Chapter 2 - The Woman Who Was Dead
Daniel slammed both palms against the steel door.
“Sarah?”
For three years, he had refused to say his wife’s name out loud unless Lily asked about her. Sarah Mercer had vanished after driving to a charity meeting on a stormy October night. Her SUV was found near the river with blood on the steering wheel. No body. Six months later, a judge declared her legally dead.
Now something scraped behind the wall.
“Daniel… please.”
Lily began crying. “Mommy?”
Vanessa bolted.
Daniel caught her at the doorway and grabbed her wrist.
“What’s the code?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He pulled her back toward the keypad. “You knew that door was there.”
“You’re hurting me.”
“What’s the code?”
Lily suddenly yelled, “Four-one-eight-six!”
Both adults stared at her.
“I saw Vanessa type it yesterday,” Lily said. “She thought I was asleep.”
Vanessa lunged for the keypad, but Daniel blocked her. He entered 4-1-8-6.
A green light blinked.
The lock released with a heavy metallic click.
Daniel pulled the door open.
The smell hit first: stale air, sweat, antiseptic, damp concrete.
A narrow stairway descended into darkness.
“Stay behind me,” he told Lily.
Vanessa whispered, “Daniel, you don’t understand.”
“No. I understand enough.”
He switched on his phone flashlight and went down.
At the bottom was an old service room barely wider than a walk-in closet. A cot sat against the wall. Plastic water bottles. Protein bars. A bucket. A battery lantern.
And on the floor beside the cot lay a thin woman with tangled blond hair.
Daniel stopped breathing.
Sarah lifted her face.
She looked older. Bruises covered one cheek. Her lips were cracked. But her gray-blue eyes were exactly the same.
Lily pushed past Daniel.
“Mommy!”
Sarah made a sound somewhere between a sob and a laugh.
“My baby.”
Daniel dropped beside her. “Sarah, how—who did this?”
Her gaze moved past him toward the stairs.
Vanessa stood above them.
Sarah’s body went rigid.
“She did.”
Vanessa shook her head. “That is not what happened.”
Sarah clutched Daniel’s sleeve.
“Don’t let her leave.”
Then a sharp electronic beep sounded from somewhere in the dark room.
May you like
Sarah’s eyes widened.
“Oh God,” she whispered. “She already called him.”
