Chapter 1 - The Morning After)
Claire had imagined her first morning as a married woman countless times.
She had imagined coffee in bed.
Daniel laughing about the disastrous speech from his college roommate.
Rose petals.
Phone calls from relatives.
Perhaps a quiet walk around the old estate before checking out of the wedding venue.
Instead, she sat on the edge of a bathtub with her wedding gown bunched around her knees while her sister watched the bedroom door.
Daniel and Diane were gone.
For the moment.
Erin had insisted they move into the bathroom because it had a second lock.
Claire had resisted.
"I am not hiding from my husband."
"Then don't call it hiding," Erin said. "Call it making sure he can't get behind you while we're talking."
That ended the argument.
Claire stared at the diamond in her palm.
It looked harmless.
That was what disturbed her most.
Nine years earlier, another earring exactly like it had been placed inside an evidence bag while Erin lay unconscious in surgery.
Claire had been twenty-one then.
She remembered the hospital hallway more clearly than she remembered her own apartment from that year.
Their father pacing.
Their mother crying into a paper cup.
A detective saying the crash didn't look accidental.
Erin had been found beside her car shortly after midnight. Her vehicle had hit the guardrail, but doctors concluded the spinal injury was inconsistent with the collision alone.
Someone had attacked her before the crash.
There were bruises around her wrists.
A head wound.
Signs that someone had pulled her from the driver's seat and dragged her several feet.
Erin remembered almost nothing.
A voice.
Rain.
Perfume.
A flash of jewelry.
Then darkness.
The earring had been found beside the car.
Police never identified its owner.
Years passed.
Suspects disappeared.
Witnesses contradicted themselves.
The investigation became cold.
And Erin learned how to live in a wheelchair.
Claire looked at her sister.
"Why did you have the original evidence?"
Erin didn't answer immediately.
That frightened Claire.
"Erin."
"I didn't."
"Then what's in that envelope?"
"A copy."
Claire frowned.
"You can't copy an earring."
"No. But you can copy photographs, laboratory reports, and evidence records."
Erin put the envelope on the bathroom counter.
"The object inside isn't the original."
Claire's pulse slowed slightly.
"What is it?"
"A replica."
"You had a replica made?"
"Three years ago."
"Why?"
Erin looked toward the locked door.
"Because I never believed the police when they said they had exhausted every lead."
Claire stared at her.
This was new.
During the years after the attack, Erin rarely discussed the case.
She had rebuilt her life with brutal determination.
Physical therapy.
Work.
A new apartment.
Driving lessons with hand controls.
She had refused pity so thoroughly that Claire sometimes forgot how much of her life had been shaped by that road in Bellwood.
"I hired someone," Erin said.
"A private investigator?"
"Eventually."
"Eventually?"
"I started on my own."
Claire gave a disbelieving laugh.
"You investigated your own attempted murder and didn't tell me?"
"I was protecting you."
"From what?"
Erin looked directly at her.
"From exactly this."
The bathroom seemed to shrink.
Claire felt the cold tile under her bare feet.
She thought of Daniel.
Five years together.
Two years engaged.
A wedding attended by one hundred sixty people.
She thought about Diane criticizing her dress, her career, her family, even the flowers.
She thought about Daniel always explaining it away.
Mom is difficult.
Mom had a hard life.
Mom doesn't trust outsiders.
Claire's stomach twisted.
"Did you know Diane before last night?"
"No."
"Had you ever seen her?"
"Not clearly."
"But you recognized the earrings."
"I recognized the design."
"From the police photograph."
"At first."
Claire leaned closer.
"At first?"
Erin exhaled.
"Three months ago, my investigator found an old photograph from a charity gala. Diane Bennett was wearing a pair that looked exactly like them."
Claire went still.
"You knew before the wedding?"
"I wasn't sure."
"You knew my future mother-in-law might be connected to the attack that put you in a wheelchair and you let me marry her son?"
Erin flinched.
Claire regretted the words immediately, but anger had already taken control.
"You should have told me."
"I tried."
"When?"
"Last night."
Claire remembered Erin asking to speak privately before the ceremony.
Claire had been surrounded by bridesmaids, makeup artists, photographers, relatives.
She had laughed and promised to find her later.
Then Diane appeared.
Then Daniel.
Then the ceremony began.
Claire closed her eyes.
"Why didn't you call me sooner?"
"Because until last night all I had was a photograph of Diane wearing common jewelry."
"Apparently not that common."
"No."
A knock sounded.
Both sisters froze.
"Claire?"
Daniel.
His voice was soft.
Almost loving.
The voice he used when apologizing after an argument.
"Open the door."
Claire stood.
Erin caught her wrist.
"Don't."
Daniel knocked again.
"Claire, Mom left."
Neither woman spoke.
"I know you're scared," he continued. "I know how this looks."
Claire walked closer to the door.
"How does it look, Daniel?"
Silence.
Then he said, "Like something it isn't."
Claire almost laughed.
Her shoulder throbbed.
"Did you know about the earring?"
"No."
Too fast.
Erin's eyes sharpened.
Claire heard it too.
She unlocked the bathroom door but kept the chain engaged.
Daniel stood outside.
He had buttoned his shirt.
He had also washed his face.
He looked almost normal.
That made him more dangerous.
"Where is your mother?"
"She left the property."
"Why?"
"Because Erin frightened her."
Erin laughed from behind Claire.
Daniel ignored her.
"Claire, my mother owned earrings like that years ago. So did thousands of women. It proves nothing."
"Then why did you try to take my phone?"
"I panicked."
"Why?"
"Because you were accusing my mother of attempted murder."
"I asked her a question."
"You were hysterical."
Claire stared at him.
There it was.
The word.
The one men like Daniel used when a woman became inconvenient.
Hysterical.
She closed the door.
Daniel shoved his hand through the gap before it shut.
"Wait."
Claire stopped.
He lowered his voice.
"My mother wasn't in Bellwood that night."
Erin rolled closer.
"We never told you where the attack happened."
Daniel froze.
Claire felt something inside her turn to ice.
She looked through the gap.
"How do you know about Bellwood?"
Daniel's mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
Erin said quietly, "That's the first useful answer we've gotten all morning."
Daniel yanked his hand away.
Claire slammed the door.
Footsteps retreated.
Then stopped.
Daniel spoke from the bedroom.
"Claire, please don't do anything stupid."
She didn't answer.
A minute later, the outer door closed.
Erin waited.
Then she reached for Claire's phone.
"Call the police."
Claire looked at her sister.
"Not yet."
"Claire."
"He knows something."
"Exactly."
"And if the police question him right now, he'll get a lawyer and say nothing."
Erin studied her.
Claire picked up the loose diamond.
"Daniel thinks I'm frightened and confused."
"You are frightened."
"Yes."
"But not confused."
"No."
For the first time that morning, Erin smiled.
It wasn't a happy smile.
It was the smile of the sister Claire remembered from before the attack.
Sharp.
Fearless.
Dangerous when cornered.
Claire stood.
"We're going to find out what happened to you."
Erin looked toward the bedroom.
"And your marriage?"
Claire removed her wedding ring.
She set it beside the sink.
"That ended when he put his hands on me."
Outside the bathroom, something vibrated.
Claire's phone was in her hand.
Erin's phone was on her lap.
Neither was making the sound.
They exchanged a look.
Claire opened the bathroom door carefully.
The vibration came from beneath the bed.
She knelt and reached under the frame.
Her fingers closed around a small black phone she had never seen before.
The screen lit.
One message waited.
May you like
MOM
Delete the Bellwood files before Claire sees them.
