Chapter 2 - THE SISTER WHO NEVER DIED
Ethan looked at the photograph again.
Eight years.
For eight years, he had believed his sister was dead.
There had been no funeral.
No body.
Only a police report from another state and a story Sabrina had repeated so many times that Ethan eventually stopped questioning it.
Claire had disappeared after an argument with him.
Months later, Sabrina told Ethan she had located her.
There had been an accident.
A car had gone into a river.
Claire had supposedly been inside.
Ethan remembered asking for the police report.
Sabrina handled everything.
He remembered asking to speak with the detective.
Sabrina told him the case was closed.
He remembered being so destroyed by guilt that he barely functioned for months.
Now Claire’s daughter was standing in his foyer.
Alive.
Terrified.
And Sabrina had tried to attack her with a baseball bat.
Ethan turned toward Sabrina.
“You told me Claire died.”
“She did.”
Lily shook her head.
“No.”
Sabrina snapped toward her.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“My mommy isn’t dead.”
Ethan’s heart slammed against his ribs.
“Where is she?”
Lily’s eyes filled with tears.
“I don’t know.”
That answer hurt more than Ethan expected.
He crouched again.
“When did you last see her?”
“Three days ago.”
Sabrina closed her eyes.
Just for a second.
But Ethan saw it.
Three days.
Not eight years.
Three days.
“Where?”
Lily looked toward Sabrina.
Fear returned to her face.
Ethan immediately moved between them.
“You can tell me.”
Lily swallowed.
“At the motel.”
“What motel?”
“The Blue Haven.”
Ethan knew it.
A cheap roadside motel twenty minutes outside the city.
“What happened?”
Lily’s lower lip trembled.
“Mommy told me somebody found us.”
Sabrina whispered.
“Ethan, stop.”
He ignored her.
“What did your mom tell you to do?”
“She gave me the picture.”
Lily pointed at the photograph.
“She told me to find you.”
Ethan felt cold.
“How did she know where I lived?”
“She said this used to be her house too.”
It had been.
Before Ethan inherited the estate from their father, Claire had spent every summer there.
Lily continued.
“Mommy said if anything happened, I had to come here.”
“What happened at the motel?”
Lily began crying.
“I woke up because Mommy was yelling.”
Maria knelt beside her.
“You don’t have to rush.”
Lily wiped her face.
“There was a woman outside.”
Ethan already knew.
But he asked anyway.
“What woman?”
Lily pointed.
Straight at Sabrina.
“She was there.”
Sabrina backed away.
“That’s a lie.”
“I saw you.”
“You saw someone who looked like me.”
“You were wearing the red coat.”
Ethan looked at Sabrina.
Sabrina owned a red wool coat.
She had worn it two nights earlier.
He remembered because she had returned home after midnight.
She claimed she had been having dinner with friends.
Ethan stood.
“Where is Claire?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where is my sister?”
“I DON’T KNOW!”
Sabrina’s voice cracked.
Then a new voice came from the doorway.
“Maybe I do.”
Everyone turned.
A man in a dark suit stood beside the open front door.
Ethan recognized him immediately.
Detective Marcus Hale.
May you like
And he was holding a clear evidence bag.
Inside it was Sabrina’s red coat.
