Chapter 3 - The Date Nobody Spoke About
Twelve years earlier.
August 14.
Stallone remembered the rain.
He remembered a hospital hallway.
A doctor saying there had been complications.
He remembered Vanessa holding his hand.
And he remembered being told there was nothing he could have done.
But there was one problem.
Vanessa had not been his wife back then.
She had been his personal assistant.
“Tell me what happened that day,” Detective Bell said.
They sat in the mansion library.
Ethan had refused to go upstairs.
So he sat beside his father, wrapped in a blanket.
Vanessa sat across from them.
“I don’t see how ancient history has anything to do with a man breaking into our home,” she said.
Bell placed the recovered paper on the table.
“Because the man had this in his pocket.”
Stallone kept looking at the date.
August 14.
His former partner, Rachel, had been pregnant then.
Not publicly.
Only a few people had known.
There had been complications late in the pregnancy.
He had been filming out of state.
The first call said Rachel had gone into labor.
The second said the baby had died.
Then hours later, a third call said Rachel had suffered a catastrophic medical emergency.
She died two days later.
Stallone had never talked about it.
The grief had been private.
Ugly.
Complete.
For years, he believed the child had been a girl.
Stillborn.
Named Lily.
He looked at Vanessa.
“You were at the hospital.”
She stared back.
“I helped you through the worst week of your life.”
“You were there before I arrived.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Rachel called the office.”
“No. She called me.”
Vanessa’s jaw tightened.
Bell leaned forward.
“What exactly were you told about the baby?”
Stallone swallowed.
“That she didn’t survive.”
“Did you see her?”
The question cut deeper than he expected.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“I was told it would be better not to.”
“By whom?”
He looked at Vanessa.
She slowly shook her head.
“Don’t do this.”
“By you.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“You told me not to see my own daughter.”
“You were falling apart.”
“You signed the paperwork.”
“I helped with paperwork.”
“What paperwork?”
Vanessa stood.
“This is disgusting. You’re rewriting grief because some lunatic broke into the house.”
Ethan stared at her.
“You knew Lily?”
Vanessa looked at the boy.
Something cold flashed through her eyes.
Then it disappeared.
Bell stood.
“Sit down.”
“I don’t have to take orders in my own home.”
“Actually, while I’m investigating an armed attack, you do.”
She sat.
Bell opened another evidence bag.
The attacker had carried three items.
A gun.
A burner phone.
And a key.
Small.
Brass.
Stamped with the number 314.
“Recognize it?” Bell asked.
Nobody spoke.
Bell turned to Vanessa.
Her eyes flicked toward it.
Again.
Half a second.
Enough.
Stallone leaned forward.
“You know that key.”
“No.”
“You keep saying no too quickly.”
“This is insane.”
Bell placed the key beside the photograph.
“Where did the picture come from?”
Ethan answered.
“It was in a box after we moved here.”
“What box?”
“My old things.”
“Who unpacked it?”
Ethan thought.
“Vanessa.”
Her eyes closed.
Just for a moment.
Bell noticed.
“So the photograph passed through your hands?”
“Yes. So what?”
“And the hidden document?”
“I never saw it.”
Stallone picked up the cracked frame.
The back panel had been replaced.
Poorly.
One corner used a different kind of tack.
Somebody had opened it.
Then sealed something inside.
Bell pulled on gloves and removed the photograph.
There was handwriting on the back.
Faded.
Blue ink.
Stallone held his breath.
Rachel’s handwriting.
He knew it instantly.
Three lines.
Sly—
If they tell you she died, don’t believe them.
Find locker 314.
Stallone read it twice.
His skin went cold.
Vanessa stood so quickly her chair hit the floor.
“That isn’t real.”
Nobody had accused her.
Bell turned toward her.
“What makes you say that?”
She stared at the message.
Then at the key.
And for the first time all night, she had no answer.
Ethan whispered:
“Dad… maybe Lily didn’t die.”
Stallone looked at the brass key.
Locker 314.
May you like
Somewhere, for twelve years, the truth had been waiting.
And Vanessa was terrified they were about to find it.
