CHAPTER 3 — THE VOICE OF THE DEAD
The voice coming from the cassette seemed to freeze the entire ballroom.
No one moved.
No one breathed.
Eleanor stared at the small tape in Victoria's hand.
She knew that voice.
She had heard it every morning for twenty-nine years.
She had heard it whisper her name in the dark.
She had heard it say goodbye at the hospital.
She had heard it in the last phone call before his death.
Richard Whitmore.
Her husband.
Dead for twenty-seven years.
Yet his voice had just spoken from an old cassette.
"Eleanor... if you're hearing this, it means Rose has finally come home."
Emily's fingers went numb.
She looked at Eleanor.
"Rose?"
Eleanor's lips trembled.
"That's my birth name."
Emily swallowed.
She still couldn't understand how a single evening had destroyed every certainty she'd ever had.
Her parents were no longer her parents.
The family she had been preparing to marry into was somehow connected to her birth.
And now a dead man was speaking about her return.
Daniel stepped closer to her.
"Stay behind me."
Emily looked at him.
"You don't have to protect me."
"I know."
His voice was quiet.
"But I want to."
Their eyes met.
For one brief second, the chaos around them disappeared.
Then Eleanor shouted:
"Play it."
Victoria looked at her.
"Are you sure?"
"Play it."
Victoria inserted the cassette into an old portable recorder.
Click.
Static filled the ballroom.
Then Richard's voice returned.
"Eleanor, if you're hearing this, something has gone terribly wrong."
Eleanor's hand flew to her mouth.
The voice sounded older than she remembered.
Tired.
Afraid.
"I don't know how much time I have left. There are people watching me. I cannot trust the police. I cannot trust our friends. And most importantly..."
The recording crackled.
"...you cannot trust the people closest to you."
A murmur moved through the ballroom.
Victoria's expression remained unreadable.
Richard continued.
"Rose is alive."
Eleanor closed her eyes.
A tear rolled down her cheek.
"I found her."
Emily's heart stopped.
Richard continued.
"She was taken from the house that night. But Margaret did not take her."
Emily whispered:
"I knew it."
Daniel looked at her.
Richard's voice became quieter.
"Someone used Margaret as a cover. They wanted you to believe she had stolen Rose. They wanted you to hate her."
Emily's eyes filled with tears.
"My mother..."
Richard continued.
"Margaret was trying to protect Rose."
The ballroom went silent.
Eleanor whispered:
"Protect her from whom?"
The recording answered.
"From us."
Eleanor's eyes opened.
"What?"
Richard continued.
"I discovered something about the Whitmore family."
Static.
Then:
"Something Eleanor must never know until Rose is safe."
Eleanor looked at Victoria.
Victoria's face had become pale.
"What did he discover?" Daniel demanded.
Victoria didn't answer.
The tape continued.
"Twenty-eight years ago, someone inside this family arranged for Rose to disappear."
Eleanor staggered.
"Who?"
Richard's voice continued.
"I found evidence."
A long pause.
Then:
"The person responsible was..."
The tape suddenly screeched.
Static exploded from the recorder.
Victoria immediately switched it off.
"No."
Eleanor turned toward her.
"Turn it back on."
Victoria shook her head.
"That's all there is."
"Liar!"
Eleanor lunged toward her.
Daniel caught his mother before she reached Victoria.
"Mother!"
"She stopped it!"
Victoria stepped backward.
"The tape is damaged."
"Then fix it!"
"I can't."
"You've had it for twenty-seven years!"
Victoria's expression hardened.
"And you think I haven't tried?"
Eleanor froze.
Victoria's voice cracked.
"I was there when Richard died."
The room became still.
"What?"
Victoria looked at Eleanor.
"He gave me the tape himself."
Eleanor stared.
"He knew he was dying?"
"Yes."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because he made me promise."
"Promise what?"
Victoria looked toward Emily.
"That I would protect Rose."
Emily stepped forward.
"You knew where I was?"
Victoria nodded.
"For twenty-seven years."
Emily's eyes widened.
"You knew I was alive?"
"Yes."
"Then why didn't you tell my mother?"
Victoria's eyes filled with tears.
"Because I was afraid."
"Of what?"
Victoria looked at Eleanor.
"Of the person who had already taken your daughter once."
Emily's voice became quieter.
"Who?"
Victoria didn't answer.
Eleanor suddenly noticed something.
"Victoria."
Her voice was cold.
"You said you were protecting Rose."
"Yes."
"Then why did you bring her here?"
Victoria looked at Emily.
"Because she was already in danger."
Daniel immediately turned.
"What kind of danger?"
Victoria hesitated.
"Someone knows she is alive."
Emily's stomach dropped.
"Who?"
Victoria looked toward the guests.
"I don't know."
Daniel scanned the ballroom.
"You're telling us someone knew Emily was coming here?"
"No."
Victoria shook her head.
