Why did Claire stay with you?"
Mike frowned.
"What?"
"If she knew Lily existed, why become your partner?"
He didn't answer.
Jessica looked at him.
"She told Emily she didn't choose you."
Mike's jaw tightened.
"I noticed."
"Maybe Richard told her to."
"Why?"
"To control you."
Mike stared ahead.
That possibility hurt him.
Good, Jessica thought.
Then immediately hated herself for thinking it.
The lake house appeared near dusk.
Jessica remembered visiting it when she and Mike were newly married.
Richard had hosted family weekends there.
Now the property looked abandoned.
Mike parked far from the house.
"No lights."
Jessica checked her phone.
No new messages.
They approached on foot.
The front door was unlocked.
Mike went first.
Inside, dust covered the furniture.
"Emily?"
Nothing.
Jessica saw the stone fireplace from the photograph.
The chair remained there.
Empty.
Rope lay on the floor.
Jessica touched it.
"She was here."
Mike noticed a door near the kitchen.
"Basement."
Jessica remembered it.
They opened it.
Darkness.
Mike used his phone flashlight.
They descended.
At the bottom, Jessica saw shelves filled with boxes.
Medical records.
Files.
Photographs.
This wasn't a hiding place.
It was an archive.
Mike opened a box.
Inside were documents bearing Richard's signature.
Jessica opened another.
Clinic files.
Then she found a folder with her name.
JESSICA BENNETT.
Inside were medical records dating back eight years.
Her fertility treatments.
Her egg retrieval.
Consent forms.
One signature was hers.
Another looked like hers.
It wasn't.
"Forgery," she whispered.
Mike looked.
His face darkened.
Then Jessica found something else.
A birth certificate.
Lily Grace Bennett.
Mother: Emily Rose Bennett.
Father: Michael Richard Bennett.
Jessica stared.
"Emily used your surname?"
Mike shook his head.
"She wasn't a Bennett."
"Legally, Lily was."
A sound came from upstairs.
Both froze.
Footsteps.
Mike turned off the flashlight.
Someone entered the house.
Jessica heard floorboards creak.
One person.
Maybe two.
Mike whispered, "Stay here."
"No."
He looked at her.
"This isn't our marriage. You don't get to order me around."
Even now, Mike almost smiled.
They moved toward the stairs.
A shadow crossed the doorway above.
Jessica's phone vibrated.
She looked.
Unknown number.
YOU SHOULD HAVE COME ALONE.
Mike saw it.
Then the basement door slammed.
Locked.
Mike ran up.
He pulled the handle.
Nothing.
Jessica heard footsteps moving away.
Then smoke began seeping under the door.
"Fire."
Mike threw his shoulder against it.
Once.
Twice.
Nothing.
Jessica searched the basement.
A narrow window sat near the ceiling.
Too small.
Smoke thickened.
Mike grabbed a metal shelf and smashed it against the door.
Jessica coughed.
Then she heard something.
A woman's voice outside.
"Jessica!"
Emily.
Jessica ran toward the stairs.
"Emily!"
A crash.
The lock broke.
The door opened.
A woman stood there holding a fire extinguisher.
Jessica stared.
Four years disappeared.
Emily looked older.
Thinner.
A scar crossed her forehead.
But she was alive.
Jessica climbed the stairs.
Neither sister spoke.
Then Jessica slapped her.
Mike froze.
Emily touched her cheek.
Jessica immediately pulled her into an embrace.
Both women broke.
"You let me bury you."
"I'm sorry."
"I hated you for dying."
"I know."
"I missed you."
"I know."
Mike closed the basement door behind them.
"Emotional reunion later. Who started the fire?"
Emily looked toward the window.
"We have to go."
"Who?"
"Richard."
"He's at the hotel."
Emily stared.
"No, he isn't."
Jessica's blood chilled.
"We left him there."
Emily shook her head.
"The man you saw isn't Richard."
Mike went still.
"What?"
Emily looked at him.
"Your father really is dead."
Jessica stared.
"Then who was that?"
Emily's face tightened.
"Richard's brother."
Mike whispered, "Thomas?"
Jessica remembered the name.
Thomas Bennett.
Richard's younger brother.
Estranged from the family decades ago.
Mike had once told Jessica he'd died overseas.
Emily nodded.
"He's been using Richard's identity for years."
Mike looked sick.
"Why?"
"Because Richard discovered what Thomas was doing at the clinic."
Jessica frowned.
"I thought Richard ordered it."
"No."
Emily shook her head.
"Richard was trying to stop him."
The story changed again.
"Then why fake your death?"
"Because I witnessed Thomas kill Richard."
Silence.
Mike's face emptied.
Emily stepped closer.
"Your father didn't die from a heart attack."
Mike whispered, "You saw it?"
"Yes."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because Thomas had Lily."
Jessica's phone rang.
Claire.
She answered.
"Claire?"
Claire was crying.
"Jessica, he's gone."
"Thomas?"
"He took Lily."
Jessica stopped breathing.
"No."
"I tried to stop him."
"Where are you?"
"Hotel garage."
"Where is Lily?"
"I don't know."
Then Lily's voice came faintly through the phone.
"Mommy?"
Jessica's heart stopped.
"Lily!"
The line crackled.
A man's voice replaced hers.
"Bring Emily to me."
Jessica gripped the phone.
May you like
Thomas continued.
"Or this time, the Bennett family really will bury a little girl."
