Chapter 2 - The Woman in the PhotographMason didn't sleep.
Neither did Emma.
By midnight, the mansion had emptied.
The guests were gone.
The musicians had packed up.
The champagne glasses sat abandoned beneath the chandelier like evidence at a crime scene.
Vanessa had locked herself inside the master bedroom.
Mason stood in his study, staring at the photograph on his desk.
Six years earlier.
The picture showed Vanessa at a charity gala.
Next to her stood a man Emma didn't recognize.
Dark suit.
Silver watch.
Cold smile.
Mason's attorney, Thomas Reed, had sent him the photograph minutes earlier.
There was a message attached.
You should know who this is.
Mason called immediately.
“Thomas, who is he?”
“Adrian Cross.”
Mason's expression changed.
“That's impossible.”
“You know the name?”
“Everyone in business knows it.”
Adrian Cross had been a financial consultant before disappearing from the public eye.
He had helped wealthy families hide assets.
Move money.
Manipulate trusts.
And destroy evidence.
Six years earlier, Mason had almost hired him.
Then he learned Adrian had been investigated for fraud.
Mason had walked away.
“Why was he with Vanessa?” Mason asked.
Thomas sighed.
“That's the problem.”
“What problem?”
“I found something else.”
A file was delivered to Mason's email.
He opened it.
It contained bank transfers.
Multiple transfers.
Vanessa had been sending money to an offshore account for three years.
Mason stared at the numbers.
Almost $2.4 million.
He checked the dates.
The payments had begun months after Adrian vanished.
He leaned back.
“No.”
Thomas spoke quietly.
“You need to hear the rest.”
Mason waited.
“Some of those payments came from an account connected to one of your companies.”
Mason stood.
“What?”
“Your company didn't authorize them.”
“Then who did?”
Thomas hesitated.
“Someone using your wife's private authorization.”
Mason's jaw tightened.
He left the study.
As he walked down the corridor, he noticed Emma cleaning the ballroom alone.
She was picking up broken champagne glasses.
“You should be asleep,” he said.
“So should you.”
Mason almost smiled.
“Do you know what happened six years ago?”
Emma stopped.
Her fingers tightened around the towel.
“No.”
It was a lie.
Mason noticed.
“You do.”
Emma lowered her eyes.
“I know something happened.”
“What?”
She didn't answer.
Mason stepped closer.
“Emma, someone tried to frame you tonight. I need to know whether this has anything to do with my wife.”
Emma looked at him.
For several seconds, she said nothing.
Then:
“Do you remember the apartment fire on Bellmont Street?”
Mason's face went still.
“Yes.”
“My sister lived there.”
His eyes widened.
“She died in that fire.”
Mason remembered the news.
Three people had died.
The official report blamed faulty wiring.
Emma swallowed.
“But the wiring wasn't faulty.”
Mason stared at her.
“How do you know?”
“Because my sister called me before the fire.”
Emma's voice trembled slightly.
“She told me someone had broken into her apartment. She said she found documents in her kitchen that weren't hers.”
“What documents?”
“I don't know.”
“What happened next?”
“She never called again.”
Mason looked at her carefully.
“What does that have to do with Vanessa?”
Emma's eyes met his.
“My sister worked for Adrian Cross.”
Silence.
Somewhere upstairs, a door slammed.
Emma continued.
“After my sister died, I tried to find out who she was working for. Every trail disappeared.”
Mason whispered, “And you became our maid.”
“I needed access.”
Mason stepped back.
“You were investigating us?”
“I was investigating your wife.”
Before he could respond, they heard footsteps.
Lily appeared at the end of the hallway.
She was holding her stuffed elephant.
“Emma?”
“Yes?”
Lily walked toward her.
Then she whispered:
“Daddy doesn't know the secret room.”
Mason frowned.
“What secret room?”
Lily looked toward Vanessa's bedroom.
“The one Mommy told me never to open.”
Mason and Emma exchanged a glance.
Lily continued.
“It has a red door.”
Mason stared toward the staircase.
There was no red door in the mansion's floor plan.
He knew every room.
Or he thought he did.
“Where is it?” he asked.
Lily pointed upstairs.
“Behind Mommy's closet.”
Emma's heart began pounding.
Mason started walking.
Behind him, Emma followed.
Neither noticed Vanessa standing silently at the top of the staircase.
Watching.
May you like
Listening.
And holding a key.
