Chapter 2
The woman’s name was Claire Morgan.
She had dark hair, a gentle smile, and terrified eyes.
In one photograph, she stood beside Ryan outside a courthouse.
His arm was around her waist.
She wore an engagement ring.
I looked at Robert.
“Ryan was engaged before me?”
Robert lowered his eyes.
“For almost two years.”
“He told me he had never proposed to anyone.”
“He lied.”
My hands trembled as I opened the police report.
Claire had been taken to a hospital after falling down a staircase in Ryan’s apartment.
Ryan told the police she had been drinking.
Claire told a nurse that he had pushed her.
By the time an officer questioned her, she had changed her story.
“She was afraid,” Robert said.
“How do you know?”
“Because she called me.”
The room felt suddenly cold.
Robert moved toward the window.
“She begged me to help her leave Chicago. She believed Ryan would find her if she stayed.”
“And did you help her?”
“Yes.”
“Where is she now?”
“I don’t know.”
I stared at him.
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I gave her money and arranged a place for her to stay. She disappeared three weeks later.”
“Disappeared?”
“She stopped answering calls. Her apartment was empty. The money I gave her was untouched.”
I picked up the letter again.
“If anything happens to me, Ryan Carter did it.”
The words blurred in front of me.
“How long have you had this?”
“Ten years.”
“And you let me marry him?”
Robert’s face tightened.
“I didn’t know about you until Ryan brought you to Thanksgiving dinner. By then, you were already pregnant with Lily.”
“That didn’t stop you from telling me.”
“No.”
His answer came quietly.
“No, it didn’t.”
Anger cut through my fear.
I stood so quickly that the chair scraped backward.
“You watched me build a life with him.”
“I tried to convince myself he had changed.”
“You gambled with my life.”
“Yes.”
“You gambled with Lily’s life.”
Robert’s eyes filled with shame.
“Yes.”
I wanted to scream.
Instead, I grabbed the photographs and shoved them into the envelope.
“I’m leaving.”
“You can’t go home.”
“I’m not going home.”
“Emily, Ryan will be looking for you.”
“He is my husband. He knows every place I might go.”
“That’s why you need to stay here.”
I looked toward the staircase.
Lily was sleeping in a bedroom above us.
For years, I had taught her that this family was safe.
Her father protected us.
Her grandfather loved us.
Now one of those men had hurt me, and the other had hidden the truth.
A phone rang on the table.
It was mine.
Ryan’s name appeared on the screen.
I let it ring.
A message arrived seconds later.
You took my daughter.
Then another.
Bring her home before you make this worse.
Robert reached for the phone.
“Don’t answer.”
I pulled it away.
“I decide what happens now.”
The phone rang again.
This time, I answered.
Ryan spoke before I could say anything.
“Where is Lily?”
“She’s safe.”
“You kidnapped my daughter.”
“I’m her mother.”
“And I’m her father.”
His voice was calm.
Too calm.
That was when Ryan was most dangerous.
“Bring her home, Emily.”
“No.”
“You’re upset. I understand that.”
“You hit me.”
“You were hysterical.”
“You pushed my head toward a sink while our child watched.”
There was a pause.
Then he sighed.
“You know how emotional you get.”
I almost laughed.
Even now, he was rewriting what happened.
“You’re not coming near Lily.”
“That isn’t your decision.”
“Yes, it is.”
“You have no job. No house. No money of your own. If you start a custody fight, what exactly do you think will happen?”
Robert stepped closer, but I raised one hand.
I needed to hear this.
Ryan continued.
“My attorney is already preparing an emergency petition. I’ll tell the judge you took Lily during a mental breakdown.”
“You think people will believe that?”
“I think people believe evidence.”
“What evidence?”
“The medical records from your anxiety treatment. The prescriptions. The night you went to the emergency room because you thought you were dying.”
“That was a panic attack.”
“Exactly.”
My stomach turned.
He had been collecting pieces of my weakest moments.
“Ryan, if you come near us, I’m calling the police.”
“For what? A disagreement between spouses?”
“For assault.”
His calm voice disappeared.
“You’d better think very carefully before you destroy this family.”
“You destroyed it.”
“No, Emily. You did that when you called my father.”
“I didn’t call him.”
Silence.
Then his breathing changed.
“Lily called him?”
“Yes.”
The line remained quiet for several seconds.
When Ryan spoke again, his voice sounded colder than before.
“Put her on the phone.”
“No.”
“I said put my daughter on the phone.”
“And I said no.”
He lowered his voice.
“Ask her what she took from my office.”
I froze.
“What?”
“Ask Lily what she took.”
The call ended.
Robert stared at me.
“What did he say?”
Before I could answer, a small voice came from the stairs.
“I didn’t mean to steal it.”
Lily stood in her pajamas, clutching the railing.
I hurried to her.
“What did you take, sweetheart?”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“Daddy caught me listening.”
“Listening to what?”
“He was talking to Grandma.”
Ryan’s mother, Diane, lived twenty minutes away.
She had always treated me like an unwanted guest in my own marriage.
“What did they say?”
Lily looked at Robert.
“They said Grandpa would be gone soon.”
Robert went still.
“Gone where?”
“I don’t know.”
She reached inside her pajama pocket and pulled out a small brass key.
“I found this after Daddy left his office. He came back and started looking for it.”
Robert took the key.
Stamped into the metal were three numbers.
317.
“I’ve seen this kind of key,” one of the security men said. “It belongs to a storage facility.”
Robert examined it under the light.
“Which facility?”
“There are dozens around Chicago.”
Lily wiped her eyes.
“There was a green building on Daddy’s computer.”
I knelt in front of her.
“Did you see a name?”
She shook her head.
“It had a tree on the sign.”
Robert looked at his security chief.
“Green building. Tree logo. Unit 317. Find it.”
The man left the room immediately.
I held Lily against me.
“You were very brave, but you must never go into Daddy’s office again.”
“I was scared.”
“I know.”
“He said you were going to disappear.”
Every sound in the room seemed to stop.
I pulled back.
“What exactly did he say?”
Lily swallowed.
“Grandma asked what would happen to me after you disappeared.”
Robert’s face drained of color.
“What did Ryan answer?”
Lily looked down.
“He said I would learn to forget you.”
The front windows suddenly exploded with light.
A car had stopped outside the gates.
Then someone began pounding on the metal.
“Emily!” Ryan shouted from the driveway. “Bring me my daughter!”
The security men moved toward the entrance.
Robert turned to me.
“Take Lily upstairs.”
But before I could move, Ryan yelled again.
“I know about the letter, Dad!”
Robert froze.
May you like
Ryan’s next words carried through the night.
“And if Emily reads the second one, this family is finished.”
