Chapter 6
I thought I had misheard her.
Rachel stood first.
“What did you say?”
My mother gripped the doorframe.
“Emily isn’t in that grave.”
I stared at her.
“That’s impossible.”
Mom said nothing.
“I saw the casket.”
“You saw a closed casket.”
“I identified her body.”
My voice cracked.
Then the memory hit me.
I hadn’t.
Michael had.
I had been in shock at the hospital.
The police told me Emily had been badly injured.
Michael went with the medical examiner.
He told me not to see her.
He said I shouldn’t remember her that way.
I had thanked him.
Now I felt sick.
“Michael identified her.”
Mom nodded.
Lauren stood.
“You knew?”
“I found out later.”
“When?”
“After the funeral.”
I moved toward Mom.
“What was in the coffin?”
She whispered, “A woman named Rebecca Shaw.”
Rachel was already calling someone.
I grabbed the back of a chair to stay upright.
“Who is Rebecca?”
“She worked at Harlow.”
Lauren gasped.
“I know that name.”
Rachel stopped dialing.
“How?”
“Rebecca was an auditor.”
Mom nodded.
“She helped Emily.”
My heart slammed against my ribs.
“Where is Emily?”
“I don’t know.”
I laughed.
It sounded broken.
“You expect me to believe my wife has been alive for three years and nobody knows where she is?”
Mom started crying.
“I know how it sounds.”
“You watched me bury her.”
“I thought she was dead until two weeks after the funeral.”
“What happened two weeks later?”
“I received a postcard.”
She reached into her handbag.
She carried it with her?
For three years?
Mom handed it to me.
The front showed the Smoky Mountains.
On the back was one handwritten sentence.
Take care of my two favorite people until I can.
Emily’s handwriting.
I knew it instantly.
My knees gave out.
I sat.
Lauren covered her mouth.
Rachel asked, “Has this been authenticated?”
“No.”
“Any other communication?”
“One Christmas card the following year.”
Mom pulled out another envelope.
I stared at her.
“You kept these from me?”
“She told me to.”
“She told everybody everything except me!”
Sophie stirred in the bed.
I lowered my voice instantly.
Mom flinched.
I walked into the hallway.
Everyone followed except Sophie’s nurse.
I turned on my mother.
“Why?”
“Because she thought Marcus had someone inside the family.”
“Who?”
“She didn’t know.”
“Michael?”
“Maybe.”
“You?”
“Yes.”
The answer shocked me.
Mom wiped her eyes.
“She didn’t trust me after learning about my past with Marcus.”
“Did you help fake her death?”
“No.”
“Did Michael?”
“I don’t know.”
Rachel interrupted.
“We’re bringing Michael in.”
I looked at her.
“Do it.”
My phone had been destroyed, so Rachel used hers to call an officer.
Michael wasn’t at his apartment.
He wasn’t answering.
His truck was gone.
My stomach tightened.
Rachel asked Mom, “Where could he go?”
She shook her head.
I knew one place.
“Dad’s cabin.”
Mom looked at me.
“He sold it.”
“No.”
“What?”
“Michael bought it.”
She stared.
“He told me two years ago.”
“Why didn’t I know?”
“Apparently not telling me things is a family tradition.”
Nobody answered.
The cabin was nearly two hours east.
Police arrived there before we did.
Michael was gone.
But inside they found something.
A wall covered in photographs.
Marcus.
Lauren.
Emily.
My mother.
Me.
Sophie.
Maps.
Phone records.
Financial documents.
It looked like an investigation.
Or surveillance.
Rachel wouldn’t let us touch anything.
I stood in the doorway staring at three years of my brother’s secret life.
One photograph showed Emily getting into a car two days after her supposed death.
Alive.
My hands trembled.
“Where was this taken?”
Rachel checked the back.
“Knoxville.”
Mom started crying again.
Lauren looked stunned.
I couldn’t look away.
Emily.
Older only by days.
Baseball cap.
Dark glasses.
But unmistakably Emily.
My wife had survived.
She had let me bury someone else.
