Chapter 6 - THE TRIP THAT INCLUDED MY DAUGHTER
“Sophie was supposed to go with them?”
Claire stared at the tiny camera screen.
Eleanor leaned closer.
The itinerary was difficult to read, but the name was clear.
SOPHIE DELUCA.
A seat had been reserved for her on the same flight Adrian and Vivian had planned to take.
Claire's mouth went dry.
“No.”
She shook her head.
“That can't be right.”
Eleanor touched her shoulder.
“Claire—”
“No. Adrian told me he was taking Sophie to piano lessons.”
She looked at the photograph again.
“He was planning to take her somewhere without telling me.”
For the first time since disappearing, Claire felt something stronger than grief.
Fear.
Not for herself.
For the little girl who had spent her final afternoon surrounded by adults she could not trust.
Mrs. Parker sat beside her.
“There's something I didn't mention earlier.”
Claire turned.
“On Sophie's last day at school, she asked whether children needed passports to visit other countries.”
Claire's hands began shaking.
“What did you tell her?”
“That sometimes they did.”
“What did she say?”
“She said her daddy told her they were going on a surprise trip.”
Claire stared at the teacher.
“She didn't seem excited?”
Mrs. Parker shook her head.
“She asked whether she could call you first.”
Claire closed her eyes.
Her daughter had known.
Or at least suspected.
And Claire had spent that entire afternoon believing Sophie was learning piano scales.
Eleanor took the camera.
“We need to preserve these photographs properly.”
Claire looked at her.
“I'm not giving Adrian another opportunity to make everything disappear.”
“Neither am I.”
They arranged for an independent forensic specialist to copy the camera's memory without changing the original files.
The images established something important.
The flight reservation existed days before the accident.
But the photographs alone couldn't explain who had arranged it or why.
Claire's next decision came quietly.
“I want to speak to Daniel Mercer.”
Eleanor stiffened.
“He isn't safe.”
“Neither is pretending he doesn't exist.”
“Claire, Adrian has already been looking for him.”
“Then maybe we should find him first.”
That night, Adrian entered his private security office.
Marcus had recovered a backup copy of the SUV's recording inventory.
It showed that the vehicle had contained two active cameras on the day of the crash.
The road-facing camera had stopped recording at the moment of impact.
The cabin camera had continued for another forty-three seconds.
Adrian stared at the report.
“Where is the footage?”
Marcus hesitated.
“The main storage unit was removed after the accident.”
“By whom?”
“According to the access record, Graham Ellis.”
Adrian's expression hardened.
“Under whose authority?”
Marcus placed another document on the desk.
The authorization bore Adrian's digital signature.
Adrian stared.
“I didn't sign this.”
“It was issued while you were unconscious.”
“Then someone used my credentials.”
Marcus nodded.
“There is another problem.”
He showed Adrian the system log.
At 2:16 a.m., three hours after the crash, someone had remotely accessed the vehicle's backup account.
The access originated from Vivian's apartment.
Adrian said nothing.
Marcus continued.
“But the account was opened using Mr. Mercer's credentials.”
Adrian looked toward the window.
Vivian and Mercer.
A stolen recording.
A child included in a secret flight.
He had thought he understood the worst thing he had done.
Now he was realizing that his selfishness had placed Sophie in the middle of something he had never fully understood.
“Find Ellis,” he said. “And make sure the police receive these logs.”
Marcus studied him.
“You're willing to expose the recording?”
Adrian looked at Sophie's photograph.
“I've spent too long hiding from what happened.”
The following afternoon, Vivian met Daniel Mercer inside an almost empty restaurant near the river.
She wore sunglasses despite the cloudy weather.
“You said this would be finished,” she whispered.
Mercer sat across from her.
He was sixty-two, broad-shouldered, with neatly trimmed gray hair and the patient manner of a man who had spent a lifetime negotiating with people more frightened than himself.
“It should have been.”
“Adrian knows about the bracelet.”
Mercer's expression tightened.
“Did you open it?”
“I tried.”
“And?”
“Nothing useful. Just a photograph.”
Mercer exhaled.
“You should have left it alone.”
“You told me Sophie might have put something inside.”
“I told you to check whether she'd taken anything from Adrian's office.”
Vivian gripped her coffee cup.
“She was seven.”
“And seven-year-olds are curious.”
Vivian looked sick.
“I didn't agree to this.”
“You agreed to the trip.”
“You said it would make Adrian finally leave Claire.”
Mercer leaned closer.
“And it might have, if you hadn't insisted on reaching the airport before the flight closed.”
Tears filled Vivian's eyes.
“Don't put the accident on me.”
“Then stop pretending you were the only one who suffered.”
She stared.
Mercer's tone softened.
“Vivian, I know you're frightened. But Adrian can ruin both of us if he discovers what happened with the company accounts.”
Vivian lowered her voice.
“I never stole his money.”
“No. You simply accepted the apartment, the salary, and the account he put in your name.”
“You said those were consulting payments.”
Mercer said nothing.
Vivian slowly withdrew her hand.
“You lied to me.”
Mercer looked away.
Outside the restaurant, an ordinary delivery truck remained parked beside the curb.
Inside, an investigator working for a financial crimes unit photographed Mercer's arrival and departure.
He did not hear the conversation.
But the meeting placed Vivian and Mercer together at a time both had claimed they were no longer in contact.
Later that evening, Claire received the forensic specialist's report.
The photographs were genuine.
The timestamps had not been altered.
More importantly, the child's flight reservation had a corresponding booking reference visible in the image.
Margaret helped Claire contact the airline's records department through an attorney retained independently of the DeLuca family.
The airline would not disclose private passenger information without proper authorization.
But it agreed to preserve the reservation records pending legal process.
Claire leaned back, exhausted.
“So we still don't know who booked it.”
“Not yet,” Margaret said.
Claire looked at Sophie's camera.
Then she noticed a small video icon on the last screen.
There was one recording.
Only eleven seconds long.
She pressed play.
The picture shook as Sophie carried the camera through Adrian's office.
Vivian's voice could be heard in the background.
“Adrian doesn't need to know until we're ready.”
Then Mercer spoke.
“Once the child is on the plane, Claire won't be able to stop anything.”
The recording ended.
Claire sat perfectly still.
Margaret reached for her hand.
But Claire was already looking at the little screen.
May you like
Her voice emerged as a whisper.
“They weren't planning a vacation. They were planning to take my daughter away from me.”
