Chapter 2 - The Woman Claire Wanted BuriedI moved between Claire and Sarah.
“Stay where you are.”
Claire stopped.
She stared at Sarah.
Then at me.
“Daniel…”
“Don't.”
My voice echoed through the cellar.
“Put the key down.”
She slowly lowered her hand.
“You don't understand.”
“Then explain.”
Claire looked at Sarah.
“She isn't who you think she is.”
Sarah began crying.
I turned toward her.
“Who are you?”
She stared at me.
“I am your wife.”
Claire laughed nervously.
“No.”
Sarah looked at me.
“Daniel, listen to me.”
Claire stepped closer.
“She has been manipulating you.”
I raised my voice.
“Enough!”
Ethan appeared at the top of the stairs.
“Dad?”
I looked back.
“Stay upstairs.”
“But—”
“Ethan, go to the house.”
He hesitated.
Daisy pushed past Claire and walked down the first few stairs.
She stopped beside Ethan.
The horse looked directly at him.
Ethan whispered:
“She wants me to follow her.”
Claire's face changed.
“Ethan, come here.”
The boy immediately stepped backward.
“No.”
That one word hurt.
Because Ethan had never been afraid to say no to anyone.
Except Claire.
I understood something then.
My son had been frightened of her long before tonight.
I just hadn't seen it.
I called emergency services.
Then I returned to Sarah.
She could barely stand.
I removed my jacket and wrapped it around her.
“How long?”
She looked at me.
“Three years.”
My stomach turned.
“Three years?”
She nodded.
“I woke up after the accident.”
“Where?”
“Here.”
She pointed upward.
“Claire brought me here.”
I looked toward the stairs.
Claire was gone.
I immediately ran upstairs.
She wasn't there.
The rain had erased most of the footprints.
But Daisy stood near the barn.
She was staring toward the tree line.
Then she suddenly ran.
I followed.
The horse stopped beside an old wooden shed.
Something was buried beneath the floorboards.
I pulled one loose.
A metal box was underneath.
Inside were photographs.
Sarah.
Me.
Ethan.
Claire.
And several documents.
The first was an insurance policy.
Sarah's life insurance.
The beneficiary wasn't me.
It was Claire.
My hands started shaking.
The second document was a bank transfer.
A huge payment.
Made three days after Sarah's supposed death.
From the insurance company.
To Claire's account.
I stared at it.
Then I found something worse.
A medical report.
Patient: Sarah Morgan.
Status: Alive.
Official records: Deceased.
Someone had forged my wife's death certificate.
Claire hadn't simply hidden Sarah.
She had erased her.
Police arrived twenty minutes later.
They found Sarah.
They found the cellar.
They found the documents.
But Claire was gone.
Her car was missing.
So was Ethan's passport.
I felt sick.
“She took my son.”
The sheriff immediately organized a search.
Daisy suddenly began kicking the barn door.
Hard.
Again.
And again.
The sheriff looked at me.
“What's the horse doing?”
I stared at the door.
“I don't know.”
Daisy struck it one final time.
The door swung open.
Inside was a wall covered with photographs.
Hundreds of them.
Pictures of me.
Ethan.
Sarah.
My house.
My office.
Our daily routines.
Someone had been watching us for years.
Then I saw the newest photograph.
Ethan standing beside the horse.
Taken that afternoon.
On the back were four words:
HE KNOWS TOO MUCH.
My blood ran cold.
The sheriff looked at me.
“Who took this?”
I didn't answer.
Because I already knew.
Claire.
May you like
And somewhere on the road outside the ranch…
she had my son.
