Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN IN THE DARK
I pushed the door open.
The guests behind me erupted into frightened whispers, but their voices seemed to come from another world. My attention was fixed on the narrow corridor beyond the ballroom.
A single emergency light illuminated a small room at the end.
Inside stood a woman wearing a gray sweater and dark trousers. Her hair had been cut unevenly, and her face was pale beneath several days of exhaustion.
But I knew her eyes.
I knew the small scar above her left eyebrow, the one she had received when we were teenagers climbing the old fence behind her father's house.
“Claire?”
She stumbled toward me.
I caught her before she fell.
For several seconds, neither of us spoke. I could only hold her, feeling the warmth of a woman I had mourned while trying to understand how she could possibly be standing in my arms.
Then she whispered, “Daniel, you came.”
I nearly collapsed.
“Where have you been? What happened to you?”
Her gaze moved past my shoulder.
Vanessa stood at the entrance.
Claire immediately stiffened.
“No,” she whispered. “You shouldn't have brought her here.”
“I didn't bring anyone. Vanessa organized the party.”
Claire clutched my jacket.
“Then you need to get Lily away from her.”
My daughter pushed past me and threw her arms around her mother.
“Mommy!”
Claire dropped to her knees, holding Lily against her chest. The little girl buried her face in her mother's shoulder, sobbing so hard that she could barely breathe.
“I knew you didn't leave me,” Lily cried.
Claire kissed her hair.
“Never, sweetheart. I never wanted to leave you.”
The words shattered something inside me.
For five years, I had told Lily that her mother might have chosen another life. I had tried to make that possibility less painful by explaining that adults sometimes made difficult decisions.
Now Claire was telling me she had never abandoned us.
I turned toward Vanessa.
“What did you do?”
She shook her head quickly.
“Daniel, she's confused. Look at her. She's clearly been through something terrible.”
Claire flinched when Vanessa stepped forward.
That reaction answered a question I hadn't yet asked.
“Stay back,” I ordered.
Vanessa stopped.
Her eyes filled with tears.
“You're choosing a woman who disappeared for five years over the person who stood beside you every day?”
“I haven't chosen anyone. I'm asking what happened.”
Claire struggled to stand.
“I have evidence,” she said. “But we have to leave. Now.”
She reached into the pocket of her sweater and produced a small black memory card.
“Everything is on this.”
Vanessa stared at it.
For the first time, her carefully controlled expression broke completely.
“Give me that,” she said.
Claire closed her fist around the card.
“No.”
Vanessa moved toward her.
I stepped between them.
“Don't take another step.”
Security personnel finally arrived. I ordered them to keep everyone away from Claire while I called the police and requested medical assistance.
Vanessa protested that there had been a misunderstanding, but no one appeared convinced.
Then Claire grabbed my arm.
“Daniel, listen to me. You cannot trust the police officer Vanessa called.”
“What officer?”
“The one who told you my disappearance was voluntary.”
My stomach tightened.
Five years earlier, Detective Robert Harlan had informed me that Claire's bank records suggested she had withdrawn money and traveled out of state. He had advised me to stop searching unless new evidence appeared.
I had trusted him.
“Why would Vanessa know him?” I asked.
Claire's eyes filled with tears.
“Because he was there when they took me.”
Before I could ask another question, sirens sounded outside.
And somewhere in the ballroom, a phone began ringing.
May you like
Vanessa looked toward the sound.
Then she whispered, “It's already too late.”
