Chapter 8: The Funeral Photograph
The lights returned.
Evelyn was gone.
Grace spun toward the staircase.
“Where did she go?””
Richard looked around.
“She was right here.””
Victor rushed to the stairs.
The cellar door was still locked.
“No one left.””
Grace looked at the wall.
“Then where is she?””
A metallic click sounded behind them.
The black cabinet had opened another hidden compartment.
Grace stepped closer.
Inside was a small digital recorder.
Its red light was blinking.
She pressed play.
Static filled the cellar.
Then Anna's voice.
Grace stopped breathing.
“Grace, if you're hearing this, I'm sorry.””
Grace covered her mouth.
Her mother's voice continued.
“I need you to understand something. The funeral was not mine.””
Richard stared at the recorder.
“What?””
Anna continued.
“Evelyn arranged everything. The coffin. The burial.
The newspaper notice. Even the photograph.””
Grace shook her head.
“No.””
Victor whispered, “What photograph?””
Grace looked at him.
The recorder clicked.
Anna's voice returned.
“Thomas believed I was dead. He had to believe it.””
Richard stepped forward.
“Why?””
“Because he found out Grace was not his.””
Grace's eyes widened.
The recording continued.
“The DNA result showed Thomas was not Grace's father. I lied to him because it was the only way I could get him to leave us alone.””
Grace froze.
Victor looked at Richard.
Richard looked at the recorder.
“But then who is her father?”” he whispered.
Anna's voice answered.
“Richard.””
Grace closed her eyes.
The first test.
The second test.
The contradictions.
The lies.
All of them crashing together.
The recorder continued.
“I know what the paperwork says. I know what Evelyn will tell you. But she never saw the final test.””
A pause.
Then Anna whispered:
“Richard is Grace's father.””
Richard sat down heavily on an old wooden crate.
Victor looked stunned.
“But the report—”
“Wasn't hers,” Anna's recording said.
“The report Daniel found was Thomas's sample. Not Grace's.””
Grace stared at Richard.
He looked at her.
This time, neither of them spoke.
The recorder clicked again.
“I didn't tell Richard because I was afraid Evelyn would use Grace against him.””
Evelyn's voice suddenly came from the doorway.
“She did.””
Grace turned.
Evelyn stood on the staircase.
Her face was wet with tears.
Grace held the recorder up.
“You knew.””
Evelyn nodded.
“I knew Richard was your father.””
“Then why did you let me believe Thomas was?””
“Because Thomas was alive.””
Grace's voice shook.
“And now?””
Evelyn stared at her.
“Now I don't know.””
A loud bang came from above.
The cellar door shook.
Someone was trying to break it open.
Richard stood.
“Everybody move away from the door.””
Grace didn't move.
She was staring at Evelyn.
“You said my mother died.””
“She disappeared.””
“When?””
“Three years ago.””
“Where?””
Evelyn's lips trembled.
“I don't know.””
“You lied to me.””
“Yes.””
“You let me attend a funeral for a woman who wasn't in the coffin.””
“Yes.””
Grace's eyes filled with tears.
“Why?””
Evelyn looked at Richard.
“Because Thomas had someone watching the cemetery.””
Richard whispered, “Who?””
Evelyn shook her head.
“I never found out.””
The door shook again.
Victor shouted, “We need to get out!””
Daniel's voice suddenly came through the intercom.
“There's another exit.””
Richard looked around.
“Where?””
“Behind the wine racks.””
Victor shoved the wooden racks aside.
A narrow passage appeared.
Grace stared.
“How did you know?””
Daniel answered through the speaker.
“I designed the cellar.””
Everyone moved into the passage.
Grace was last.
Before she left, she noticed a photograph lying on the floor.
She picked it up.
It showed her mother's funeral.
The casket.
The flowers.
The mourners.
But someone had circled one person in red ink.
A woman standing beneath a black umbrella.
Grace recognized her.
She had seen that face tonight.
At the reception.
Grace turned the photograph over.
On the back, someone had written:
*SHE WAS THERE WHEN ANNA ESCAPED.*
Grace's blood ran cold.
“Richard.””
He turned.
Grace held up the photograph.
“Do you know her?””
Richard looked.
His expression collapsed.
“Yes.””
“Who is she?””
Richard stared at the woman beneath the umbrella.
“My mother.””
Grace blinked.
“Your mother died fifteen years ago.””
“I know.””
A voice came from the hidden passage behind them.
“That's because she was never there.””
Everyone turned.
Daniel stood in the darkness.
He was holding another photograph.
He slowly raised it.
“That's not Richard's mother.””
Grace stared at the photograph.
It showed the same woman.
Only this time, she was standing beside Anna.
And beside Anna was a little girl.
Grace.
The photograph had been taken twenty-five years earlier.
Grace looked at Daniel.
“Who is the woman?””
Daniel answered:
“Your mother's sister.””
Evelyn whispered, “No.””
Daniel looked at her.
“Yes.””
Then the hidden passage door slammed shut behind them.
And from the other side came a woman's voice.
“Grace.””
May you like
Grace knew that voice.
It was her mother's.
