Chapter 1 - the boy in the green hoodie)
The wedding did not continue.
For years afterward, guests would remember the silence following Lila's first words more vividly than the shouting that came after.
Daniel remembered everything.
Claire kneeling beside Lila.
The wedding coordinator ushering confused guests toward the reception hall.
Daniel's mother sobbing into a handkerchief.
Two security men running outside after Victor.
And Eli standing in the aisle as though he expected someone to arrest him for simply being there.
Daniel lifted Lila into his arms.
She clung to him.
Her breathing came in short, frightened bursts.
"Lila."
Daniel's voice shook.
"Honey, look at me."
She did.
Daniel almost cried again just from seeing awareness in her eyes.
Not the distant, guarded expression he had learned to live with.
Something had opened.
Something painful.
But alive.
"How do you know him?"
Lila looked toward Eli.
Her mouth opened.
No sound came.
Eli answered instead.
"She saw me the night her mom disappeared."
Daniel slowly stood.
"You said disappeared."
Eli nodded.
"I didn't say died."
Security chief Marcus Reed approached.
"Mr. Mercer, your brother left in a black SUV. We're checking cameras."
Daniel barely processed it.
"Call the police."
Marcus hesitated.
"For what reason?"
Daniel looked at his daughter.
"I don't know yet."
That answer frightened him more than anything else.
He turned toward Eli.
"Where are your parents?"
The boy looked down.
"My dad died."
"And your mother?"
"I don't know."
Daniel stared at him.
"What do you mean, you don't know?"
Eli rubbed his palms against his hoodie.
"She left."
"When?"
"Six months ago."
"Who are you living with?"
"My aunt."
"Is she here?"
Eli shook his head.
Daniel's patience snapped.
"Then how did you get into my wedding?"
Eli reached inside his hoodie.
Marcus immediately moved forward.
The boy froze.
"It's paper."
Daniel nodded.
Eli slowly removed a folded photograph.
He held it out.
Daniel took it.
His knees almost weakened.
The photograph showed Mara.
His dead wife.
She was standing outside a small white house Daniel had never seen.
Her hair was shorter than he remembered.
She wore jeans and a gray sweater.
Beside her stood a younger woman Daniel did not recognize.
And between them stood two children.
Lila.
And Eli.
Daniel turned the photograph over.
Three words were written on the back.
Keep them together.
The handwriting belonged to Mara.
Daniel knew because Mara had written hundreds of notes during their marriage.
Lunch reminders.
Birthday cards.
Lists.
Messages tucked into luggage when he traveled.
Keep them together.
Daniel looked at Eli.
"When was this taken?"
"I don't know."
"Lila was there."
"I know."
"Why don't I remember this?"
"I don't know."
Daniel struggled to control his voice.
"Where did you get it?"
"My dad."
"You said your father is dead."
"He died last year."
Daniel stared.
"When?"
Eli's eyes lifted.
"Three days after Mrs. Mercer."
A cold sensation moved through Daniel's chest.
Claire had joined them now.
Her wedding gown brushed across the flower petals scattered on the floor.
"Daniel," she said carefully, "maybe we should take the children somewhere quieter."
He looked around.
Dozens of guests still lingered near the doors despite the coordinators' efforts.
Phones were appearing.
Whispers were spreading.
Daniel hated the spectacle.
"Library," he told Marcus.
Saint Augustine had a private meeting room behind the chapel used by clergy and wedding families.
Marcus led them there.
Daniel carried Lila.
Eli followed.
Claire came last.
The room contained dark wooden shelves, leather chairs and a long table.
Daniel closed the door.
For several seconds nobody spoke.
Then Lila pointed toward Eli's photograph.
"Again."
Daniel nearly stopped breathing.
It was only one word.
But it was her word.
Her voice.
He immediately gave her the photograph.
Lila held it with both hands.
She studied it.
Her expression changed.
Daniel sat beside her.
"Do you remember this?"
She nodded.
"Where were you?"
Lila closed her eyes.
A therapist had once warned Daniel never to force memories from a traumatized child.
So he waited.
Eventually Lila whispered.
"Yellow room."
Eli nodded.
"My dad's house had a yellow room."
Daniel looked at him.
"Where?"
"Millstone."
Daniel knew the town.
About forty miles north.
"Who was your father?"
"Jonathan Hayes."
Daniel felt nothing at first.
Then recognition arrived.
Jonathan Hayes.
A private investigator.
Daniel had hired him eleven months earlier.
Two days after Mara's death.
He had hired Hayes because certain details of the accident bothered him.
The missing necklace.
The deleted phone messages.
The fact Mara had supposedly driven down a road she almost never used.
Hayes had investigated for less than a week.
Then Daniel received a call saying the investigator had died from a sudden cardiac event.
Daniel had assumed terrible coincidence.
Now Jonathan Hayes' son was sitting across from him.
Wearing a green hoodie.
Holding a photograph of Mara and Lila.
Daniel leaned forward.
"Your father worked for me."
Eli nodded.
"I know."
"You knew?"
"He talked about you."
"Then why didn't you come to me before?"
Eli's face hardened in the way only frightened children sometimes could.
"Because he told me not to."
"Why?"
Eli looked toward the closed door.
Then at Claire.
Then back to Daniel.
"He said someone in your family was dangerous."
Claire inhaled.
Daniel did not move.
"Did he say who?"
Eli shook his head.
"But the night before he died, somebody came to our house."
"Who?"
"I never saw his face."
Daniel remembered Victor walking out of the chapel.
"Was it my brother?"
Eli stared at the floor.
"I don't know."
Lila suddenly made a small sound.
Everyone turned.
She was staring at Claire's left hand.
At the ring.
Not the wedding ring Daniel had intended to place there.
Another ring.
An antique emerald ring Claire often wore.
It had belonged to Daniel's grandmother.
Victor had given it to Claire six months earlier, saying it should remain in the Mercer family.
Lila pointed at it.
"No."
Claire looked confused.
"What is it, sweetheart?"
Lila pulled away from her.
"No ring."
Daniel's pulse accelerated.
"Lila, what about the ring?"
His daughter covered her ears.
"No ring."
Eli stood.
"Mr. Mercer."
Daniel looked at him.
"My dad wrote something about a ring."
Daniel felt every muscle in his body tighten.
"What did he write?"
May you like
Eli swallowed.
"He said if the girl remembers the green stone, everything changes."
