Chapter 6 - THE WOMAN IN THE PHOTOGRAPH
Thomas didn't move.
The detective's accusation hung in the room.
“Your access card was used at 3:14 this morning,” the detective said.
Thomas looked genuinely stunned.
“I was asleep.”
“Where?”
“At home.”
“Anyone with access to your card?”
“No.”
I stared at him.
“Then someone copied it.”
The detective nodded.
“That's what we believe.”
Thomas sat down.
His face had gone pale.
“Whoever did this wanted us to think I took the locket.”
Daniel laughed quietly.
“That means they're close.”
“Close to whom?” I asked.
“To all of you.”
The detective looked at Daniel.
“You seem remarkably calm.”
“I've been running for three years.”
“From whom?”
“Everyone.”
He stood.
“Northbridge killed people who knew too much.”
The detective didn't answer.
Daniel looked at me.
“I survived because Dad helped me disappear.”
“You said Dad was dead.”
“I was told he was.”
“What?”
Daniel's expression changed.
“I saw him six months after his funeral.”
My heart stopped.
“What are you talking about?”
“He came to me.”
“Where?”
“Mexico.”
I stared.
“Dad was alive?”
Daniel nodded.
“For a while.”
Thomas stood abruptly.
“No.”
Daniel looked at him.
“You knew.”
Thomas shook his head.
“I didn't.”
“You did.”
“I swear.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“Then why did you arrange the funeral?”
Thomas froze.
I looked at him.
“What funeral?”
Daniel continued.
“The body wasn't Dad.”
I couldn't breathe.
“What?”
“Dental records were falsified.”
Thomas looked devastated.
“I never knew.”
Daniel looked at me.
“Dad was alive.”
“Where is he now?”
“Dead.”
“When?”
“Last year.”
I felt dizzy.
“Who killed him?”
“Victor.”
Thomas closed his eyes.
Daniel continued.
“Dad was hiding evidence.”
“Where?”
“Inside the trust.”
I remembered the motel message.
The person who created the trust was not my father.
My grandmother.
My father had simply protected it.
But then why had he staged his own death?
Daniel answered before I could ask.
“Because he knew Northbridge would come after Olivia.”
I looked toward the nursery camera on my phone.
Everything was connected.
My father's fake death.
Daniel's disappearance.
Lauren's manipulation.
Sofia's role.
The trust.
The locket.
Then Daniel said:
“There is one person Dad trusted more than anyone.”
“Who?”
“Rachel.”
Lauren's sister.
The woman supposedly dead.
The woman whose photograph had appeared in the files.
The woman who had been found dead at the motel.
“She survived long enough to contact you,” Daniel said.
“She left the message.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“She knew the truth.”
“What truth?”
“That Lauren isn't working for Northbridge anymore.”
I stared.
“Then why did she hurt Olivia?”
Daniel looked away.
“Because they threatened her.”
“With what?”
“Rachel.”
I felt sick.
“Rachel wasn't dead?”
“She was.”
“Then why would they threaten her?”
“They had been holding her for years.”
I stared at him.
Daniel continued.
“They made Lauren believe Rachel was alive.”
“So Lauren was being controlled by a lie.”
“Yes.”
“And Rachel knew?”
“She discovered it.”
“That's why they killed her.”
Daniel nodded.
Thomas looked at the detective.
“We need protection for Lauren.”
The detective frowned.
“She is already in custody.”
“Not enough.”
“Why?”
“Because Northbridge knows she is cooperating.”
Then the lights flickered.
A phone rang.
Not mine.
Not the detective's.
Thomas reached into his pocket.
His face changed.
The phone displayed an unknown number.
He answered.
Nobody spoke.
Then a man's voice said:
“You should have left the trust alone.”
Thomas stood.
“Who is this?”
The voice laughed.
“Ask Ryan what his father did with the original certificate.”
The call ended.
Thomas looked at me.
“Ryan…”
I knew.
We needed to find the certificate.
Before Northbridge did.
We returned to my father's house.
The police searched the study.
Behind the bookshelf was a hidden compartment.
Inside was a photograph of my grandmother.
On the back was a handwritten message:
The key is where the family began.
Thomas looked at me.
“Where did your grandfather live?”
I knew the answer.
The original family estate.
An old mansion in Galveston.
We drove there that night.
The house had been abandoned for decades.
Inside, dust covered everything.
A portrait of my grandmother hung above the fireplace.
I looked at it.
Then noticed something.
Her necklace.
The same silver design as Olivia's locket.
I touched the portrait.
It moved.
Behind it was a small safe.
The key was inside my grandmother's portrait frame.
Thomas opened it.
Inside was a certificate.
Original.
Signed.
Sealed.
But beneath it was another document.
A list of names.
Hundreds.
People who had lost businesses to Northbridge.
People who had disappeared.
People who had died.
And at the bottom was one name.
Victor Shaw.
Beside it:
AUTHORIZED TO TERMINATE WITNESSES.
I stared at the page.
Then I heard footsteps upstairs.
Slow.
Heavy.
Thomas reached for his phone.
A man's voice echoed through the house.
“You finally found it.”
Daniel appeared at the doorway.
But he wasn't alone.
A woman stood behind him.
Blonde.
Pale.
Alive.
I stared at her.
Rachel.
The woman we had believed was dead.
She looked at me.
May you like
Then whispered:
“I was the one who sent you the message.”
