Chapter 2 - The Wife No One Knew
Nathan read the sentence twice.
Then a third time.
"Wife?"
Grace pushed herself upright against the kitchen island, keeping Lily behind her. "Yes."
Victoria stepped between them. "This is insane. Ethan never married anyone. Your family would have known."
Grace looked at her. "Your family knew."
Nathan's head snapped toward Victoria.
She recovered quickly. "She's lying."
"Stop." Nathan's voice was quiet, but the room obeyed it. He held up the photograph. "Grace, tell me exactly what this is."
Grace looked exhausted rather than triumphant. "Ethan and I married at the Cook County courthouse six weeks before he died. We planned to tell everyone after he came back from Denver."
Nathan remembered Denver. Ethan had supposedly gone there for a climbing weekend. His rental car had gone through a guardrail in the mountains before he ever reached the trail.
"And Lily?"
Grace's eyes shone. "His daughter."
Nathan looked at the little girl hiding behind her mother's skirt.
Ethan's eyes stared back at him.
The same pale green. The same slight crease at the outer corners.
Nathan sat down hard on a barstool.
"Why didn't you come to us?"
Grace's expression changed. "I did."
Victoria folded her arms. "Here we go."
"I sent letters. I called. I came to this house twice." Grace pointed toward the foyer. "The second time, Victoria met me outside."
Nathan looked at his fiancee.
Victoria laughed in disbelief. "I had barely met your family then."
"You knew exactly who I was," Grace said. "You told me Ethan had left debts. You said if I made a claim against the estate, the Coles would bury me in court and take my baby."
Nathan rose slowly.
"Did you say that?"
"No."
Grace reached into her apron pocket and pulled out an old phone wrapped in a plastic bag.
"I kept one message."
Victoria's confidence cracked for the first time.
Grace pressed play.
Static filled the kitchen.
Then a younger Victoria's voice came through the speaker.
"Take the money, Grace. Leave Chicago, and never use the Cole name again. If you come back, I promise you'll lose more than Ethan."
Nathan stared at Victoria.
But Grace wasn't finished.
"That message is why I left," she said. "What brought me back is worse."
She reached beneath her collar and pulled out a small brass key.
"Three months ago, Ethan's lawyer died. Before he died, he mailed me this."
Nathan's eyes narrowed.
"A key to what?"
May you like
Grace looked toward the dark hallway leading to Nathan's study.
"Something your brother hid in this house before he died."
