Chapter 2 - The Woman in the Photograph
Maria couldn't look away from the screen.
Daniel stood beneath the security light as if seven years had been seven minutes.
Older.
Thinner.
A scar crossed the left side of his forehead.
But alive.
Impossible and alive.
Lily moved toward the monitor.
"Daddy?"
Maria grabbed her.
"No."
The word came out too loudly.
Lily startled.
Adrien immediately pressed a button beneath his desk.
"Lock the estate."
A guard answered through the speaker.
"Already doing it, sir."
"Nobody enters."
Maria turned on him.
"That's my husband."
Adrien's expression hardened.
"That's exactly why he doesn't enter."
"He's Lily's father."
"Maria."
"You don't get to decide—"
"Seven years ago, the man you knew as Daniel Delgado disappeared because people were trying to find him."
"He's dead."
"No."
"I identified his belongings."
"Belongings aren't a body."
Maria hated him for how calmly he said it.
She hated herself more for remembering that there had been no body.
The official explanation had been simple.
Daniel's car had gone through a guardrail into the river during a winter storm.
Divers found the vehicle.
They found his wallet.
His coat.
Blood.
They never found him.
A judge eventually declared him dead.
Maria had spent years forcing herself to accept what the river refused to return.
Now Daniel stood at the gate.
Lily squirmed from her arms.
"Daddy came back."
Maria held her tighter.
Adrien watched the screen.
Daniel raised something toward the camera.
A photograph.
Adrien leaned closer.
Maria recognized the woman immediately.
Eva.
Daniel turned the photograph over.
Three words were written across the back.
LET ME IN.
Adrien's jaw tightened.
"No."
Maria faced him.
"What happened between you?"
"Not here."
"Then where?"
"Somewhere Lily can't hear it."
"She's already seen her dead father come back."
Adrien glanced at the child.
For the first time, uncertainty crossed his face.
Maria crouched beside Lily.
"Sweetheart, I need you to stay with Mrs. Harris."
"I want Daddy."
"I know."
"Why can't he come inside?"
Maria couldn't answer.
Adrien did.
"Because I need to make sure he's really your father."
Lily looked at him seriously.
"He is."
"How do you know?"
"I remember his eyes."
Maria nearly broke.
Lily had been barely a year old when Daniel disappeared.
She couldn't remember him.
Could she?
Mrs. Harris arrived moments later and took Lily upstairs.
When the door closed, Maria turned on Adrien.
"Talk."
Adrien placed the photograph of Eva on the desk.
"My sister died fourteen years ago."
"How?"
"Officially? Car accident."
Maria stared.
"Like Daniel."
"Exactly like Daniel."
He opened another drawer and removed a thick folder.
"Eva worked for the Voss companies before I took control. She found irregular payments connected to our waterfront properties."
"What kind?"
"The kind that made people nervous."
Maria remembered the rules of the mansion.
Don't ask.
Don't listen.
Don't repeat.
Adrien continued.
"Eva believed someone inside my father's organization was stealing millions and using our legitimate businesses to hide it."
"And Daniel?"
"His name wasn't Daniel."
Adrien turned over the photograph Maria had seen.
The name on the back was Gabriel Mercer.
Maria stared at it.
"Gabriel."
"He worked with Eva."
"As what?"
"An accountant."
Maria almost laughed.
Daniel—Gabriel—had told her he repaired industrial refrigeration systems.
"He helped her collect evidence."
"And then she died."
"Three days before she planned to give it to federal investigators."
Maria looked toward the monitor.
Daniel remained at the gate.
"Why didn't he tell you?"
"He disappeared."
"Why?"
"I thought he betrayed her."
The words landed heavily.
"You thought my husband killed your sister?"
"For years."
Maria backed away.
"And you hired me?"
"I didn't know who you were."
"When did you find out?"
"Tonight."
"Because of an umbrella?"
"Because of the umbrella, the necklace, and his face on that camera."
Maria looked down at the crescent moon.
"Why did Daniel have Eva's necklace?"
"I don't know."
"Was he in love with her?"
Adrien's silence hurt more than an answer.
Maria swallowed.
"Tell me."
"I don't know what they were to each other."
A buzzer sounded.
Security.
"Mr. Voss, he's asking for Maria."
Maria moved toward the door.
Adrien blocked her.
"Move."
"No."
"Adrien."
It was the first time she had called him that.
His expression shifted.
"He may be here because someone found you."
"Someone?"
"The person Eva was investigating."
"Fourteen years later?"
"People with something to lose can be patient."
Maria looked at the security screen.
Daniel suddenly stepped closer to the camera.
He held up his phone.
A message appeared on Adrien's computer.
UNKNOWN DEVICE REQUESTING SECURE CONNECTION.
Adrien accepted.
Daniel's voice filled the study.
"Adrien."
Adrien leaned toward the microphone.
"Gabriel."
Maria closed her eyes.
Hearing another name attached to her husband's voice made her feel as if reality had tilted.
Daniel spoke.
"Maria's with you?"
"Yes."
"Lily?"
"Safe."
A long pause.
"Thank God."
Maria pushed past Adrien.
"Daniel?"
Silence.
Then a broken breath.
"Maria."
Her knees weakened.
"You're alive."
"I'm sorry."
"You're sorry?"
"I can explain."
"Seven years."
"I know."
"You let me bury you."
"I know."
"You let your daughter grow up without you."
His voice cracked.
"I know."
Maria's anger collapsed into something worse.
"Why?"
"Because the people who killed Eva found me."
Adrien went completely still.
"Who killed her?"
"I didn't know then."
"And now?"
"Now I do."
Adrien stepped closer to the microphone.
"Give me the name."
"Not over this connection."
"Then come inside."
Maria looked at him.
Seconds ago he had refused.
Daniel glanced toward something outside the camera frame.
His face changed.
"No."
"What?"
"I wasn't followed when I came here."
Adrien's hand moved toward the security panel.
"What are you seeing?"
Daniel backed away from the gate.
Headlights appeared behind him.
A black SUV.
Then another.
Adrien pressed the intercom.
"Security positions. Now."
Maria's pulse raced.
"What's happening?"
Daniel looked directly into the camera.
"Adrien, listen to me. Eva hid a second copy."
"Of what?"
"The evidence."
"Where?"
"I don't know. But she left a clue."
"What clue?"
Daniel looked toward the mansion.
"The umbrella."
Maria stared at the blue umbrella on the desk.
Adrien slowly turned toward it.
Daniel continued.
"Eva told me if anything happened to her, the truth would come back when someone showed kindness to the wrong man."
Adrien's face emptied.
Maria whispered, "What does that mean?"
A violent crash sounded from the front gate.
The security image shook.
Daniel disappeared from view.
"Daniel!"
Maria ran toward the door.
Adrien caught her.
Another crash.
Then every security monitor went black.
The mansion lights died.
Darkness swallowed the study.
Somewhere upstairs, Lily screamed.
"Mama!"
Maria tore free.
Then a small voice came through the darkness from directly behind the study's locked interior door.
It wasn't Lily.
It was a man's voice.
May you like
"Adrien."
The handle slowly began to turn.
