Chapter 12 - THE PHOTOGRAPH THAT SHOULDN'T EXISTI couldn't breathe.
“That's impossible.”
Vanessa shook the photograph.
“I took it.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“Why?”
“Because your father wasn't dead.”
I stared at the image.
Robert stood outside a private airfield.
Alive.
Healthy.
Angry.
The date stamp was real.
The day after his funeral.
My husband had supposedly been dead for twenty-four hours.
Then who had we buried?
Arthur took the photograph.
His hands shook.
“We need the original.”
Vanessa smiled.
“You think I'm helping you?”
“No.”
Arthur looked at her.
“You need us.”
Her smile disappeared.
“You don't understand.”
“Then explain.”
Vanessa looked at Daniel.
“I married him because I was ordered to.”
Daniel flinched.
“By whom?”
She looked at me.
“Robert.”
Silence.
My knees weakened.
“What?”
“Your husband told me to marry Daniel.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
“He knew they would come for the heir.”
“Why marry my son?”
“Because Daniel had to look ordinary.”
I couldn't process it.
Vanessa kept talking.
“Robert knew the family would never suspect the heir was right under their noses.”
“Then why throw me out?”
“Because you had to disappear.”
“Disappear?”
“You were supposed to be taken.”
My blood ran cold.
“By whom?”
Vanessa looked toward the road.
“They're here.”
Black SUVs appeared in the distance.
Arthur shouted,
“Get down!”
Gunfire erupted.
Glass shattered.
Daniel pulled me behind the vehicle.
Vanessa ran.
But before she disappeared, she threw something at me.
A USB drive.
I caught it.
On it was a message.
FOR ELEANOR ONLY.
Arthur forced us into a second vehicle.
We escaped through side streets.
That night, we plugged the drive into an isolated computer.
A video appeared.
Robert.
Alive.
Sitting behind a desk.
My entire body went numb.
He looked older than I remembered.
His eyes were tired.
“Eleanor.”
I cried instantly.
He looked straight into the camera.
“I know what this will do to you.”
He paused.
“I am sorry.”
Then he said the words that shattered my world.
“The man who died in that hospital was not me.”
I covered my mouth.
Robert continued.
“I needed everyone to believe I was dead.”
“Because they were watching you.”
He leaned closer.
“The funeral was real.”
“The grief was real.”
“But my death was staged.”
I stared at the screen.
“Daniel is the true heir.”
He paused.
“And the $28 million is not his.”
“It is yours.”
My tears fell.
“Because you are the only person in this family I can trust.”
Then Robert whispered,
“Eleanor, I am still alive.”
The video ended.
I stared at the black screen.
For forty years, I had believed I knew my husband.
Now I didn't know who I had married.
Then the computer displayed a final line.
MEET ME AT MIDNIGHT.
May you like
And beneath it was an address.
My old family home.
