Chapter 2 - Six Words on a Photograph)
Locked in the laundry room, Claire slipped the photograph inside her nightdress and closed the refrigerator. She left the silver key where it was. If Ethan entered and found it missing, he would know exactly what she had discovered.
“Claire,” he said through the door, “put the sheet down and step away from the cabinet.”
His knowledge frightened her more than his tone.
“Why?”
“Because my mother may come back.”
The answer changed everything. Ethan was not guarding Margaret from Claire. He was guarding Claire from Margaret.
The lock opened. Ethan stepped inside and shut the door behind him. His face was pale, and there was a small fresh cut behind his right ear. Claire recognized the color of the dried blood.
“The stain is yours,” she said.
He nodded.
“Did she hurt you?”
“Not in the way you think.”
“Then tell me the way I should think.”
Footsteps crossed the hall. Ethan seized the sheet, stuffed it into the washer, and poured bleach over it. Margaret called his name.
He leaned close to Claire. “At noon, go to the greenhouse. Look beneath the third stone behind the lemon tree. Do not let her see you leave.”
Margaret entered without knocking. Her gaze traveled from Claire to the open washer.
“A bride doing laundry on her first morning,” she said. “How domestic.”
Claire smiled. “Ethan spilled wine.”
Margaret looked at the cut behind her son’s ear. “Did he?”
At breakfast, Margaret spoke about honeymoon reservations and family trusts as if the morning had been ordinary. Ethan barely ate. Whenever Claire asked a question, Margaret answered for him.
At eleven forty-five, Claire pretended to call her maid of honor and walked outside. The rain had stopped, leaving the garden bright and dripping. In the greenhouse, she found the third stone and lifted it.
Beneath it was a burner phone.
There was one saved contact: ANNA.
Claire dialed.
A woman answered on the first ring.
“Ethan?”
“No. My name is Claire.”
The silence lasted so long Claire thought the call had ended.
Then the woman whispered, “You married him.”
“Who are you?”
“The woman in the photograph.”
Claire’s hand tightened around the phone.
“Margaret says you disappeared.”
May you like
Anna gave a small, bitter laugh. “Margaret says many things. Listen carefully. Ethan is not the person you should fear at Blackwood House.”
The greenhouse door slammed shut behind Claire.
