Chapter 1 - The Invitation
Three days before the birthday party, Daniel Mercer found the invitation beneath a stack of unopened business mail.
The envelope was pale blue and decorated with silver stars. Sophie’s name had been written across the front in glittering letters.
Lily stood across the kitchen counter, watching him open it.
“Is it Aunt Rebecca’s house?” she asked.
Daniel unfolded the card.
Sophie’s tenth birthday celebration would be held at the Mercer family home on Saturday afternoon. There would be games, a magician, a garden lunch and a formal cake ceremony in the main hall.
At the bottom, Rebecca had added a handwritten sentence.
Lily is welcome, provided she behaves.
Daniel read the sentence twice.
He folded the invitation and placed it on the counter.
“You don’t have to go.”
Lily’s expression fell before she quickly hid it.
“Sophie asked me at school.”
“You and Sophie barely speak at school.”
“She said she wanted me there.”
Daniel knew his daughter well enough to hear the missing words.
“What else did she say?”
Lily pulled at the sleeve of her sweater.
“She said Grandma would be angry if I didn’t come.”
Daniel felt something tighten inside his chest.
His mother rarely contacted Lily directly. Eleanor sent birthday cards, expensive dresses and formal invitations, but she had never treated Lily with the warmth she gave Rebecca’s daughter.
To Eleanor, Sophie was the perfect Mercer granddaughter.
Lily was the child Daniel had brought home after marrying a woman his family had never accepted.
Anna Collins had been a schoolteacher with no wealthy relatives, no influential surname and no interest in Eleanor’s approval. Lily had been two years old when Daniel met them.
Daniel adopted Lily one year later.
Anna died in a car accident eighteen months after that.
Since then, Lily had been his daughter in every sense that mattered.
But Eleanor never stopped calling her Anna’s child.
Never Daniel’s.
“Grandma doesn’t get to decide whether you attend a party,” Daniel said.
Lily nodded.
Daniel noticed that she was still staring at the invitation.
“Do you want to go?”
“Sophie said she has something that belonged to Mom.”
The kitchen suddenly felt colder.
Daniel leaned forward.
“What did she say?”
“She said she found a little silver box in Grandma’s room. It has Mom’s name inside.”
Daniel’s pulse quickened.
After Anna’s death, most of her belongings had been returned to him. Eleanor had insisted that nothing belonging to Anna remained in the Mercer house.
“What kind of box?”
“Sophie didn’t know. She said Aunt Rebecca told her never to open it.”
Daniel picked up the invitation again.
For years, he had kept his distance from his family. He attended holidays for Lily’s sake and remained involved in Mercer Holdings because his father’s trust required it, but he no longer stayed overnight at the family estate.
Eleanor and Rebecca preferred it that way.
Their conversations remained polite.
Their secrets remained buried.
“Did Sophie tell anyone else about the box?” Daniel asked.
Lily shook her head.
“She made me promise not to tell.”
Daniel looked toward the framed photograph on the kitchen shelf.
Anna stood on a beach, laughing as wind blew her dark hair across her face. Lily, then only three, sat on Daniel’s shoulders.
The photograph had been taken five days before Anna’s accident.
Daniel had always believed the crash was caused by heavy rain and a damaged guardrail.
But two weeks earlier, an unknown person had mailed him a copy of Anna’s old bank statement.
One withdrawal had been circled in red.
Twenty-five thousand dollars had been transferred to the Mercer Children’s Foundation the day before she died.
Daniel had asked Eleanor about it.
She claimed Anna had made a charitable donation.
Daniel knew Anna would never donate their emergency savings without telling him.
Now Sophie had found a box bearing Anna’s name inside Eleanor’s bedroom.
Daniel placed the birthday invitation in his jacket.
“We’ll go.”
Lily’s eyes brightened.
“But you stay beside me,” Daniel continued. “You don’t go upstairs, and you don’t follow anyone into a room alone.”
Lily gave a nervous smile.
“Even Sophie?”
“Even Sophie.”
Daniel’s phone vibrated.
A message appeared from an unknown number.
Do not take Lily to that house.
Daniel stared at it.
A second message followed.
May you like
Anna tried to protect her from them once.
Do not make her do it again.
