Chapter 3 - Blackwood Cottage
Ethan wanted Claire to stay in the hospital another night.
Claire wanted answers.
By noon the next day, she had signed herself out against medical advice and was sitting in the passenger seat of Ethan's SUV with a rib wrap under her sweater and anger keeping her upright.
"This is a terrible idea," Ethan said.
"So was marrying into your family. I survived that."
For the first time since the waterfall, he almost smiled.
Then the gates of Blackwood Cottage appeared through the trees.
The smile disappeared.
The iron chain across the drive had been cut.
Freshly.
Ethan stopped the SUV.
"Stay here."
Claire looked at him.
"You know that's not happening."
They walked the last hundred yards.
The cottage was larger than Claire remembered. Two stories of weathered stone, green shutters, and a chimney blackened by years of neglect.
The front door stood open.
Inside, dust covered the floor.
Except for one path of small footprints.
Claire pointed.
"That's a child."
Ethan's jaw tightened.
The prints led down a hallway to what had once been a kitchen.
There were fresh apples on the counter.
A carton of milk in a cooler.
A child's drawing taped to the wall.
Claire stepped closer.
It showed three stick figures holding hands.
One woman had brown hair.
One man was labeled DAD.
The little girl stood between them.
Underneath, in uneven letters, someone had written:
WHEN HE FINDS ME.
Ethan made a sound Claire had never heard from him.
Not a word. Not quite a breath.
He touched the paper like it might burn him.
"Someone has been keeping her here," Claire said.
A floorboard creaked upstairs.
Ethan moved in front of Claire.
"Who's there?"
No answer.
They climbed slowly.
At the top of the stairs, one bedroom door swung shut.
Ethan rushed forward and threw it open.
Empty.
The window was open.
Curtains snapped in the wind.
Claire crossed to it and looked down.
A rope ladder hung against the back wall.
Someone had just escaped.
Then Ethan noticed the bed.
Under the pillow was a photograph.
He picked it up.
Mara Ellis stood in front of the waterfall eight years earlier, smiling into the camera.
Her hand rested on her stomach.
She was pregnant.
On the back, in Vanessa's handwriting, were six words.
May you like
HE MUST NEVER KNOW SHE LIVED.
