Chapter 4 - The Letter That Never Came
Ethan didn't speak for the first ten minutes after finding the photograph.
He just stood in the middle of the bedroom with the picture in his hand.
Claire could see the exact moment grief became rage.
"You said Mara sent you a letter ending things," she said.
He nodded.
"Do you still have it?"
"Somewhere in my father's papers."
"Then we compare the handwriting."
Ethan looked at the message on the photograph again.
"Vanessa wrote this. I know her handwriting."
"Then maybe she wrote Mara's letter too."
He closed his eyes.
"Claire, if Mara was pregnant..."
"Then the girl by the river could be yours."
The sentence landed between them like broken glass.
Ethan's phone rang.
Vanessa.
He answered on speaker.
"Where are you?" she demanded.
"Blackwood."
Silence.
Then, very softly, "You need to leave."
Claire leaned closer.
"Why? Afraid we'll find something?"
Vanessa ignored her.
"Ethan, listen to me. Your father closed that place for a reason."
"My father is dead. You don't get to hide behind him."
"You don't understand what Mara did."
Ethan's face sharpened.
"Tell me."
"Not over the phone."
"Then come here."
"No."
"Because Claire's alive?"
A pause.
Then Vanessa said, "You think I pushed her?"
"I think you're lying about a lot more than that."
The line went dead.
Claire looked toward the hall.
"She's scared."
"Good."
They searched the room.
In the closet, behind a loose panel, Claire found a metal lockbox.
Ethan broke the rusted latch with a fireplace poker.
Inside were old envelopes, medical receipts, and a birth certificate.
The child's name was Emma Rose Ellis.
Date of birth: seven years, nine months earlier.
Father: blank.
Mother: Mara Ellis.
Claire's fingers trembled.
There was also a sealed envelope addressed to Ethan.
His name was written in Mara's handwriting.
Not Vanessa's.
Ethan tore it open.
The letter inside was dated eight years ago.
Ethan,
I don't know if your father will ever let this reach you. I am pregnant. I didn't leave because I stopped loving you. I left because someone threatened my family. If you get this, please come for me.
Ethan stopped reading.
His hand shook.
At the bottom, another line had been added in darker ink.
If anything happens to me, Vanessa knows why.
A car engine roared outside.
Claire moved to the window.
A black sedan tore away through the trees.
Then she smelled smoke.
Ethan turned.
Orange light flashed under the bedroom door.
May you like
Someone had set the cottage on fire.
