Chapter 4 - The Woman in the PhotographWe hid inside an abandoned boathouse until dawn.
Megan called an old detective she trusted.
He sent two officers.
Daniel was gone.
So was Tom.
The marina office had been emptied.
Every document disappeared.
Except one.
The photograph.
The one showing Evan and the hooded man.
I stared at it for hours.
Something about the second figure bothered me.
The height.
The posture.
The way he held his left shoulder.
I had seen that posture before.
Then it hit me.
“Lauren.”
Megan looked up.
“What?”
“The second person.”
She took the photograph.
“You think it's Lauren?”
“I don't know.”
We found her apartment that afternoon.
Empty.
The door was unlocked.
Inside, everything looked abandoned.
A half-packed suitcase.
Open drawers.
A broken phone.
Megan found something beneath the kitchen sink.
A small metal box.
Inside was a passport.
Not Lauren's.
Mine.
I froze.
“Why does she have my passport?”
Megan opened another compartment.
Photographs.
Our house.
My car.
My office.
My routine.
There were pictures of me leaving work.
Buying groceries.
Walking into my mother's house.
Someone had been watching me.
For months.
Then I found a folded note.
My name was written across it.
CAROLINE
I opened it.
Inside were six words.
You never knew who Evan was.
Megan took the paper.
“This handwriting.”
“What?”
“It belongs to Lauren.”
We found her that night.
She was sitting alone in a motel room.
When she saw me, she started crying.
“I never wanted this.”
I stepped inside.
“Then tell me the truth.”
She stared at the floor.
“Evan contacted me eleven months ago.”
“Why?”
“He said he was dying.”
I laughed bitterly.
“Apparently he likes that story.”
Lauren wiped her eyes.
“He told me he had cancer. He said he needed to protect his mother.”
“His mother?”
“Judith.”
“What does Judith have to do with this?”
Lauren looked at Megan.
Then back at me.
“Everything.”
She told us Evan had debts.
Not normal debts.
Millions.
Investments had collapsed.
People wanted their money back.
Some were dangerous.
Evan had created Cypress Bay Strategies to hide assets.
Judith helped move money through the company.
Lauren was brought in because she knew how Evan operated.
“You were his ex-wife.”
“We were married for three years.”
“Why did you divorce?”
“He cheated.”
“With who?”
Lauren gave me a strange look.
“Judith.”
I stared.
“My mother-in-law?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
Lauren shook her head.
“Not Judith herself.”
She pulled out another photograph.
It showed Evan thirty years younger.
Standing beside a woman.
A woman I had never seen.
Lauren whispered:
“That woman is Judith's sister.”
I stared at the photograph.
“She died twenty-eight years ago.”
Lauren nodded.
“She did.”
“Then why is she in a recent photograph?”
Lauren's lips trembled.
“Because she didn't die.”
Silence filled the room.
I looked at Megan.
Megan looked back at me.
Lauren continued.
“Evan wasn't working for his mother.”
“Then who?”
Lauren whispered the name.
“Eleanor.”
I frowned.
“Who is Eleanor?”
Lauren looked at me with pity.
“Eleanor Whitaker.”
May you like
She paused.
“Evan's real mother.”