She had left Sophie.
Anger rose beside relief.
I hated myself for feeling it.
Then I saw another photograph.
Taken six months ago.
A woman entering a grocery store.
Same posture.
Same profile.
Emily.
Six months ago.
She was still alive.
I grabbed Rachel’s arm.
“Where?”
“Denver.”
Lauren stepped closer.
“There’s writing on the bottom.”
Rachel read it.
TARGET RELOCATED. DO NOT CONTACT.
I looked around.
“Michael knew.”
Rachel didn’t answer.
“He knew she was alive.”
“Looks that way.”
I punched the wall.
Pain shot through my hand.
I barely felt it.
Mom grabbed my arm.
“Stop.”
“He watched me fall apart.”
“We don’t know why.”
“I don’t care why.”
A floorboard creaked upstairs.
Rachel raised her hand.
Everyone went silent.
Another creak.
Officers moved.
“Police!”
A crash.
Someone ran.
Not again.
Two officers raced upstairs.
A window shattered.
Rachel rushed outside.
I followed.
A figure slid down the roof and jumped.
He landed badly, stumbled, then ran toward the trees.
“Michael!”
He stopped.
Just for a second.
It was him.
My brother looked back at me.
“Daniel!”
“Stop!”
He didn’t.
I chased him.
He was limping.
I gained ground.
He reached a creek.
Slipped.
I tackled him.
We crashed into mud.
I hit him.
Once.
Twice.
He didn’t fight back.
“Why?”
I grabbed his jacket.
“Why did you let me think she was dead?”
Michael spat blood.
“Because she asked me to.”
I hit him again.
Police pulled me off.
Michael rolled onto his back.
“She asked me to protect you!”
“By destroying me?”
“She was trying to keep Sophie alive.”
“Sophie needed her mother!”
Michael screamed back.
“Sophie would have been dead!”
That stopped me.
He sat up slowly.
“Marcus had already ordered a hit on all three of you.”
My heart pounded.
“What?”
“Emily found out the morning of the crash.”
Rachel handcuffed him.
He didn’t resist.
“She called me. She said there was one way to make Marcus stop.”
“Fake her death.”
“Yes.”
“And Rebecca?”
His face crumpled.
“That wasn’t supposed to happen.”
“What does that mean?”
“Rebecca agreed to switch cars with Emily. She was supposed to disappear too.”
“But she died.”
Michael nodded.
“Marcus’s people hit the wrong car.”
I felt sick.
“Emily let us believe it was her.”
“She had no choice.”
“She had three years.”
“She was building a case.”
“Against Marcus?”
“And everyone connected to him.”
Rachel asked, “Where is she now?”
Michael looked at me.
“I don’t know.”
“You photographed her six months ago.”
“I was following leads.”
“Did you speak to her?”
“No.”
I stepped closer.
“You expect me to believe that?”
Michael looked exhausted.
“She contacts me. I don’t contact her.”
“When was the last time?”
“Eight days ago.”
My breath caught.
“What did she say?”
He stared at me.
“She said she was coming home.”
Lauren whispered, “Oh my God.”
“When?”
Michael looked toward the cabin.
“She was supposed to arrive today.”
My wedding day.
“Why today?”
“Because Marcus was supposed to be arrested this morning.”
Rachel’s expression hardened.
“By who?”
“The FBI.”
Everyone went silent.
Michael continued.
“They’ve had an undercover investigation running for eighteen months.”
Rachel swore.
“Why wasn’t local law enforcement notified?”
“Because Marcus has people everywhere.”
My skin prickled.
“Did the arrest happen?”
Michael shook his head.
“He disappeared six hours before the warrant was served.”
Lauren looked at me.
“The wedding.”
“What?”
“He knew everyone would be together.”
Mom’s face went pale.
“It was a trap.”
Rachel’s phone rang.
She answered.
Listened.
Then looked directly at me.
“What?”
She ended the call.
“A woman matching Emily’s description was seen entering your house twenty minutes ago.”
May you like
I didn’t remember deciding to move.
I was already running toward the car.
