Chapter 2
Victoria denied everything.
Badly.
“I saw them.”
I stared.
“You saw two children.”
“Yes.”
“You didn't hear the letter.”
“No.”
“Yet you reacted when I read about Mia.”
She folded her arms.
“You're inventing things because Elena was always good at making you paranoid.”
There.
Always.
Not old friend.
Not stranger.
Always.
“You knew her.”
Victoria laughed.
“Everyone knew Elena.”
“No.”
I stepped closer.
“You knew her well enough to hate her.”
Her face sharpened.
“She was weak.”
Clara looked up.
Victoria noticed.
Then smiled at her.
“Your mother cried every time life stopped going her way.”
Clara whispered:
“Mommy was sick.”
Victoria shrugged.
“So?”
I felt something cold move through me.
Clara held Mia tighter.
“Mommy said bad people would say she was lying.”
Victoria laughed.
“Well, at least she finally got something right.”
I crossed the distance between us.
Richard stepped between us again.
Bruised.
Furious.
“Enough.”
I looked at him.
“You already hit me once.”
His jaw tightened.
“You humiliated my daughter.”
“She tried to drag a child back out of my wedding.”
“She was protecting you.”
“From what?”
Silence.
The envelope.
Always the envelope.
I looked at Catherine.
“You're quiet.”
My sister stared at the floor.
“Adrian…”
“What do you know?”
Victoria snapped:
“Nothing.”
Catherine looked at her.
That one glance.
Fear.
Old fear.
I stared.
“You're afraid of my bride.”
Catherine's face hardened.
“No.”
“Then answer.”
She swallowed.
“I knew Elena had a child.”
The room stopped.
My hands tightened.
“When?”
“Four years ago.”
I could barely speak.
“You knew Clara existed.”
“Yes.”
“Did you know she was mine?”
Catherine's eyes filled.
“I suspected.”
I stepped back.
Not because she hit me.
Because she might as well have.
“Four years.”
“Adrian—”
“Four years.”
Richard sighed.
“This is exactly why we kept it from you.”
I turned.
We.
There.
Another slip.
Catherine looked at him.
Victoria closed her eyes.
Too late.
I stared at Richard.
“Who is we?”
He lifted his chin.
“People who understood what Elena would do to you.”
I almost laughed.
“She gave birth to my daughter.”
“She trapped you.”
Clara flinched.
Richard saw it.
Kept going.
“Women like Elena always find a child when they need leverage.”
I moved closer.
“Say that again.”
His face hardened.
“She wanted your name.”
“No.”
“She wanted access.”
“No.”
“She wanted what Victoria has.”
Victoria smiled.
“My life.”
Clara started crying.
I looked at Richard.
“You are insulting her mother in front of her.”
He shrugged.
“She'll hear worse.”
I stared.
Then Clara whispered:
“Grandpa Richard said Mommy should've stopped writing.”
Silence.
Richard went pale.
I turned slowly.
Clara looked at him.
“You came to our house.”
Victoria whispered:
“Clara.”
The little girl recoiled.
I looked at Victoria.
“Don't say her name.”
Then back to Clara.
“When did Richard visit Mommy?”
She thought carefully.
“Before Mommy couldn't walk.”
My stomach tightened.
“How long ago?”
She held up small fingers.
“Three sleeps before hospital.”
Richard stopped breathing.
Elena hadn't merely known them.
May you like
They had visited her shortly before she disappeared.
And my daughter remembered.
