Chapter 6 - The Other Daughter)
Lucas read the sentence until the words stopped feeling like English.
Caroline took the photograph.
"Whose baby is this?"
"No idea."
Daniel examined the envelope addressed to Lucas.
"Open it."
Lucas hesitated.
Rachel's handwriting made his chest ache.
Four years after her death, a message had been waiting twenty feet from where he drank coffee every morning.
He broke the seal.
Lucas,
If you are reading this, something I hoped would remain buried has reached Emily.
I need you to understand one thing before anything else.
Emily is yours.
No document, blood test, inheritance claim, or person from my past can change that.
You are her father.
You were always her father.
Lucas stopped.
Caroline touched his shoulder.
"Keep going."
He did.
There are things about my childhood I never told you because I believed silence could protect us.
I was wrong.
Arthur Wynn was not my biological father.
He thought he might be.
For years, people around him believed I might have a claim to his estate.
That misunderstanding became useful to people who wanted access to the Wynn family.
I eventually learned the truth.
There was another girl.
She was the one they were looking for.
If Thomas Vale ever appears in your life, assume he wants what I found.
Do not trust anyone simply because they say they knew me.
Especially not someone named Cole.
Lucas stopped again.
Vanessa Cole.
Caroline whispered, "Rachel knew."
Daniel's expression remained focused.
"Continue."
The other girl was hidden because proving who she is would expose more than an affair.
It would expose how Arthur built part of his fortune.
I found records connecting Wynn Development to a trust created after a fatal construction accident in 1998.
People died.
Families were paid to remain silent.
One child survived.
That child became the legal beneficiary of assets Thomas Vale has spent years trying to control.
Arthur knew.
My father knew.
Vanessa's father knew.
And eventually I knew.
Lucas looked up.
"Vanessa's father."
Daniel nodded.
"Keep reading."
The key opens a deposit box.
The bank information is not here.
It is somewhere Thomas cannot access without Emily.
I divided the information because anyone who found the box should not automatically find the evidence.
Emily knows more than she realizes.
I taught her a game when she was small.
If she remembers the stars, she may remember the rest.
I'm sorry I didn't tell you.
I wanted you and Emily to have a life untouched by this.
If I was wrong, protect her first.
Find the other daughter second.
Trust the person who asks you nothing about money.
Rachel.
Lucas sat very still.
Caroline cried silently.
Daniel immediately photographed the letter.
"Don't let this leave the house."
Lucas looked at the blue box.
"Rachel knew someone might come."
"Yes."
"She specifically named Cole."
"Yes."
"And I almost married one."
"Lucas."
"I brought Vanessa into this house."
"You didn't know."
"But Rachel did."
Daniel leaned forward.
"Rachel also told you the priority."
Lucas looked upstairs.
"Emily."
"Exactly."
The silver key had a number engraved along its edge.
427.
No bank.
No branch.
No location.
Daniel began searching financial institutions Rachel had used.
Caroline studied the baby photograph.
"There are no identifying marks."
Lucas turned it over again.
"If Rachel wanted us to find the girl, why only leave a picture?"
"Maybe the photograph is the clue."
Ryan arrived an hour later with information from hotel security.
"Natalie left through the kitchen."
"When?"
"Six minutes after the bathroom footage."
"Before I found Emily."
"Yes."
"Where did she go?"
"Parking garage cameras show her getting into a gray sedan."
"Plate?"
"Rental."
"Of course."
Ryan set another printed image on the desk.
"Someone followed her."
Lucas looked.
A black SUV exited less than thirty seconds behind Natalie.
"Vale?"
"No."
The driver was a woman.
The image was grainy.
Caroline leaned closer.
"Do we know her?"
Lucas stared.
Something about the face felt familiar.
Not from life.
From a photograph.
He took the picture Vanessa had carried at the wedding.
Rachel outside the courthouse.
Vale beside her.
Vanessa on the other side.
There was someone in the background.
A young woman partly hidden by the courthouse door.
Same eyes.
Same jaw.
Lucas placed the images side by side.
"The woman following Natalie was there with Rachel."
Daniel looked at the old photograph.
"Which means she has been part of this for years."
Ryan enlarged the license image.
The SUV belonged to a private security company.
Meridian Protective Services.
Daniel searched the name.
Its registered agent was a holding company.
The holding company shared an address with one of Arthur Wynn's former subsidiaries.
Lucas looked at Rachel's letter again.
Trust the person who asks you nothing about money.
His phone rang.
Unknown number.
Everyone in the room became silent.
Lucas answered.
"Hello?"
A woman's voice spoke.
"Do you have Rachel's blue box?"
Lucas looked at Daniel.
Daniel gestured for him to keep talking.
"Who is this?"
"You opened it."
It was not a question.
Lucas said nothing.
The woman continued.
"Thomas knows you have it."
"Who are you?"
"The person who followed Natalie Kerr out of your wedding."
Lucas looked at the surveillance image.
"What do you want?"
"Nothing."
Rachel's sentence flashed through his mind.
Trust the person who asks you nothing about money.
The woman continued.
"But Thomas wants Emily."
Lucas stood.
"If you threaten my daughter..."
"I'm warning you."
"Then tell me your name."
Silence.
Then:
"My name is Mara Bennett."
Lucas looked at the baby photograph.
"Do you know Rachel?"
Mara's breathing changed.
"She saved my life."
Lucas's grip tightened around the phone.
"Are you the other daughter?"
Mara did not answer.
Instead she said:
"Check Emily's backpack."
The call ended.
Lucas ran upstairs.
Emily's flower girl backpack sat beside her bed.
He opened it.
Inside were crayons.
A stuffed rabbit.
A juice box.
May you like
And an object he had never seen before.
A black GPS tracker blinking silently beneath the fabric.
