Chapter 2 - The Room Claire Said Did Not Exist)
Daniel kept one hand on the steel door.
"I could ask you the same thing."
Claire descended the stairs slowly.
Her bare feet made almost no sound against the wood.
When she reached the bottom, she looked at the hidden door and sighed.
"I was hoping you wouldn't find that before the wedding."
Daniel stared at her.
"What is it?"
"A surprise."
"What kind of surprise needs a steel door?"
Claire laughed softly.
"Daniel, look around. Your house has a wine cellar with biometric temperature controls. A steel door isn't exactly unusual for this family."
"It is when I didn't know it existed."
"You did."
"No."
"You probably forgot."
Daniel's jaw tightened.
Claire touched his arm.
"Emily used this room."
The name landed between them.
Daniel looked at the door again.
"For what?"
"I don't know."
"You just said she used it."
"I found some things inside while organizing storage."
"How did you get in?"
Claire hesitated.
That hesitation told Daniel more than anything she said afterward.
"There was a key in one of Emily's boxes."
Daniel stepped closer.
"Show me."
"Not tonight."
"Claire."
"It's almost midnight."
"Show me the room."
Her expression hardened.
It happened so quickly that Daniel almost missed it.
Then the softness returned.
"Fine."
Claire walked to a cabinet beside the wine refrigerator.
She opened the bottom drawer and removed a small brass key.
Daniel watched her unlock the steel door.
The room beyond was narrow and windowless.
A single ceiling lamp flickered on.
Inside were several metal shelves.
Boxes.
Old files.
A broken laptop.
Two cameras.
A portable safe.
And dozens of folders.
Daniel moved toward them.
The nearest folder carried his first wife's handwriting.
E Bennett.
His stomach tightened.
He opened it.
Bank statements.
Invoices.
Names of companies he did not recognize.
Large wire transfers.
Most were from six years earlier, before Sophie was born.
"What was Emily doing?"
Claire leaned against the doorway.
"I thought you knew."
Daniel opened another folder.
Inside were photographs.
Emily standing beside a man Daniel recognized instantly.
Victor Whitmore.
Claire's father.
Daniel looked up.
"Why was your father meeting my wife?"
Claire's face became unreadable.
"He served on the foundation board."
"Not like this."
The photograph had been taken at night.
Emily and Victor stood beside a parking garage.
Emily looked angry.
Victor looked terrified.
A second photograph showed Victor handing Emily an envelope.
Daniel turned toward Claire.
"You've been in this room before."
"Yes."
"How long?"
"A few months."
"And you didn't tell me?"
"I was afraid."
"Of what?"
Claire's eyes filled with tears.
"My father."
Daniel said nothing.
Claire stepped into the room.
"My father wasn't the man people thought he was. There were financial problems. Investments. Deals. When I found these files, I realized Emily may have discovered something."
Daniel's heart started beating faster.
"What?"
"I don't know everything."
"But you knew enough to hide this room."
Claire looked wounded.
"I was trying to protect you before the wedding."
"From what?"
"From becoming obsessed."
Daniel almost laughed.
"My dead wife was secretly investigating your father, and you thought hiding the evidence would protect me?"
Claire lowered her voice.
"Emily is gone."
The words chilled him.
"That doesn't mean what happened to her doesn't matter."
"I didn't say that."
"You didn't have to."
A sound came from behind them.
They turned.
Sophie stood at the bottom of the stairs holding her stuffed rabbit.
Daniel immediately crossed the room.
"Sweetheart, what are you doing awake?"
She pointed inside the hidden room.
"Mommy room."
Daniel looked at Claire.
"What did she say?"
Sophie pointed again.
"Mommy room."
Daniel's throat tightened.
"Emily brought Sophie down here?"
Claire answered quickly.
"Sophie couldn't possibly remember that. She was a baby."
Sophie shook her head.
"Other mommy."
Daniel crouched.
"What other mommy?"
Sophie pointed at Claire.
Then she whispered.
"Mommy Claire comes here with man."
Silence.
Daniel slowly stood.
Claire's face had lost all color.
"What man?"
Sophie hugged the rabbit.
"Gray hair man."
Daniel looked at the photograph in his hand.
Victor Whitmore had gray hair.
Claire laughed nervously.
"She saw my father. That's all."
"When?"
Claire did not answer immediately.
Daniel's eyes narrowed.
"Your father told me he hasn't been inside this house since Emily died."
Claire stared at him.
"And you believe everything my father says?"
Daniel looked from Claire to the hidden room.
Then back to his daughter.
For the first time since proposing to Claire, a thought entered his mind that frightened him.
Maybe Sophie was not confused.
Maybe the adults were lying.
That night, after Claire went upstairs, Daniel remained in the basement.
He searched every folder.
At two thirteen in the morning, he found a sealed envelope beneath the portable safe.
His name was written on the front.
Daniel.
The handwriting belonged to Emily.
His hands began to shake.
Inside was one sheet of paper.
Only one sentence had been written.
If anything happens to me, do not trust Victor Whitmore.
May you like
Underneath it was a date.
Three days before Emily died.
