Chapter 3 - eleven minutes missing
Emily ran before anyone could stop her.
"Lily!"
She climbed the staircase in darkness, one hand gripping the railing and the other reaching for the wall.
Behind her, Mark shouted for Robert to find a flashlight.
A phone beam appeared.
Then another.
Emily reached the guest room.
Lily was sitting upright beneath the blanket, terrified.
"Mom!"
Emily crossed the room and gathered her into her arms.
"I'm here."
"The lights went out."
"I know."
"I heard someone."
Emily froze.
"Where?"
"Outside my door."
Mark appeared.
"Emily?"
She raised one hand for silence.
Lily whispered, "They said my name."
Mark checked the hallway.
Empty.
Daniel arrived seconds later.
"Back staircase."
Mark stared.
"What?"
"Does this house have one?"
"Past the laundry room."
Daniel ran.
Mark followed.
Emily stayed with Lily.
Downstairs, Robert located the electrical panel.
Nothing had tripped.
The power failure was deliberate.
Thirty seconds later, the lights returned.
Mark and Daniel found the rear service door open.
Cold air blew into the hallway.
Outside, muddy footprints led toward the side garden.
Then disappeared at the pavement.
Mark called the police.
By the time officers arrived, there was no sign of Diane or anyone else.
The security system had been remotely disabled using an administrator code.
A code Mark had never possessed.
Robert had.
So had Diane.
At 1:20 in the morning, the police left.
Mark locked every door manually.
Daniel remained.
Emily didn't object anymore.
Lily refused to sleep alone.
They built a temporary bed for her on the floor of Mark and Emily's bedroom.
When Lily finally drifted off, Emily closed the bedroom door.
She looked at Mark.
"Open it."
He knew what she meant.
They sat on the carpet beside their sleeping daughter.
The envelope rested between them.
Robert and Daniel waited downstairs.
Emily carefully broke the seal.
Inside were three objects.
A folded letter.
A faded photograph.
And a brass key.
Emily took out the photograph first.
It showed a young woman outside a hospital.
The date printed in the corner was eleven years earlier.
The woman's face had been partially scratched away.
But she was holding a newborn baby.
On the back, someone had written:
SHE HAS HIS EYES.
Mark read it twice.
"Whose eyes?"
Emily unfolded the letter.
Most of it had been cut away.
Not torn.
Cut.
Deliberately.
Only a fragment remained.
Emily,
If you're reading this, Diane has already realized that Lily is connected to what happened before Mark ever met you.
Do not trust what she tells you about the photograph.
Do not trust the hospital records.
And whatever you do, do not let her learn that Daniel
The sentence ended there.
The remainder had been removed.
Mark stared.
"Daniel what?"
Emily turned the paper over.
Blank.
She picked up the brass key.
A small number had been engraved into it.
317.
Mark sat back.
"This is insane."
Emily looked at Lily.
"Seven years ago, what happened at that Christmas market?"
Mark shook his head.
"I don't know."
"I want to know."
"So do I."
They returned downstairs.
Daniel immediately saw their expressions.
"You opened it."
Emily placed the photograph on the dining table.
"Who is she?"
Daniel did not touch it.
"I don't know."
"You're lying."
"I'm not."
"The letter literally ends with your name."
"I know."
"You've seen it?"
"No."
"Then how do you know?"
Daniel looked toward Robert.
Robert answered.
"Because I wrote the envelope."
Emily stared at him.
"You wrote 'For Emily Only'?"
Robert nodded.
"But you didn't write the letter?"
"No."
"Who did?"
Robert's face tightened.
"I never met her."
"Her?"
"The woman who sent it."
Mark picked up the photograph.
"The woman holding the baby?"
"I don't know."
Daniel stood and paced toward the window.
Emily followed him with her eyes.
"Tell me about the Christmas market."
Daniel stopped.
He turned slowly.
"What Christmas market?"
"Lily disappeared for eleven minutes when she was six. Diane was with her."
Daniel's face changed.
Robert saw it.
"Daniel?"
Daniel reached for a chair.
He sat down.
"I didn't know."
Mark slammed his palm against the table.
"Stop saying that."
Daniel ignored him.
"What date?"
Emily told him.
Daniel closed his eyes.
"That was the same day Diane called me."
Nobody spoke.
Emily asked, "Why?"
"She told me she had proof."
"Proof of what?"
Daniel looked at Lily's photograph on the wall.
"That a mistake made ten years earlier had finally found its way into her family."
Mark's voice became quiet.
"What mistake?"
Daniel looked at him.
"I was twenty-nine when I learned that your mother had been paying someone for years."
Robert whispered, "Who?"
"A nurse."
Emily felt the room tilt.
"At the hospital?"
Daniel nodded.
"Which hospital?"
May you like
Daniel looked at her.
"The one where Lily was born."
