Chapter 4 - What Happened on Hollow Creek Road)
Daniel did not go to work the next morning.
Richard noticed immediately.
"You have a meeting at nine."
"I canceled it."
"You do not cancel executive meetings because of family drama."
Daniel placed Anna's letter on the kitchen table.
Richard stopped speaking.
Evelyn stared at it.
Megan watched both of them.
Sophie's high chair stood between her and the windows.
She had moved it there deliberately.
She did not want anyone getting close to Sophie without her seeing them.
Daniel sat.
"Tell me about the brake line."
Richard's face became unreadable.
Evelyn lowered herself into a chair.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Anna wrote that her brake line was cut."
"Anna was emotional during that period."
Daniel leaned forward.
"Did you know she believed someone had tampered with her car?"
"No."
"Did police inspect it?"
Richard answered this time.
"The vehicle was badly damaged."
"That's not what I asked."
"The investigation concluded she was driving too fast."
"Was the brake line inspected?"
Richard's jaw tightened.
"I am not a mechanic."
Daniel laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
Megan had never heard that sound from him.
"Where is Lucas?"
Evelyn looked at Richard.
There.
Again.
The same silent exchange Megan had noticed before.
"You said his father took him," Daniel continued. "Who was his father?"
"We never knew," Evelyn said.
"Then how did you give Lucas to him?"
Evelyn said nothing.
Daniel pushed back from the table.
"You lied about Anna having a child. You lied about where Lucas went. You kept a letter in a hidden box for thirteen years."
Richard stood.
"Watch yourself."
"No. You watch yourself."
Megan saw shock cross Richard's face.
Daniel had never spoken to him that way.
Not once.
"I want every document related to Anna's accident and Lucas's guardianship."
"You are not entitled to my private records."
"Then I'll get them somewhere else."
Richard smiled slightly.
It was the expression of a man who believed he knew exactly how powerless the person across from him was.
"Try."
Daniel left the kitchen.
Megan followed.
In the hallway she whispered, "We should move out now."
"I know."
"Today."
He looked back toward the kitchen.
"Our house isn't finished."
"Hotel."
"Sophie needs stability."
"Sophie needs distance from them."
Daniel nodded.
"Give me until tonight."
Megan disliked the answer.
But she understood why.
Daniel was standing in the home where he had grown up, discovering that his memories had been curated by the people who raised him.
He needed a few hours to become someone capable of leaving it.
Megan spent the afternoon packing.
At three thirty, she received a call from an unknown number.
"Mrs. Bennett?"
"Yes?"
"My name is Thomas Vale."
Megan froze.
The private investigator.
Daniel had told her his name the previous night.
"Thomas Vale?"
"Please don't say my name again."
"Daniel thought you disappeared."
"I did."
"Why are you calling me?"
"Because somebody searched an old account tied to Anna Bennett yesterday."
Megan sat on the edge of the bed.
"How do you know?"
"I set alerts years ago."
"Where are you?"
"Not somewhere I plan to share."
"Did Richard threaten you?"
Silence.
"Mr. Vale?"
"Daniel was right to stop looking."
"That isn't an answer."
"No. It isn't."
Megan closed the bedroom door.
"Lucas may still be alive."
Another long silence.
Then Thomas said, "You found the photograph."
"How do you know about it?"
"I found the original."
Megan's heart pounded.
"The one dated after Anna died?"
"Yes."
"Was the date correct?"
"Yes."
Megan stood.
"Then Anna was alive."
"For at least six months after her official death."
The room seemed to tilt.
"How?"
"I don't know."
"Where was the photograph taken?"
"A private medical residence outside Cedar Ridge."
"What kind of medical residence?"
"Officially, rehabilitation."
"And unofficially?"
"I don't know."
"You investigated."
"I tried."
"What happened?"
"Someone broke into my office. They didn't take money. They took one file."
"Anna's."
"Yes."
"Why disappear?"
"Because they left photographs of my children on the desk."
Megan's throat tightened.
"Listen to me," Thomas said. "If Daniel has started looking again, you need to understand something. His parents may not be the most dangerous people involved."
"Who is?"
"I never found out."
"Where's Lucas?"
Thomas breathed quietly.
"I found one school record."
Megan gripped the phone.
"Where?"
"It was sealed, but I saw the name before someone erased it."
"What name?"
"Lucas wasn't using Bennett."
"What was he using?"
A floorboard creaked outside the bedroom.
Megan turned.
The door opened.
Evelyn stood there.
She looked at the phone.
"Who are you speaking to?"
Megan said nothing.
Thomas whispered in her ear.
"Call me when you're alone."
The line went dead.
Evelyn stepped inside.
"You should be packing."
"I am."
"Good."
Megan slipped the phone into her pocket.
Evelyn looked at the half-filled suitcase.
"You won't last a month away from Daniel's money."
Megan stared at her.
"That's what this is about to you?"
"This is about understanding the world you married into."
"I married Daniel."
"No. Women like you always say that at first."
"Women like me?"
Evelyn walked toward the window.
"Anna thought love would save her too."
Megan stopped breathing for a second.
"You know who Lucas's father was."
Evelyn looked over her shoulder.
Then Sophie cried from the nursery.
Megan rushed out.
She found her daughter sitting on the floor beside the crib.
Nothing appeared wrong.
Until Megan noticed a small folded piece of paper in Sophie's hand.
She gently took it.
Three words were written inside.
HOLLOW CREEK ROAD.
That was where Anna's crash had happened.
May you like
And beneath the words was a time.
11:30 tonight.
