Chapter 4 - VeeDaniel sat in the kitchen until midnight.
Vanessa remained upstairs.
Neither of them called the other.
The photograph lay on the table between Daniel's hands.
He kept staring at Megan's handwriting on the back.
October 12.
He remembered that birthday.
Megan had told him a friend from college was visiting.
Daniel had arrived late because of work.
He hadn't met everyone.
There had been twenty people on that rooftop.
He could have walked past Vanessa.
Maybe even spoken to her.
And forgotten.
But she hadn't forgotten him.
At 12:17 a.m., Daniel called Kate.
She answered immediately.
“How's Sophie?”
“Asleep.”
“Good.”
“What do you remember about someone Megan called Vee?”
Silence.
Then:
“Why?”
“Just answer.”
Kate hesitated.
“College friend.”
“Close?”
“Very, until the end.”
“What happened?”
“I don't know exactly.”
Daniel looked at the photograph.
“Was her name Vanessa?”
Another silence.
Longer.
“Oh God.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“You knew?”
“I knew Megan had a friend named Vanessa.”
“And you never recognized my wife?”
“I met Vee twice, Daniel. Maybe three times. Years ago. She had dark hair then.”
Daniel frowned.
“Dark?”
“She colored it blonde later, I guess.”
He looked toward the stairs.
“What was their last name?”
“I don't remember. Something Polish? Or Russian?”
Vanessa's maiden name was Cole.
Simple.
American.
At least that was what their marriage license said.
Daniel felt sick.
“Kate, why did they stop being friends?”
“Megan wouldn't tell me.”
“Think.”
“I am.”
Daniel heard Sophie shifting faintly in the background.
Then Kate lowered her voice.
“Megan said Vee crossed a line.”
“What line?”
“She wouldn't say.”
“Was it about me?”
“I don't know.”
Daniel gripped the phone.
“Did Megan ever tell you someone was trying to destroy our marriage?”
Kate didn't answer.
“Kate.”
“Yes.”
The word landed like a stone.
“When?”
“A few months before you separated.”
“And you didn't tell me?”
“She begged me not to.”
Daniel stood so quickly the chair scraped backward.
“What?”
“She said you'd think she was paranoid.”
“Paranoid about what?”
“Someone sending you things.”
Daniel stopped.
Anonymous messages.
He remembered them.
Screenshots.
Photos.
Evidence of Megan's supposed affair.
At first, Daniel had ignored them.
Then came the photograph.
Megan leaving a hotel with another man.
Then texts.
Intimate messages.
Enough to destroy what little trust remained.
“Did Megan say Vanessa was sending them?”
“She didn't know.”
Daniel stared into darkness beyond the kitchen windows.
“What did she say?”
“That somebody wanted you to hate her.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
He could hear Megan again.
Standing in their bedroom.
Crying.
Telling him the messages were fake.
Telling him the photo was misleading.
Telling him he was letting a stranger destroy their family.
He hadn't believed her.
Because the evidence looked undeniable.
“Daniel?”
He opened his eyes.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because you wouldn't talk about her after the accident.”
The accident.
Megan had died driving during a thunderstorm.
Her SUV had crossed the center line and hit a concrete barrier.
No alcohol.
No drugs.
No mechanical failure.
Police said she was probably distracted.
Daniel had always believed grief and panic had killed her.
She had been driving to his apartment.
Trying to talk.
Trying to save their marriage.
“Kate.”
“Yeah?”
“I think Vanessa was Vee.”
Kate went silent.
Then Sophie screamed.
Daniel shot upright.
“What happened?”
He heard Kate running.
“Sophie?”
Another scream.
Then muffled crying.
Daniel's heart hammered.
“Kate!”
“I've got her.”
“What happened?”
“Nightmare.”
Daniel grabbed his keys.
“I'm coming.”
“No, wait.”
Kate sounded shaken.
“What?”
“She said something.”
Daniel stopped.
“What?”
Kate lowered her voice.
“She woke up yelling that Vanessa was in her room.”
Daniel's blood turned cold.
“She isn't. Vanessa is here.”
“I know.”
“What exactly did Sophie say?”
Kate hesitated.
“She said, ‘Don't take Mom's box.’”
Daniel frowned.
“What box?”
“I don't know.”
Then he heard Sophie in the background.
“Aunt Kate!”
“What, honey?”
“Tell Daddy.”
Daniel pressed the phone to his ear.
“Tell me what?”
Sophie's voice came through faintly.
“The box in my closet.”
Daniel looked upstairs.
“What box?”
“The one Vanessa said I could never touch.”
He was already moving.
He climbed the stairs quickly.
Vanessa's door remained closed.
Daniel entered Sophie's bedroom.
Hair still covered the floor.
He crossed to the closet.
“Where?”
“Behind the winter blankets.”
Daniel pushed clothing aside.
Nothing.
He crouched.
Reached deeper.
His fingers touched wood.
He pulled out a small cedar box.
Locked.
He stared at it.
“Sophie, how long has this been here?”
“I don't know.”
“Who put it there?”
“Vanessa.”
Daniel sat on the floor.
“What did she say was inside?”
Sophie sniffled.
“She said it belonged to Mom.”
Daniel stared at the box.
Then at the bedroom doorway.
“Why would Vanessa have something that belonged to Megan?”
No one answered.
Daniel found a hammer in the garage.
He broke the lock with one strike.
Inside were letters.
Photographs.
A silver necklace Daniel had given Megan on their fifth anniversary.
And underneath everything—
a phone.
Not Sophie's old phone.
An older one.
The screen was cracked.
Daniel pressed the power button.
Nothing happened.
But on the back of the case, written in faded black marker, were two letters.
MC.
Megan Carter.
May you like
His dead wife's phone had been hidden in his daughter's closet.
By the woman who claimed she had barely known her.
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