Chapter 2 - The Woman Who Died
I did not scream.
Shock can be quiet. Mine was so quiet I could hear the bedroom clock ticking above Daniel's breath.
A woman stepped out from behind the coats.
She was thin, maybe thirty-five, with dark blonde hair cut to her shoulders. Her face looked older than the photographs I remembered, but there was no mistaking the sharp Bennett nose or the green stone on her ring.
"Evelyn," I said.
Daniel's first wife.
The woman who had supposedly died in a boating accident six years ago.
Daniel closed his eyes.
Evelyn stared at my belly. "I'm sorry."
I laughed once. It came out broken. "You're sorry?"
I bent to grab the ultrasound, but Daniel moved toward me.
"Don't touch me." I backed away. "You told me she drowned. You took me to the memorial wall. Your mother cried in my arms."
"Claire, listen to me."
"Was there even a body?"
His silence answered me.
Evelyn swallowed. "There wasn't."
My knees went weak.
Daniel reached for my elbow. I slapped his hand away.
"How long has she been in my house?"
"Twenty minutes," he said quickly.
Evelyn looked at him.
That look told me he was lying again.
I grabbed my purse from the chair.
Daniel blocked the door.
"You can't leave yet."
Something cold crawled up my spine. "Move."
"It's not safe."
"For who?"
Evelyn whispered, "For you."
I turned toward her.
She was no longer looking guilty. She looked terrified.
"Claire," she said, "someone has been following you to your doctor's appointments."
I stared at her.
Daniel's phone buzzed on the bed.
He glanced at the screen.
His face went gray.
I lunged first and grabbed it.
One new message.
No name. Just a number.
A photograph filled the screen.
It showed me leaving the clinic forty minutes earlier, one hand on my belly, the ultrasound envelope tucked under my arm.
May you like
Below it were six words:
SHE KNOWS TOO MUCH. FIX IT TODAY.
