Chapter 2 - RACHEL’S LAST WARNING
Lucas turned slowly.
“What did you say?”
Vanessa’s lips parted, but no sound came out.
Lily ran to her father.
Lucas dropped to his knees and wrapped both arms around her.
“Are you hurt?”
Lily shook her head.
“She grabbed me really hard.”
Vanessa stepped forward.
“She was searching through my private things.”
“This was Mom’s bathroom,” Lily said.
The bathroom had once belonged to Rachel.
After her death, Lucas had ordered the room closed because he couldn’t bear to remove her belongings.
Vanessa had volunteered to organize it before the wedding.
Lucas now understood why.
“How long was she locked in here?” he asked.
“Maybe five minutes,” Vanessa replied.
“Forty-three minutes,” Lily said. “I checked my watch.”
Lucas stood.
Vanessa’s expression changed.
The frightened bride disappeared.
In her place stood someone colder.
“You’re going to believe a grieving child over your wife?”
“You’re not my wife yet.”
The words hit her like a slap.
Downstairs, the string quartet stopped playing.
Voices drifted through the mansion.
The ceremony should have begun.
Lucas examined the envelope.
The seal had already been broken.
“You opened this.”
“No.”
“Then how did you know it should’ve been destroyed?”
Vanessa glanced toward the hallway.
“Lucas, we shouldn’t discuss this here.”
“We’re discussing it now.”
Lily tugged on his sleeve.
“Dad, there’s something else.”
She pointed toward the vanity.
One drawer hung open.
Inside lay a red leather journal, a flash drive, and an old photograph.
Lucas picked up the picture.
Rachel stood outside Bennett Development’s downtown office.
Beside her was Lucas’s older brother, Daniel, who had died in a car accident six months before Rachel.
On the back, Rachel had written:
Daniel knows what Vanessa did. If he disappears, it wasn’t an accident.
Lucas felt the floor shift beneath him.
“What is this?”
Vanessa backed toward the door.
Lucas caught her arm.
“You knew Daniel?”
“Everybody knew Daniel.”
“Rachel wrote your name.”
“She was sick, Lucas. She was taking medication. She imagined things.”
Lily opened the red journal.
Several pages had been cut out.
One remaining entry was dated four days before Rachel’s death.
Lucas read it aloud.
“Vanessa came to the house again. She says Lucas will belong to her soon. Daniel found the transfer records. We’re meeting him Friday.”
Rachel died on Thursday.
Daniel’s car went over a bridge the following month.
Lucas looked up.
Vanessa was no longer standing in the doorway.
She was running down the hall.
“Stay here,” Lucas told Lily.
He chased Vanessa down the stairs and into the crowded ballroom.
Guests turned as the bride rushed past them.
Vanessa reached the wedding table, grabbed her purse, and pulled out her phone.
Lucas caught her before she could unlock it.
“Who are you calling?”
She stared at him with pure hatred.
Then Lucas’s phone rang.
The caller ID showed a number that had been disconnected for three years.
Rachel’s number.
Lucas answered with shaking hands.
May you like
A distorted voice whispered:
“If you read the letter, your daughter is next.”
