Chapter 3 - WHAT REBECCA KNEW ABOUT MY DAUGHTERDaniel grabbed my arm.
“We're taking Emily and leaving.”
I nodded.
But the gray-suited man blocked the aisle.
“Sir,” he said calmly, “I strongly recommend staying where you are.”
Daniel laughed bitterly.
“Who exactly do you think you are?”
The man reached inside his jacket.
My hand instinctively moved toward Emily.
But instead of a weapon, he pulled out a badge.
Not a police badge.
A private agency credential.
“Elias Grant.”
I had heard the name.
I just didn't know from where.
Rebecca did.
Her face went white.
“Elias…”
He looked at her.
“You were told this would be handled quietly.”
“I tried.”
“No. You failed.”
My blood ran cold.
I stepped forward.
“What is this?”
He looked at me.
“Mr. Bennett, your daughter is in danger.”
“From whom?”
He glanced at Rebecca.
“Her.”
The chapel erupted in whispers.
Rebecca shook her head.
“No.”
Elias continued.
“She has not told you the truth about the custody arrangement.”
“What custody arrangement?”
Rebecca looked at the floor.
I felt sick.
“You and my daughter already had a custody arrangement?”
“No,” she whispered.
Elias interrupted.
“Your future wife has been attempting to establish legal guardianship over Emily for almost eight months.”
I stared at Rebecca.
“You what?”
“She wasn't trying to send her away,” he said.
“Then why?”
“Because after the marriage, she intended to petition the court for emergency custody.”
I felt as if someone had punched me.
Rebecca stepped toward me.
“Andrew, listen.”
“No.”
“I can explain.”
“You planned to take my daughter.”
“I planned to protect her.”
“From me?”
“No.”
“Then from whom?”
She couldn't answer.
Elias spoke again.
“From a problem your family has been hiding for years.”
My mother stood.
“What problem?”
He looked directly at her.
She sat back down.
That reaction frightened me more than anything he had said.
I turned toward my mother.
“Mom?”
She stared at the floor.
“Please, Andrew.”
“What do you know?”
“Nothing you should have to deal with today.”
That was not an answer.
It was a confession disguised as an apology.
Rebecca approached slowly.
“Your wife…”
I stopped.
“She isn't involved.”
Rebecca swallowed.
“I wasn't talking about your wife.”
I looked at her.
“Then who?”
She whispered:
“Emily's mother.”
The room went dead.
My wife, Sarah, had died three years earlier.
Cancer.
At least, that was what I'd been told.
I had been with her at the hospital.
I had watched her breathing slow.
I had held her hand when she died.
I had buried her.
Or thought I had.
Rebecca looked at me.
“Sarah's death was not what you were told.”
I felt my knees weaken.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“You were not even with me when she died.”
“I know.”
“How could you know anything?”
She reached into her bouquet.
From behind the flowers, she pulled out a small photograph.
She handed it to me.
My hands trembled.
The photograph showed Sarah.
Alive.
Standing outside a hospital.
Taken six months after the date of her supposed death.
And beside her stood a man I recognized.
My father.
My dead father.
I looked at Rebecca.
“That’s impossible.”
She whispered:
“That photograph was taken two years ago.”
I nearly dropped it.
“My father died five years ago.”
“I know.”
The gray-suited man stepped forward.
“Mr. Bennett, there is something else.”
He handed me a file.
Inside was a birth certificate.
Not Emily's.
Sarah's.
The mother's name had been altered.
The father's name had been altered.
And across the top was a red stamp:
SEALED.
I looked at Emily.
My daughter was watching me.
She whispered:
“Daddy… is Mommy really dead?”
I couldn't answer.
Because for the first time since Sarah's funeral, I wasn't sure.
Then every light in the chapel suddenly went out.
In the darkness, someone screamed.
May you like
And when the emergency lights came on…
Emily was gone.
