Chapter 1 - the invitation with no return address)
Six days before the dinner, Daniel Whitmore found the first envelope on his desk.
There was no stamp.
No return address.
No sign that anyone had entered his office.
His assistant, Margaret, swore she had not placed it there.
Daniel turned it over several times before opening it.
Inside was a single photograph.
Lucy was standing outside St. Matthew’s Academy, holding her red lunch box and waiting beside the school gate.
The picture had been taken from across the street.
Daniel’s stomach tightened.
On the back, written in black ink, were four words.
Do not marry Vanessa.
He read the sentence twice.
Then a third time.
His first instinct was anger.
His second was fear.
His third was to tell nobody.
That decision would haunt him.
Daniel had been engaged to Vanessa Hale for eight months.
The engagement surprised almost everyone who knew him.
Three years earlier, Daniel had buried his wife, Caroline, after what police called a boating accident.
There had been no body.
Only Caroline’s coat recovered from the lake and enough evidence to convince investigators that she had gone overboard during a sudden storm.
For nearly two years Daniel lived like a ghost.
Then Vanessa appeared.
Beautiful.
Patient.
Intelligent.
She never asked him to forget Caroline.
At least not at first.
She encouraged him to keep photographs.
She attended memorial dinners.
She brought flowers to the lake every anniversary.
Most importantly, she seemed wonderful with Lucy.
Lucy had been only three when Caroline disappeared.
She remembered fragments.
A perfume.
A song.
A silver bracelet.
The way her mother used to braid her hair.
Vanessa never tried to call herself Lucy’s mother.
Not in front of Daniel.
That was why Daniel trusted her.
But during the last three months something had changed.
Lucy had become quiet around Vanessa.
She started refusing to sleep alone.
Twice Daniel found food hidden beneath her bed because Lucy said she wanted something to eat “in case the kitchen was locked.”
Vanessa laughed it off.
Daniel did too.
He told himself children developed strange fears.
Then came the photograph.
Daniel slid it into his desk drawer.
At five-thirty that evening he drove home earlier than usual.
The Whitmore mansion stood beyond a pair of iron gates on twelve acres of wooded land outside Hartford.
It had belonged to Daniel’s grandfather and had been renovated after Caroline’s disappearance because Daniel could not bear the rooms exactly as she had left them.
When he entered through the kitchen, he heard Lucy arguing with someone.
“No.”
Daniel stopped.
Vanessa’s voice followed.
“You need to stop saying that.”
“No.”
“You’re making things difficult.”
Daniel walked toward the breakfast room.
The conversation ended immediately.
Vanessa appeared in the doorway holding a folded napkin.
Her smile was warm.
“You’re home.”
Lucy sat at the table.
Her eyes were red.
Daniel looked between them.
“What happened?”
Vanessa sighed.
“She refused dinner because I asked her to stop playing with her food.”
Lucy stared at her plate.
Daniel crouched beside his daughter.
“Is that true?”
Lucy nodded.
But her fingers were gripping the edge of her chair so tightly the knuckles were white.
Daniel kissed her hair.
“Go wash up.”
Lucy slipped down from the chair.
As she passed Daniel, she whispered, “I didn’t play with it.”
Then she disappeared upstairs.
Daniel remained still.
Vanessa poured herself water.
“Don’t encourage her.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Encourage what?”
“The lying.”
“She said she didn’t play with her food.”
“Daniel.”
Vanessa put down the glass.
“She’s six.”
“That doesn’t mean she’s lying.”
Vanessa smiled without humor.
“You always do this.”
“Do what?”
“Turn every little conflict into a courtroom.”
Daniel was a corporate attorney.
She knew the comparison irritated him.
He ignored it.
“What actually happened?”
Vanessa hesitated.
Then shrugged.
“She asked me whether I knew her mother.”
Daniel felt a strange pressure behind his ribs.
“What?”
“She asked whether I knew Caroline before you did.”
“Why would she ask that?”
“I have no idea.”
Vanessa walked away.
Daniel watched her leave.
That night he checked the security system.
There were no unusual entries.
No opened doors.
No unknown vehicles.
He almost convinced himself the anonymous photograph had been delivered by a disgruntled client.
Then, shortly after midnight, Lucy appeared beside his bed.
“Daddy.”
Daniel woke instantly.
“What’s wrong?”
Lucy climbed beneath the blanket.
“There was someone in my room.”
Daniel sat up.
“What someone?”
“A lady.”
His heart began pounding.
“What did she look like?”
“I couldn’t see.”
“Did she talk to you?”
Lucy nodded.
“What did she say?”
The child looked toward the bedroom door.
“She said I have to remember the blue room.”
Daniel stared at her.
There was no blue room in the house.
Not anymore.
But there had been.
Before the renovations.
Caroline’s private sitting room on the second floor had been painted blue.
Daniel had ordered it completely remodeled after her disappearance.
Lucy had been three.
Too young, he thought, to remember.
He turned on every light and searched the house.
Nothing.
At one-fifteen, he returned to his office.
The desk drawer where he had hidden the photograph was open.
The photograph was gone.
In its place was another envelope.
Inside was a small brass key.
May you like
And another message.
Ask your daughter what Vanessa did on March 14.
