Chapter 6 - The Photograph in the Storage Unit
Vivian drove.
Audrey sat beside her.
Neither spoke for the first ten minutes.
They had left through the garage so Marianne would not see them.
Ethan believed Audrey was upstairs changing.
Audrey knew she should have told him.
Instead she sent one message.
I need thirty minutes. I'm safe. Please trust me.
His reply came immediately.
Where are you?
She didn't answer.
The storage facility was twelve minutes from the house.
Vivian parked beside a row of gray metal buildings.
"My father rented this place in 2003."
Audrey looked at her.
"Why?"
"I don't know."
"And you found it how?"
"Tax paperwork."
Vivian took a key from her handbag.
"After Dad died, Mom closed all his accounts. This one stayed open."
"Paid by who?"
"One of his old companies."
They entered a narrow climate-controlled hallway.
Unit 214.
Vivian unlocked it.
Inside were boxes, furniture, and a large wooden trunk.
Audrey's hands shook.
Vivian opened the trunk.
The photographs were inside a red leather folder.
Audrey recognized her mother instantly.
Lisa Hayes was twenty-something in the pictures.
Beautiful.
Laughing.
Alive in a way Audrey remembered only vaguely.
Beside her stood Marianne's late husband.
Thomas Bennett.
In one photograph, Lisa kissed his cheek.
In another, they sat beside a lake.
In a third, Thomas held a newborn.
Audrey.
The date on the back was three weeks after her birth.
Audrey sat on the concrete floor.
"This doesn't prove he's my father."
"No."
Vivian knelt beside her.
"But there's more."
She opened another box.
Letters.
Dozens.
Some were addressed to Lisa.
Others to Thomas.
Audrey touched one.
The handwriting belonged to her mother.
She knew it from birthday cards she had kept.
She opened the letter.
Tom,
I cannot keep pretending this will disappear. She has your eyes. Every time I look at her, I know eventually someone else will see it too.
Marianne came to the apartment yesterday.
Audrey stopped reading.
Her vision blurred.
Vivian whispered, "Keep going."
Audrey continued.
She knows about the baby.
She said if I ever tell Eleanor, she will make certain Michael loses everything and I will lose Audrey.
I don't know what she's capable of anymore.
You promised you would fix this.
Please don't make me regret believing you.
Lisa.
Audrey lowered the letter.
"Michael."
"Your legal father."
"He knew?"
"I don't know."
Audrey searched through the letters.
Another.
Then another.
The story emerged in fragments.
Lisa and Thomas had known each other before Thomas married Marianne.
Years later, they reconnected.
There had been an affair.
Lisa became pregnant.
Michael Hayes knew the baby might not be his.
He chose to raise Audrey anyway.
Thomas wanted to acknowledge her.
Marianne threatened Lisa.
Then something changed.
The letters stopped abruptly.
Audrey found one dated two weeks before her father's construction accident.
Michael, not Thomas.
Lisa,
If anything happens to me, take Audrey and leave.
Do not trust Thomas.
Do not trust Marianne.
Most importantly, do not let anyone from the Bennett family convince you Eleanor knows the truth.
She doesn't.
Audrey read it twice.
"My dad wrote this."
Vivian sat back.
"He thought he was in danger."
The unit door slammed.
Both women spun around.
Robert stood in the hallway.
He was not smiling.
"You two really should have stayed at the party."
Vivian rose.
"How did you find us?"
"Your car has family tracking."
She cursed.
Robert stepped inside.
"Give me the letters."
"No."
"Vivian."
"They belonged to Dad."
"They contain private family matters."
Audrey stood.
"They concern me."
Robert looked at her differently now.
Not like a relative.
Like a problem.
"Your mother made mistakes."
"So did Thomas."
"My brother is dead."
"So is my mother."
Robert's expression sharpened.
"What did Lisa tell you before she died?"
Audrey's skin prickled.
"She died when I was nineteen."
"I know."
"How?"
Robert caught himself.
Audrey stepped closer.
"How do you know when my mother died?"
"Public records."
"You don't search public records about women you don't know."
Vivian moved toward the exit.
Robert blocked her.
"You're making this much larger than it needs to be."
Audrey held the letters tighter.
"Move."
"No."
"Are you threatening us?"
"I'm protecting everyone."
"From what?"
Robert looked at Audrey.
"From the reason Eleanor never found you."
A beat.
"You know she was looking for me."
Robert realized he had said too much.
Vivian took out her phone.
"I'm calling Ethan."
Robert grabbed it.
Audrey shoved him.
He stumbled into the wall.
Vivian snatched the phone back.
Robert's calm disappeared.
"Listen to me. If Ethan learns everything today, your family will not survive it."
Audrey stared at him.
"What everything?"
Robert straightened his blazer.
"Ask Marianne what happened on September seventeenth, 2001."
Audrey went cold.
That was the date Michael Hayes died.
"You know about my father's accident."
Robert looked toward the photographs.
May you like
Then he said something Audrey would replay for months.
"It wasn't supposed to be Michael in that truck."
