Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN IN THE PHOTOGRAPH HAD GRACE'S EYESEthan didn't speak for almost thirty seconds.
Sophie had never seen her father look afraid.
Angry, yes.
Sad sometimes.
Tired often.
But never afraid.
He enlarged the photograph.
The woman stood beside a white building surrounded by eucalyptus trees.
There was a wooden bench.
A flower garden.
Part of a sign appeared near the edge of the photograph.
Only three letters were visible.
...ORA
Ethan's thumb trembled against the screen.
"Where did you get this?"
Vanessa recovered enough to answer.
"I don't know."
Ethan looked up.
"It's on your phone."
"Someone sent it."
"Who?"
"I don't remember."
He laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
"You don't remember receiving a photograph of my dead wife?"
Vanessa folded her arms.
"You need to calm down."
Ethan stared at her.
That sentence changed something.
His voice became quiet.
"Don't ever tell me to calm down again."
Sophie remained pressed against him.
Ethan felt her trembling.
He looked at the suitcase again.
"What were you doing to her?"
Vanessa sighed dramatically.
"I already told you. She climbed inside."
"Why?"
"Because she's been acting out."
"She was screaming."
"Because I told her to get out."
Sophie pulled on Ethan's jacket.
"No, Daddy."
Vanessa's eyes flashed.
Ethan looked down.
"What happened?"
"She wanted her phone."
"And?"
"I wouldn't give it."
Vanessa scoffed.
"See? She's admitting she stole from me."
Ethan ignored her.
"Sophie."
The girl's voice became smaller.
"She said we had to go somewhere before you got home."
Ethan's blood ran cold.
"Where?"
"I don't know."
Vanessa stepped closer.
"That's enough."
Ethan moved between them again.
"I said stay back."
Something hardened in Vanessa's face.
"You're humiliating me."
"I'm asking why my daughter thought you were taking her somewhere."
"Because children imagine things."
Sophie shook her head.
"She packed clothes."
Ethan looked around.
Clothes beside the suitcase.
Women's clothes.
Sophie's clothes.
He recognized Sophie's yellow jacket and jeans.
A toothbrush lay near the zipper compartment.
This wasn't random.
Someone had been packing.
"Vanessa."
Her eyes met his.
"Were you leaving?"
"No."
"Then why are Sophie's clothes here?"
"I was reorganizing."
"On the living-room floor?"
She didn't answer.
Ethan unlocked Vanessa's phone.
She moved immediately.
"Give me that."
He stepped away.
"No."
"It's my phone."
"Call the police."
Her face changed.
That was enough.
Ethan began scrolling through messages.
Vanessa rushed forward.
He raised his voice.
"Don't."
She stopped.
Sophie flinched.
Ethan immediately softened.
"Sweetheart, go upstairs."
Sophie grabbed him tighter.
"No."
"Sophie—"
"Don't leave me with her."
The sentence destroyed him.
Ethan crouched.
"You won't be alone with her."
"Promise?"
"I promise."
He took Sophie into the kitchen and called Mrs. Rivera, their next-door neighbor, a retired teacher Sophie adored.
Mrs. Rivera arrived within minutes.
She looked at Sophie's tear-streaked face.
Then at the suitcase.
Then at Vanessa.
She asked no questions.
"I'll keep Sophie with me."
Ethan hugged his daughter.
"I'll come get you."
Sophie whispered into his ear.
"Look in Vanessa's deleted pictures."
Ethan pulled back.
"What?"
"She deletes Mommy."
Vanessa heard.
"Sophie!"
Mrs. Rivera immediately took the girl's hand.
Ethan turned.
"One more time."
Vanessa stared.
"What?"
"Raise your voice at my daughter one more time."
The threat remained unfinished.
It didn't need finishing.
Vanessa looked away.
Once Sophie was gone, Ethan locked the front door.
Then he opened the Recently Deleted folder.
Vanessa went pale.
There were seventeen photographs.
Grace.
Grace sitting on a patio.
Grace walking beside a nurse.
Grace holding a coffee cup.
Grace asleep beside a window.
The dates covered eleven months.
Ethan couldn't breathe.
"You've known for a year."
Vanessa shook her head.
"No."
"Eleven months."
"I can explain."
He found another picture.
Grace holding something.
He enlarged it.
An old photograph.
Ethan recognized it instantly.
Him.
Grace.
Baby Sophie.
Taken at Zuma Beach when Sophie was eleven months old.
"Where did she get this?"
Vanessa sat down.
"Ethan."
"WHERE DID SHE GET IT?"
"I sent it."
His entire body went cold.
"You've been talking to her."
"No."
"You sent my supposedly dead wife a family photograph."
"I was helping."
"Helping who?"
"Grace."
He stared.
The name sounded obscene coming from her mouth.
"Tell me where she is."
Vanessa didn't answer.
"Tell me."
"You don't understand."
"Then make me understand."
Vanessa looked toward the windows.
"Ethan, before you do anything, you need to remember what Grace was like before she disappeared."
He froze.
"What does that mean?"
"She wasn't happy."
"I know."
"You were fighting."
Couples fought.
Their marriage had been strained before Grace vanished.
Ethan had carried that guilt for six years.
Their last conversation had been ugly.
Grace wanted space.
Ethan had accused her of running away from problems.
She had driven north along Pacific Coast Highway.
Her car was later found wrecked near a cliff.
Blood inside.
No body.
Authorities concluded she'd gone into the ocean.
Ethan spent eighteen months hoping.
Eventually hope became torture.
Vanessa had been there during the worst of it.
A family friend.
A woman who brought food.
Sat beside him at memorial services.
Helped Sophie when nightmares came.
Three years later, Ethan married her.
Now he looked at the woman he had trusted with his child.
"Did you know Grace before the accident?"
Vanessa's silence lasted too long.
Ethan stared.
"I asked you a question."
Vanessa whispered:
"Yes."
His heartbeat changed.
"How?"
She looked up.
"Grace and I knew each other in college."
Ethan took a step backward.
"You told me you'd never met her."
"I lied."
"Why?"
Vanessa's eyes filled with tears.
But Ethan no longer trusted tears.
"Because if I'd told you the truth, you would've asked what happened between us."
"What happened?"
Vanessa closed her eyes.
Ethan waited.
Finally she whispered:
"She hated me."
Ethan thought about the photograph.
The eleven months of hidden contact.
The suitcase.
His terrified daughter.
"Why?"
Vanessa opened her eyes.
"Because the night Grace disappeared..."
May you like
Her voice broke.
"I was with her."
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