Chapter 2 - The Woman in the SafeI didn't sleep that night.
I didn't even leave the kitchen.
By midnight, Grace had been taken to a private hospital under an assumed name, while Lily sat across from me at the dining table, hugging a stuffed rabbit she had apparently carried everywhere since infancy.
I couldn't stop looking at her.
There were little things.
The shape of her eyebrows.
The slight dimple beneath her left cheek.
The way she tilted her head when she listened.
They all reminded me of Emily.
My sister used to make that exact expression when she suspected someone was lying.
I had spent eight months mourning a dead woman.
Now I was beginning to realize I'd never actually buried her.
I'd buried a coffin.
That was very different.
Victoria hadn't spoken since the phone call.
She sat in the living room with her arms folded, watching me from across the darkness.
“You're making a mistake,” she finally said.
I looked at her.
“Which part?”
“Believing a traumatized child.”
“She knew my name.”
“She heard it from someone.”
“She called me Daddy.”
Victoria looked away.
That hesitation again.
I noticed every movement now.
Every breath.
Every blink.
“Why would Lily think I'm her father?”
“She’s four, Nathan.”
“That's not an answer.”
“She barely understands what marriage is.”
“Neither does she need to understand it to know who her father is.”
Victoria stood.
“You're exhausted.”
“I want the truth.”
“You're not thinking clearly.”
“I want the truth.”
She stared at me for several seconds.
Then she smiled.
Not warmly.
Not lovingly.
It was the smile of someone who had just realized the game had changed.
“I think you're going to regret this.”
She walked upstairs.
I waited until I heard the bedroom door close.
Then I went to the office.
The safe was behind a framed photograph of our wedding.
I entered the code.
It didn't work.
I tried again.
Nothing.
Victoria had changed it.
That was impossible.
She had never touched the safe.
At least, that's what she had always told me.
I called my head of security, Marcus.
“Did you change the office safe code?”
“No, sir.”
“Did Victoria request access?”
A pause.
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Three months ago.”
My grip tightened around the phone.
“Why?”
“She said you authorized it.”
“I didn't.”
Marcus went silent.
Then he asked:
“Sir… should I tell you what else?”
“Yes.”
“The safe was opened six times in the last two months.”
“By whom?”
“We don't have biometric records. The system was disabled each time.”
My blood ran cold.
Someone had deliberately bypassed my security.
And they'd done it inside my own home.
I entered the office again.
Something felt wrong.
I looked at the wedding photograph.
Then I noticed the frame was crooked.
I moved it.
There was a narrow panel behind it.
Hidden compartment.
My pulse accelerated.
Inside was a single black envelope.
No name.
No return address.
I opened it.
Photographs slid onto the desk.
Emily.
Alive.
Pregnant.
Standing outside a hospital.
Then another photograph.
Emily holding a newborn baby.
And another.
Emily standing beside Ryan.
The final photograph showed Lily as an infant.
On the back, written in Emily's handwriting, were seven words:
Nathan, if you're reading this, I'm already gone.
I turned the photograph over again.
There was a second line.
Trust no one in your house.
I heard footsteps behind me.
I spun around.
Victoria stood in the doorway.
Her eyes were fixed on the photographs.
She didn't look surprised.
She looked defeated.
“You weren't supposed to find those.”
I slowly reached for my phone.
“Where is Emily?”
Victoria closed her eyes.
“I don't know.”
“That's a lie.”
She whispered:
“She was alive when we found her.”
The room tilted.
“When?”
“Eight months ago.”
“Who is ‘we’?”
Victoria looked directly into my eyes.
“Your brother-in-law.”
Ryan.
My dead sister’s husband.
The man who had supposedly spent months grieving beside her grave.
May you like
Victoria's voice dropped to a whisper.
“And he wasn't alone.”
