Chapter 6 - THE WOMAN WHO WAS NEVER MY ENEMYPanic exploded.
Daniel rushed toward the door.
Locked.
Elias pulled a cloth over his mouth.
“Everyone stay low!”
I grabbed Emily's file.
“What about my daughter?”
Rebecca grabbed my wrist.
“Andrew, listen to me.”
The gas stung my eyes.
“She has an inhaler.”
“What?”
“She has asthma.”
I froze.
Emily had never been officially diagnosed.
We had treated her occasional breathing problems as allergies.
“How do you know?”
“Because I was the one who found her medical file.”
I stared at her.
“You've been watching her.”
“I've been protecting her.”
She pressed a key into my hand.
“This opens the old service tunnel.”
“Where does it lead?”
“To the caretaker's house.”
“Why would Emily be there?”
“She wouldn't.”
That terrified me.
Rebecca looked at Elias.
“Whoever took her knew about the tunnel.”
Elias nodded.
“Then they planned this.”
We crawled through the passage.
Smoke filled the basement behind us.
After what felt like an hour, we emerged outside.
The chapel was surrounded by police.
Someone must have called them.
I ran toward the first officer.
“My daughter was kidnapped.”
He took one look at me.
Then he pulled out a photograph.
My heart stopped.
It was Emily.
Taken thirty minutes earlier.
She was sitting in a car beside a woman.
Sarah.
My wife.
Alive.
I nearly collapsed.
“Where?”
The officer looked at the photo.
“She left a note.”
He handed it to me.
Three words.
COME ALONE.
I looked at Rebecca.
“She's alive.”
Rebecca nodded.
“I told you.”
“No. You told me you thought she was dead.”
“I was wrong.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because I didn't know who to trust.”
I looked around.
Police.
Family.
Guests.
The chapel.
Everything suddenly seemed poisoned.
One officer spoke quietly.
“Mr. Bennett, you need to know something.”
“What?”
“The woman in the photograph was identified by federal records as Sarah Bennett.”
My heart pounded.
“You have federal records?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
He swallowed.
“She has been listed under another identity for three years.”
“Why?”
He looked at Rebecca.
“She was a protected witness.”
I stared at Rebecca.
“What was she witness to?”
She whispered:
“Your father's financial crimes.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“He died.”
“He disappeared.”
“Why fake his death?”
“To get access to the trust.”
“Why would Sarah help?”
“Because she discovered where the money came from.”
I looked toward the chapel.
Nearly two hundred guests stood outside.
All watching.
All whispering.
The priest was beside a police car.
My wedding photographer was gone.
So was the gray-suited man.
I turned to Elias.
“Who is he?”
“Who?”
“The man who locked the doors.”
Elias suddenly looked sick.
“I thought he was with the police.”
“He wasn't.”
We stared at each other.
The officer's radio crackled.
Then a dispatcher spoke:
“Vehicle spotted heading north on Route 19.”
The officer looked at me.
“That's the direction of the old Bennett estate.”
My father's house.
The house supposedly abandoned after his death.
I grabbed the car keys.
Rebecca stopped me.
“Andrew.”
“What?”
“Your father expects you to come alone.”
“I am going.”
“So am I.”
“You could be involved.”
She looked me straight in the eyes.
“If I wanted Emily gone, I would have let you marry me.”
That sentence silenced me.
We drove.
When we reached the estate, the front door was open.
Inside, every light was on.
On the staircase hung a framed wedding photograph.
Mine.
Except the photograph had been digitally altered.
In the picture, I was standing beside Rebecca.
Emily was missing.
And beneath the image, someone had written:
ONE FAMILY. ONE HEIR. ONE FUNERAL.
Then a child's voice came from upstairs.
“Daddy?”
I ran.
It sounded exactly like Emily.
But when I reached the room…
No one was there.
Only a tape recorder.
May you like
And when I pressed play, my father's voice said:
“Hello, son.”
