Chapter 1 - The House With Two Christmases)
Three weeks before Christmas, Alexander Santillan stood thirty-seven floors above Manhattan and looked down at a city turning white beneath the season's first heavy snow.
His phone vibrated.
Vanessa.
He smiled before answering.
"How are my girls?"
His wife laughed softly.
"You always ask about them before you ask about me."
"You knew the competition when you married me."
"I certainly did."
Alexander heard music in the background.
Christmas music.
He imagined Vanessa in the mansion outside Greenwich, directing decorators while Valerie, Camila, Regina, and Sophie ran through the halls.
The thought made the hotel room feel emptier.
Alexander had been away for eleven days.
His restaurant company was negotiating the acquisition of three historic hotels, and problems with one property had forced him to extend the trip.
He hated it.
Before marrying Vanessa, he had promised himself he would never become the kind of father who knew his children's schedules only through assistants.
The promise mattered because of Isabel.
His first wife.
The mother of his daughters.
She had died two years earlier after a sudden cerebral aneurysm.
One morning she had kissed the girls before preschool.
By lunchtime she was in an ambulance.
By sunset Alexander was sitting beside a hospital bed holding a hand that would never squeeze his again.
The girls had been four.
For nearly a year Alexander had lived as if every day were an emergency.
He worked from home.
He canceled meetings.
He slept on the floor between two small beds when nightmares came.
He learned how to braid hair badly.
He burned pancakes.
He attended four separate parent teacher conferences even though every teacher told him the same thing.
Your daughters are bright.
Your daughters are kind.
Your daughters miss their mother.
Vanessa entered their lives slowly.
She had been introduced through a charitable foundation.
Elegant.
Patient.
Never pushy.
She remembered birthdays.
She sat on the floor during tea parties.
She allowed Sophie to put glitter in her hair.
When Alexander finally proposed, Valerie had shouted yes before Vanessa could answer.
That memory had once reassured him.
Later it would haunt him.
"Valerie made something for you," Vanessa said through the phone.
"Put her on."
A pause.
"She's already asleep."
Alexander checked the time.
It was only seven thirty.
"All four?"
"They were exhausted."
"Can you wake one of them?"
Another pause.
"Alexander."
Something in Vanessa's tone made him frown.
"What?"
"You can't keep disrupting their schedule because you feel guilty about traveling."
He stared out at the snow.
"That's not what I'm doing."
"You call five times a day."
"They're six."
"They're not babies."
Alexander said nothing.
Vanessa softened immediately.
"I'm sorry. That sounded harsh."
"It did."
"I just mean they need consistency. You asked me to help give them that."
Alexander looked at the framed photograph on the hotel desk.
Four identical smiles.
Four different personalities.
Valerie was cautious.
Camila laughed the loudest.
Regina noticed everything.
Sophie asked questions nobody expected.
"I'll be home on the twenty-fourth."
"Your flight lands at nine."
"I might change it."
"Don't."
Alexander smiled slightly.
"Planning something?"
"A surprise."
"What kind?"
"You'll ruin it if I tell you."
From the other end of the line came a small noise.
A child.
Alexander straightened.
"Was that Sophie?"
Vanessa answered too quickly.
"No."
He listened.
Nothing.
"Vanessa."
"The television."
Alexander waited another second.
Then he heard laughter.
Adult laughter.
Several voices.
"Do we have guests?"
"Just Cynthia and two friends."
Alexander relaxed slightly.
Cynthia Palmer was Vanessa's closest friend.
"Tell the girls I love them."
"I will."
"And send me a picture tomorrow."
"Of course."
They ended the call.
Alexander placed his phone on the desk.
Across the room, his chief financial officer, Daniel Rowe, was reading contracts.
Daniel glanced up.
"Everything okay?"
"Probably."
"That's not a convincing answer."
Alexander picked up the photograph.
"Vanessa says the girls are asleep."
Daniel checked the clock.
"So?"
"So Sophie hasn't voluntarily gone to sleep before nine thirty since she learned how to climb out of a crib."
Daniel smiled.
"Maybe Christmas magic."
"Maybe."
Alexander's phone buzzed again.
A message had arrived from the mansion's security system.
FRONT SERVICE ENTRY OPEN.
He almost ignored it.
Then another message appeared.
CAMERA 7 OFFLINE.
Alexander stared.
Camera 7 covered the back hallway leading to the kitchen and family dining room.
He opened the security application.
Sixteen cameras appeared.
One black screen.
Camera 7.
Before he could examine it further, Vanessa sent him a photograph.
The four girls were sleeping together beneath a heavy pink blanket.
Alexander smiled.
Then something bothered him.
He enlarged the image.
All four girls were wearing the same pajamas they had worn in a photograph sent three nights earlier.
That was possible.
But Sophie was clutching the same stuffed rabbit.
And a blue hair ribbon lay in exactly the same position on the pillow.
Alexander enlarged the photograph again.
He looked at the date information.
The file had been created three days earlier.
His smile disappeared.
He called Vanessa.
She did not answer.
He called again.
Voicemail.
Then a new message appeared.
Sorry. Shower. Talk tomorrow.
Alexander looked at Daniel.
"Find out why Camera 7 is offline."
Daniel's expression changed.
"Tonight?"
"Now."
"What are you thinking?"
Alexander looked at the photograph.
"I don't know."
For the first time in his life, that answer frightened him.
At the Santillan mansion, three states away, Valerie sat on the floor inside a dark bedroom.
Camila and Regina were sleeping beside her.
Sophie was awake.
They were all wearing sweaters over their nightgowns.
The heat had been turned off on the second floor.
Sophie whispered, "Do you think Daddy saw the picture?"
Valerie looked toward the door.
"She used the old one."
"I know."
"Maybe Daddy will notice."
Sophie hugged her rabbit.
"What if he doesn't?"
Valerie did not answer.
A key turned in the lock.
All four girls went still.
The bedroom door opened.
Vanessa stood there.
"Why are you awake?"
Nobody spoke.
Vanessa's eyes moved to Sophie.
Then to the stuffed rabbit.
"What are you hiding in that thing?"
May you like
Sophie hugged it tighter.
And for the first time, Vanessa became interested in the toy.
