Chapter 1 - THE LOCKED DOOR
Five minutes before his wedding, Lucas Bennett heard his seven-year-old daughter screaming behind a locked bathroom door.
“Daddy!”
Lucas stopped so fast the best man nearly walked into him.
The ballroom doors were twenty feet away.
Three hundred guests were already seated.
The orchestra had started playing.
And somewhere behind Lucas, the wedding coordinator was saying, “Mr. Bennett, we really need to get you into position.”
Lucas ignored her.
“Daddy, please!”
His blood turned cold.
That was Emma.
He ran.
“Emma!”
A weak pounding answered from the bathroom at the end of the hallway.
Lucas grabbed the handle.
Locked.
“Sweetheart, move away from the door.”
“I’m scared!”
Lucas drove his shoulder into the wood.
Nothing.
Again.
The lock cracked.
A third hit sent the door flying inward.
Emma stumbled out.
Her hair was messy.
Her flower-girl dress was wrinkled.
Mascara-like streaks from her tears ran beneath her eyes.
She threw herself at him.
Lucas dropped to his knees and caught her.
“Hey, hey. I’ve got you.”
Emma was shaking violently.
Lucas looked inside the bathroom.
Empty.
“Who locked you in there?”
Emma buried her face against his shoulder.
“Emma.”
No answer.
Lucas softened his voice.
“Sweetheart, look at me.”
She slowly lifted her head.
“Who did this?”
Emma raised one trembling finger.
Lucas followed it.
At the other end of the hallway stood Vanessa Cole.
His bride.
She was breathtaking in a fitted white gown.
Diamond earrings glittered beneath the lights.
A veil fell perfectly behind her shoulders.
But the second she saw Emma pointing at her, all the color drained from her face.
Guests standing nearby fell silent.
Lucas rose with Emma in his arms.
“What did you do?”
Vanessa swallowed.
“Lucas, this is a misunderstanding.”
Emma tightened her arms around his neck.
“She told me after today I wouldn’t be family anymore.”
The hallway went still.
Lucas stared at Vanessa.
“What?”
Vanessa stepped forward.
“I never said that.”
“You did!” Emma cried.
“Emma—”
“You locked me in!”
Vanessa looked around at the staring guests.
Her expression changed.
Not fear.
Calculation.
“Lucas, she’s upset because things are changing.”
Lucas felt something ugly twist inside his chest.
“My daughter was locked in a bathroom.”
“I was trying to calm her down.”
“You calm children by locking doors?”
“I didn’t lock anything.”
Emma suddenly whispered, “She wanted me to miss the wedding.”
Vanessa’s jaw tightened.
Lucas saw it.
Only for a second.
But he saw it.
Then Vanessa grabbed the side of her dress as if preparing to walk away.
Something small fell from beneath the gown.
A metallic click echoed across the marble.
Lucas looked down.
It was a brass key.
A bathroom key.
Vanessa stared at it.
So did Emma.
Lucas bent slowly and picked it up.
Vanessa’s voice came out thin.
“That isn’t mine.”
Before Lucas could answer, Emma whispered another sentence.
“She has Mommy’s box too.”
Lucas froze.
His first wife, Rachel, had been dead for four years.
“What box?”
Emma pointed at Vanessa again.
“The one Mommy told you never to open.”
May you like
Vanessa turned and ran.
And Lucas realized the locked bathroom was only the beginning.