"Someone knew she was coming into this family."
Daniel frowned.
"What's the difference?"
Victoria's answer was chilling.
"They didn't want her to marry you."
Everyone fell silent.
Emily stared at her.
"Why?"
Victoria looked at Eleanor.
"Because your marriage would have triggered the inheritance clause."
Daniel's face changed.
"What inheritance clause?"
Eleanor's expression suddenly hardened.
"Victoria."
"You didn't tell him?"
"Tell me what?"
Victoria sighed.
"The Whitmore family fortune isn't entirely yours."
Daniel looked at his mother.
"What does that mean?"
"It means," Victoria continued, "that Richard left a condition in his will."
Eleanor shook her head.
"Richard's will was settled decades ago."
"Not all of it."
Victoria reached into her handbag again.
This time she pulled out a folded legal document.
"Richard created a separate trust."
Daniel took it.
He scanned the first page.
Then his eyes widened.
"The Rose Whitmore Trust."
Emily stared.
"What is that?"
Victoria answered.
"Your father left half of the family fortune to you."
Emily shook her head.
"I don't want their money."
"It's not about money."
Victoria's voice became serious.
"The trust contains something much more valuable."
"What?"
"The evidence Richard collected before his death."
Eleanor's face went white.
"What evidence?"
Victoria looked at her.
"The identity of the person who ordered Rose's disappearance."
The room erupted with whispers.
Daniel looked at Emily.
"Then why didn't the trust open when she turned eighteen?"
"It wasn't designed to."
Victoria shook her head.
"It only activates when Rose legally enters the Whitmore family."
Emily's blood ran cold.
"Marriage."
Victoria nodded.
"Exactly."
Daniel slowly understood.
"That's why..."
He looked at the ruined wedding dress.
"...someone wanted this wedding stopped."
Victoria's eyes moved toward Eleanor.
"Not just Eleanor."
Eleanor stiffened.
"What are you saying?"
"I was saying the wrong person tried to destroy this wedding."
Daniel stared.
"Then who?"
Victoria didn't answer.
Instead, a loud sound echoed from the ballroom ceiling.
CRACK.
Everyone looked up.
One of the chandeliers flickered.
Then another.
The lights went out.
The ballroom plunged into darkness.
Women screamed.
Someone knocked over a table.
Daniel grabbed Emily's hand.
"Don't move."
"I can't see."
"I'm here."
A few seconds passed.
Then the emergency lights came on.
Dim red lights illuminated the ballroom.
Emily looked down.
Her hand was still in Daniel's.
Neither of them let go.
Then Emily noticed something.
There was blood on Daniel's sleeve.
"You're hurt."
Daniel looked down.
A thin cut ran across his arm.
"I don't know when that happened."
Arthur suddenly shouted.
"Where's Victoria?"
Everyone turned.
She was gone.
The doors were still locked.
Daniel ran toward them.
"How did she get out?"
Arthur pointed toward the stage.
"There!"
A small service door stood open behind the curtains.
Daniel rushed toward it.
Eleanor followed.
Emily hesitated.
Then she heard something.
A whisper.
Right behind her.
"Rose."
Emily spun around.
Nobody stood there.
But something had been placed on the floor.
A photograph.
She picked it up.
It showed a little girl standing beside a woman.
Emily recognized the little girl immediately.
It was her.
Perhaps four years old.
But the woman beside her wasn't Margaret.
It wasn't Eleanor.
It was Victoria.
Emily's hands began shaking.
On the back of the photograph was a handwritten sentence.
SHE DIDN'T SAVE YOU. SHE TOOK YOU.
Emily stared at the words.
Then another sentence appeared beneath it.
ASK HER WHAT HAPPENED ON THE NIGHT YOUR MOTHER DIED.
Emily's heart stopped.
Her mother had died when Emily was nineteen.
The official story had always been that Margaret suffered a heart attack.
But suddenly Emily remembered something.
The night before Margaret died, she had said something strange.
"Never trust the woman with the blue ring."
Emily had never understood it.
Until now.
She looked at the photograph again.
Victoria was wearing a blue ring.
A sound came from behind her.
Footsteps.
Emily turned.
A man stood at the end of the hallway.
Black suit.
Hat pulled low.
Face hidden in shadow.
Emily froze.
"Who are you?"
The man didn't answer.
He slowly raised one hand.
In his fingers was another jade pendant.
Identical to Emily's.
Except this one had a crack running through the center.
The man whispered:
"Your mother wasn't the first person they killed."
Emily's blood turned cold.
"Who was?"
The man stepped into the light.
Emily's eyes widened.
She knew him.
Everyone in the Whitmore family knew him.
Because his portrait hung in the mansion.
Richard Whitmore.
Her father.
The dead man.
Emily stumbled backward.
"No..."
The man smiled.
Then whispered:
May you like
"Run, Rose."
And the lights went out again.
