Chapter 3 - Daniel’s First Daughter Never Left
Victoria sat down against the hallway wall.
Daniel remained standing.
Grace held Sophie while the baby slowly calmed.
“Tell me why Emily’s bracelet is in our wall.”
Victoria shook her head.
“It isn’t what you think.”
Daniel’s voice sharpened.
“Stop saying that.”
Eleven years earlier, Daniel had been married to a woman named Rachel Carter.
Their daughter Emily was born prematurely.
According to Daniel, Emily survived only nine days.
Rachel never recovered emotionally from the loss.
Their marriage collapsed two years later.
Rachel disappeared from Daniel’s life.
Grace looked at the bracelet.
“Did you see Emily after she died?”
Daniel hesitated.
“No.”
Rachel had handled the hospital arrangements.
Daniel had been overseas when Emily’s condition suddenly worsened.
By the time he returned, he was told the baby had died and been cremated.
He received an urn.
A death certificate.
Hospital records.
He believed them.
Victoria had entered his life years later.
Grace looked at her.
“How do you know about Emily?”
Victoria said nothing.
Daniel crouched beside her.
“How?”
Victoria whispered:
“Because Rachel told me.”
Daniel went still.
“You knew Rachel?”
Victoria nodded.
Before marrying Daniel, Victoria had worked for a private family office.
Rachel contacted that office seeking help with money and identity documents.
Victoria was assigned to the case.
Daniel stared at her as though she had become a stranger.
“You met me because of Rachel?”
“No.”
“Did you know who I was before we met?”
“Yes.”
That answer changed the room.
Victoria insisted she had genuinely fallen in love with him.
But she had hidden her connection to Rachel because she feared Daniel would think the relationship was manipulation.
Grace looked toward the secret compartment.
“What does any of that have to do with Sophie?”
Victoria began crying.
Rachel had contacted her again eight months earlier.
She claimed Emily had never died.
Daniel stood so quickly that the floorboards creaked.
“No.”
Victoria said Rachel had switched the baby’s identity after birth.
Emily survived.
Another premature infant had died.
Rachel used falsified records to disappear with Daniel’s daughter.
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
Victoria said Rachel refused to reveal Emily’s location.
Instead, she demanded money.
Millions.
She threatened to expose Victoria’s old role in helping create the false identity documents.
Daniel looked sick.
“You paid her?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“Three point four million.”
Grace stared.
The lockbox suddenly made sense as a place for evidence.
But not Sophie.
Daniel demanded the code.
Victoria refused.
Grace looked at the hospital bracelet.
Four digits were printed beneath Emily’s name.
0714.
Daniel entered them.
The lock clicked.
Inside were photographs.
Bank receipts.
A flash drive.
And a recent picture of a teenage girl standing outside a high school.
On the back:
EMILY — AGE 11.
Daniel sat down.
May you like
His daughter was alive.
And someone had been watching her.
