Chapter 14 - The Woman Mark Had Already Met
Mark stared at Diane.
“What are you talking about?”
Emily turned the volume higher.
Diane placed the folder on the coffee table.
“You think Richard suddenly appeared in your life because he felt guilty?”
“He’s not my father.”
“No.”
“Then why?”
“Because Elizabeth found him first.”
Mark stopped moving.
“When?”
“Years ago.”
“You said she disappeared.”
“She did.”
“Where is she?”
Diane smiled faintly.
“You really don’t remember.”
Mark shook his head.
Diane walked toward the fireplace.
“Think.”
Emily felt Claire standing beside her.
Neither spoke.
Diane continued.
“Your twenty-fifth birthday. The restaurant in Cambridge.”
Mark’s face changed.
Emily remembered that night.
Years before they met, Mark once told her about a strange woman who approached him during his birthday dinner.
He said she hugged him.
Cried.
Called him Michael.
Mark assumed she was mentally ill.
Emily had forgotten the story.
Apparently Mark had too.
“No,” he whispered.
Diane nodded.
“She found you.”
“That woman?”
“Elizabeth.”
Mark sat down heavily.
“You told me she was crazy.”
“She was.”
“She said I was her son.”
“Yes.”
“And you told me she had stalked our family.”
“I needed you to stay away from her.”
“Where is she now?”
Diane’s expression hardened.
“That depends on Richard.”
Mark looked up.
“What does Richard have to do with it?”
More movement appeared at the edge of the camera.
Emily leaned closer.
Someone stood outside the front window.
A silhouette.
Claire whispered, “Who is that?”
Emily did not know.
Diane continued.
“Richard paid Elizabeth to disappear.”
“Why?”
“Because she threatened everything.”
“What everything?”
“His reputation. My life. Your life.”
“My life was a lie.”
“You had a good childhood.”
“You kidnapped me.”
“I saved you.”
“From my mother?”
“She was seventeen.”
“So?”
“She had nothing.”
“She had me.”
Diane slammed her palm against the table.
“And I had just buried my baby.”
Mark flinched.
For the first time, Diane’s mask cracked.
Tears filled her eyes.
“My son died before I ever brought him home. Daniel was devastated. I was devastated. Then Elizabeth gave birth to you and complained she wasn’t ready.”
“So you took me.”
“She asked me to help.”
“She asked for me back.”
Diane looked away.
Mark whispered, “Where is she?”
The front door opened.
Both turned.
The person outside stepped inside.
Emily’s breath caught.
Richard Vale.
Mark stood.
“What are you doing here?”
Richard closed the door.
“Ending this.”
Diane laughed.
“You’ve said that before.”
Richard looked toward the security camera.
For a second, Emily wondered if he knew she was watching.
Then he faced Mark.
“Elizabeth is alive.”
Mark’s knees seemed to weaken.
“Where?”
“I don’t know anymore.”
“Liar.”
“I knew where she was five years ago.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because she asked me not to.”
Diane laughed again.
“She asked you to pay her.”
Richard ignored her.
Mark stepped closer.
“Why would my mother not want me?”
Richard’s face softened.
“She wanted you.”
“Then why stay away?”
“Because Diane convinced her you hated her.”
Mark looked toward Diane.
She did not deny it.
Richard continued.
“Every time Elizabeth tried to reach you, Diane intercepted her.”
Emily’s chest tightened.
Again.
Same pattern.
Separate people.
Control information.
Convince each side the other abandoned them.
Mark looked devastated.
For the first time, Emily saw not her husband, not the man who had struck her, but a child who had been manipulated for decades.
She felt compassion.
But compassion was not absolution.
Richard reached into his coat.
Diane stepped backward.
Mark tensed.
Richard produced an envelope.
“A letter from Elizabeth.”
Mark grabbed it.
“When?”
“Five years ago.”
He opened it.
His hands shook.
The camera could not capture the words.
But it captured Mark’s face.
Shock.
Grief.
Then fury.
He looked at Richard.
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“You both knew.”
“Yes.”
Mark turned toward Diane.
“You made me think she abandoned me.”
Diane’s composure finally collapsed.
“She would have destroyed everything.”
“What everything?”
“Our family.”
“We were never a family.”
The sentence struck even Emily.
Diane slapped him.
Mark did not move.
The same woman who demanded Emily apologize after harming Noah now stood trembling in front of the son she had controlled his entire life.
Mark slowly looked toward the camera.
Emily saw something change in his expression.
He knew she might be watching.
“Emily.”
Claire stiffened.
Mark stepped closer to the camera.
“If you can see this, I’m sorry.”
Emily felt nothing.
Not yet.
“I’m sorry for hitting you. I’m sorry for believing her. I’m sorry for every time I made you doubt yourself because admitting you were right meant admitting something was wrong with me.”
Diane shouted, “Stop performing.”
Mark ignored her.
“I don’t expect you to forgive me.”
Good, Emily thought.
“You shouldn’t.”
He could not hear her.
Mark continued.
“I’m going to send you everything.”
Richard stepped forward.
“Mark, don’t.”
Mark turned.
“Why?”
“Some of those documents contain information that could put people at risk.”
Mark laughed.
“There it is again.”
Richard frowned.
“Excuse me?”
“Protecting people by hiding things.”
Mark picked up the folder.
“I’m done.”
Diane lunged for it.
Mark moved away.
The folder opened.
Papers scattered across the carpet.
One photograph landed faceup near the camera.
Emily enlarged the image digitally.
Three women stood beside a lake.
Young Diane.
Young Elizabeth.
And a third woman Emily did not recognize.
On the back was handwritten:
Lake Marston.
The night everything changed.
Claire whispered, “Who is the third woman?”
Emily zoomed farther.
Something about her face looked familiar.
Then Emily realized why.
She had seen that woman before.
Not in person.
In Claire’s family albums.
Emily turned slowly toward her sister.
Claire had gone pale.
May you like
“No,” Claire whispered.
The third woman was their mother.
