Chapter 1 - Blood at the Dinner Table
The first plate hit the floor before Lauren Carter understood why her husband was standing in the dining room covered in blood.
Michael didn’t speak.
He just stood beside the tall windows with rain running off his dark jacket, one hand hanging at his side, his chest soaked red.
Blood streaked his cheek. His neck. His shirt.
Lauren’s mother-in-law, Margaret, pressed both hands to her chest.
“Oh my God… Michael.”
Robert Carter shoved back from the table so hard his chair nearly fell.
“What happened to you?”
Michael opened his mouth.
Nothing came out.
Lauren felt the room tilt.
She was still wearing the emerald-green dress she had picked for their tenth anniversary dinner. An hour ago she had been angry because Emily was late.
Now she was terrified because her twenty-year-old daughter was not answering her phone.
“Michael?” Lauren whispered.
He finally looked at her.
That frightened her more than the blood.
He didn’t look guilty.
He looked destroyed.
“Where’s Emily?”
His eyes dropped.
Lauren stood so fast her chair slammed backward.
“Where is my daughter?”
“Lauren—”
“WHERE IS EMILY?”
Her scream cracked through the room.
Michael swallowed hard. “I found her car.”
“What do you mean you found her car?”
“Mill Creek Road. Near the old quarry turnoff.”
Margaret shook her head. “No. She called me less than an hour ago. She said she was coming here.”
“I know.”
Michael’s voice broke.
“There was blood inside.”
Lauren crossed the room and grabbed his jacket.
“Whose blood is that?”
He didn’t answer.
“Michael!”
“It’s not mine.”
Lauren let go as if he had burned her.
A wineglass slipped from Robert’s hand and shattered.
Michael’s younger brother, Daniel, had been standing near the doorway the entire time.
Too quiet.
Too pale.
Then he said, “Call the police.”
Michael looked at him.
Just one glance.
But Lauren saw it.
A message passed between the brothers without a word.
“You already called them, didn’t you?” Lauren asked.
Michael said nothing.
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
Lauren turned slowly. “Daniel?”
Headlights swept across the windows.
One pair.
Then another.
Then another.
Three police cruisers rolled into the driveway, followed by an ambulance.
Margaret began to cry.
Michael stepped toward Lauren.
“Whatever happens next, you need to understand—”
BANG. BANG. BANG.
“POLICE! OPEN THE DOOR!”
Nobody moved.
Then Margaret looked down at Michael’s bloody hands.
Her fear changed.
Into recognition.
“You went back there,” she whispered.
Robert turned toward her. “Back where?”
Michael’s face hardened. “Mom, don’t.”
“You promised me you would never go back.”
Lauren stared at them. “What is she talking about?”
Margaret pointed at her son.
“Tell them.”
“Mom.”
“Tell your wife why Emily called me tonight.”
Lauren’s heart stopped.
“What did Emily tell you?”
Margaret looked at her.
“She said she finally knew what happened to Hannah.”
The room went silent.
Hannah.
Lauren’s oldest daughter.
Missing nine years.
No body. No arrest. No goodbye.
Just an abandoned purse beside Highway 17.
Lauren whispered, “What does Hannah have to do with this?”
Margaret looked toward Michael.
“Everything.”
The front door crashed open.
Officers rushed into the hall.
“Michael Carter! Hands where we can see them!”
Michael lifted his hands.
Blood dripped from his fingers.
Lauren could barely breathe.
“Where is Emily?”
Michael looked directly at her.
“She’s alive.”
Lauren froze.
“But somebody else isn’t.”
“Who?” Robert asked.
Michael looked at Daniel.
Daniel’s face collapsed.
Then a detective entered carrying a clear evidence bag.
Inside was a blood-covered silver necklace.
Lauren knew it instantly.
She had bought it for Hannah’s eighteenth birthday.
The detective looked at Michael.
“We found this tonight.”
Then he turned toward Daniel.
“Inside a locked room beneath your house.”
Daniel went white.
And Lauren understood one horrible thing.
The blood covering Michael was not the most terrifying thing in that room.
May you like
The secret between the brothers was.
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