Chapter 3: The Woman at My Wedding
I didn't sleep that night.
Lily was asleep in her bedroom, with the hallway light on and her favorite stuffed rabbit tucked beneath her chin.
I sat outside her door for nearly an hour.
Every time she moved, I looked up.
I couldn't stop thinking about what Thomas had said.
Danielle had been alive.
She had been close enough to watch me marry Vanessa.
And somehow, she had never reached me.
At 1:17 a.m., my phone vibrated.
An unknown number.
I answered immediately.
“Hello?””
A woman's voice came through.
“Marcus?””
I stopped breathing.
It was a little older. Weaker. But I knew that voice.
I had heard it in my dreams.
“Danielle?””
Silence.
Then a quiet sob.
“Oh, Marcus.””
My hand began to shake.
“Where are you?””
“Please don't come here.””
“Where are you? I'll come get you. I'll bring Lily. Just tell me where you are.””
She cried harder.
“I can't. Not yet.””
“Danielle, I've been told you were dead for two years.””
“I know.””
“I buried you.””
“I know, sweetheart.””
I closed my eyes.
Those two words nearly destroyed me.
For a moment, I was back in our old kitchen, watching her make pancakes while Lily sat on the counter.
Then I remembered Vanessa standing at our wedding.
My mother smiling beside her.
And the photograph Thomas had shown me.
“Why didn't you come home?”” I asked.
“I tried.””
“Why didn't you call?””
“I did. Hundreds of times.””
“Then why—”
“Because your mother answered one of those calls.””
I stood.
“What?””
Danielle took a shaky breath.
“She told me you knew everything. She said you had chosen Vanessa and that Lily was better off without me.””
My stomach twisted.
“That isn't true.””
“I know that now.””
“Where is Vanessa in all this?””
Danielle went quiet.
Then she whispered, “You need to understand something. Vanessa didn't enter your life by accident.””
I gripped the phone.
“What does that mean?””
“Before you met her, she knew who you were. She knew about your company. She knew about Lily. And she knew I was still alive.””
I felt sick.
“How?””
“Because she visited me.””
A floorboard creaked behind me.
I turned.
Evelyn stood at the end of the hallway.
She was wearing her dressing gown, her silver hair loose around her shoulders.
“Marcus,” she said softly.
“Who are you talking to?””
I raised one finger, signaling her to be quiet.
Danielle heard her voice.
“Oh, God. Is she there?””
“Yes.””
“Listen to me. Don't let her near Lily.””
I stepped away from the hallway.
“Danielle, tell me where you are.””
“There's something else. The accident wasn't an accident. They wanted me gone because I had proof of what they were doing.””
“What proof?””
“The original recordings. The ones Thomas couldn't get out.””
I looked toward the kitchen.
Evelyn was still watching me.
“Who was driving the car?””
Danielle's voice broke.
“I wasn't driving, Marcus.””
I froze.
“What?””
“I was in the passenger seat. Someone took me from the road after the crash. Someone who knew exactly where the cameras were and which ambulance would respond.””
“Who?””
She hesitated.
Then she said, “Your mother knows.””
Evelyn suddenly lunged forward and grabbed my phone.
“Give me that!””
I pulled away.
“Get your hands off me!””
The phone slipped from my fingers and hit the floor.
The call disconnected.
For several seconds, neither of us moved.
Then Evelyn looked down at the phone.
Her expression was no longer frightened.
It was cold.
“You shouldn't have answered that.””
I stared at her.
“You knew.””
She said nothing.
“You knew Danielle was alive.””
“Marcus, I did what I had to do.””
“What did you do?””
She walked toward me.
“Your first wife was destroying this family. She was digging into accounts that weren't hers. She was threatening to expose things that could have sent people to prison.””
“So you made me believe she was dead?””
“I protected you.””
I laughed, but there was no humor in it.
“You protected me by letting me mourn my wife?””
“You were unstable after the accident. Lily needed stability. I made sure she had a home.””
“You took her mother away!””
Evelyn's eyes narrowed.
“Danielle was not the woman you think she was.””
I stepped closer.
“Then why are you afraid of her?””
She looked toward Lily's bedroom.
And that was when I understood.
My mother wasn't afraid of losing me.
She was afraid of what Danielle might tell my daughter.
I picked up the phone.
“I'm calling the police.””
Evelyn shook her head.
“You don't understand the damage you're about to cause.””
“I'm beginning to understand everything.””
She lowered her voice.
“Your father didn't die naturally, Marcus.””
The words stopped me.
My father had died twelve years earlier. A heart attack, according to the doctors. I was twenty-seven at the time.
Evelyn had always said he was overworked.
I remembered his funeral. The black suit. The rain. The way she clung to my arm and whispered that I was the only family she had left.
“What does Dad have to do with this?””
Evelyn stared at me.
“Danielle found something in his old files. Something that would have destroyed the company.””
“What?””
She looked at me for a long moment.
Then she said, “Your father left behind a second will.””
I couldn't speak.
“Where is it?””
“Danielle took it.””
“Why?””
“Because it named the person who was supposed to inherit everything.””
My phone vibrated again.
A message from an unknown number.
It contained a single photograph.
I opened it.
The image showed Danielle sitting in a hospital bed, holding a newspaper dated three weeks earlier.
She was alive.
She was smiling faintly.
And beside her stood a little girl.
A girl who looked almost exactly like Lily.
I stared at the photograph.
Then another message arrived.
Marcus, there's something I never got the chance to tell you.
Lily isn't the only child I had before they took me.
My hands went numb.
I looked at Evelyn.
“Who is the little girl?””
My mother closed her eyes.
May you like
And for the first time, she whispered a confession.
“Your father knew about her.””
