Chapter 2 - The Shadow Behind The Window
Daniel Mercer looked up at the second-floor window and felt the anger inside him change shape.
A figure stood behind the glass.
Motionless.
Watching.
Then the curtains snapped shut.
Daniel scooped Noah into his arms.
“Stay with me, buddy.”
Noah buried his face against his father’s neck.
Behind them, Rachel climbed from the pool, coughing and dragging the soaked skirt of her silver evening gown across the stone patio.
“Daniel, listen to me.”
He didn’t look at her.
“Who’s upstairs?”
Rachel stopped.
“I don’t know.”
“You looked like you knew.”
“I was surprised.”
“No.”
Daniel finally turned.
“You were scared.”
Rachel wrapped both arms around herself.
The late-September air outside the Virginia mansion wasn’t particularly cold, but she was trembling.
Daniel had known Rachel Whitmore for eleven months.
They had been engaged for six weeks.
He knew her annoyed face.
Her embarrassed face.
Her angry face.
This was none of them.
This was fear.
Noah whimpered.
Daniel touched the red mark on his son’s cheek with two fingers.
The toddler flinched.
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
Whatever mystery waited upstairs could wait another sixty seconds.
He looked at Rachel.
“Did you slap him?”
Rachel’s mouth opened.
“Daniel—”
“Yes or no.”
“He kept screaming.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Rachel stared at the patio stones.
“Yes.”
The word landed harder than Daniel expected.
He stepped backward, putting more distance between them.
“You will not touch him again.”
“I know. I lost my temper.”
“He’s two.”
“I said I know.”
“You hit a two-year-old because he cried.”
Rachel began crying herself.
“I panicked.”
“About what?”
Her eyes moved toward the upstairs window.
Daniel saw it.
Again.
He looked toward the mansion.
The property belonged to his father, Charles Mercer, who had invited nearly forty people for a private dinner celebrating the sale of a family-owned hotel portfolio.
Most guests were still inside.
Music drifted faintly through the open patio doors.
Nobody seemed to understand yet what had happened outside.
Daniel pulled out his phone.
Rachel stepped toward him.
“Who are you calling?”
“My father.”
“Don’t.”
That stopped him.
“Why?”
“Just take Noah and go home.”
Daniel stared at her.
Five minutes earlier, he might have done exactly that.
Now he couldn’t.
Noah lifted his head.
“Daddy.”
“I’m here.”
The toddler pointed again.
“Man.”
Daniel looked at the dark window.
“You saw a man?”
Noah nodded.
Rachel whispered, “He doesn’t know what he saw.”
Daniel turned sharply.
“He knows enough to point.”
“He’s two.”
“So?”
“So toddlers mix things up.”
Daniel almost laughed from disbelief.
“You’re going to explain my own son to me after hitting him?”
Rachel closed her eyes.
“No.”
“Who was upstairs?”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel studied her.
Then he walked toward the patio doors.
Rachel grabbed his sleeve.
“Please.”
He looked at her hand until she released him.
“Daniel, don’t go upstairs.”
“Why?”
She didn’t answer.
That was answer enough.
Inside, Daniel found his father near the library speaking with two investors.
Charles Mercer was sixty-eight, broad-shouldered, silver-haired, and still carried himself like the Marine officer he had been before entering real estate.
One look at Noah’s face ended his conversation.
“What happened?”
Daniel lowered his voice.
“Rachel hit him.”
Charles went still.
“Where is she?”
“Outside.”
Charles started toward the patio.
Daniel stopped him.
“There’s something else.”
He explained the figure in the window.
Charles frowned.
“That room is locked.”
Daniel’s stomach tightened.
“What room?”
“The old nursery.”
Daniel knew the room.
It had belonged to him when he was a child.
After his mother died, Charles had closed it and rarely entered.
“Who has a key?”
“Me.”
“Anyone else?”
Charles hesitated.
Daniel noticed.
“Dad.”
“One spare.”
“Who has it?”
“I thought it was in my study.”
Daniel handed Noah to his father.
“Stay here.”
Charles caught his arm.
“You’re not going up there alone.”
They climbed together.
Halfway up the staircase, Noah began crying again.
Not loudly.
A frightened little whimper.
Daniel turned.
Noah was staring toward the west hallway.
“Man,” he whispered.
The nursery door stood open.
Charles looked at Daniel.
“I locked that this morning.”
Daniel entered first.
The room smelled of dust and cedar.
Moonlight stretched across an old rocking chair.
Nobody was inside.
Then Daniel saw something on the floor.
A black leather wallet.
He picked it up.
Rachel appeared in the doorway behind them.
The moment she saw the wallet, she stopped breathing.
Daniel opened it.
The driver’s license inside belonged to a man named Michael Whitmore.
Same last name as Rachel.
Daniel looked at her.
“Who is Michael?”
Rachel whispered, “My brother.”
Daniel frowned.
“You told me your brother died six years ago.”
Rachel stared at the wallet.
May you like
Then she said the words that changed everything.
“He did.”
