Chapter 2 - THE MAN BEHIND THE LOCKED DOOR
The first thing Nathan Rowan heard behind his wife's bedroom door was a man whispering in his own voice.
"Meredith, I'm asking you one last time. Where did you hide it?"
Then came a woman's weak reply.
"If you touch my daughter again, I'll kill you."
Nathan stopped breathing.
Ten months.
For ten months, he had dreamed of hearing his wife's voice again. He had imagined finding her cooking breakfast, folding laundry, or standing at the kitchen window with their little girl in her arms.
He had never imagined hearing her threaten a man who sounded exactly like him.
Behind Nathan, seven-year-old Ismerie stood barefoot in the hallway, holding the sleeve of her pink pajamas.
"Daddy?" she whispered.
Nathan turned.
Her frightened eyes nearly broke him.
"Sweetheart, go into the kitchen. Don't come back until I call you."
"But Daddy's in there."
"I know."
She frowned.
"Then who are you?"
Nathan wanted to tell her everything.
He wanted to explain why he had disappeared, why he had come home thinner, why there were scars beneath his wet shirt, and why he had spent every night of the past ten months imagining her face.
But there wasn't time.
"I'm the man who taught you to whistle through your front teeth," he said softly. "Remember?"
Ismerie's lips parted.
A memory stirred behind her eyes.
Before she could answer, something crashed inside the bedroom.
Nathan grabbed the doorknob.
Locked.
"Meredith!"
The whispering stopped.
A chair scraped across the floor.
Then the voice that sounded like Nathan's answered.
"Who's there?"
Nathan's stomach turned.
He knew that voice.
Not merely because it resembled his own.
Because he had grown up hearing it.
"Open the door, Cole."
Silence.
Then a low, humorless laugh.
"Well," the man said, "look who finally came home."
Nathan stepped back and kicked the door.
The old wooden frame cracked.
He kicked it again.
The lock tore loose.
What he saw on the other side brought ten months of nightmares rushing back.
Meredith lay on their bed, her wrists bound with electrical tape. Her brown hair was tangled around her pale face. A bruise darkened her temple.
Beside her stood Nathan's identical twin brother.
Cole Rowan.
The brother Nathan had believed dead for twenty years.
Cole held a syringe.
He wore Nathan's wedding ring.
And he was smiling.
"Hello, little brother."
Nathan lunged.
He hit Cole so hard that both men slammed into the dresser. A lamp shattered. Cole drove his elbow into Nathan's ribs, and pain exploded through injuries that had never properly healed.
But Nathan refused to release him.
"Get away from my wife!"
Cole twisted, sending the syringe skidding beneath the bed.
"Your wife?" he snarled. "That's funny. She's been sleeping beside me for almost a year."
Nathan froze.
Only for a second.
But Cole saw it.
And smiled.
"Don't believe everything he says!"
Meredith's voice cracked through the room.
Nathan looked toward her.
She was struggling against the tape.
"He never touched me like that. I made him sleep in the guest room. Nathan, please!"
Cole swung.
Nathan ducked, grabbed his brother's collar, and drove him against the wall.
"Where have you been hiding?" Nathan demanded. "How are you alive?"
Cole's smile disappeared.
"You really don't remember what happened at the mill, do you?"
Nathan remembered fire.
A collapsing staircase.
His sixteen-year-old brother screaming his name.
And a burning beam falling between them.
He had carried that scream for twenty years.
"I tried to save you."
Cole's expression hardened.
"That's what you tell yourself."
Behind them, Meredith made a strangled sound.
Nathan turned.
Her breathing had become shallow.
"What's wrong with her?"
Cole glanced at the syringe.
"Nothing that wouldn't have worn off."
Nathan's blood went cold.
"What did you give her?"
"Enough to make her cooperate."
"She needs a hospital."
"Then you'd better find out what she hid before Mr. Voss gets here."
The name meant nothing to Nathan for a moment.
Then it did.
Charles Voss.
The wealthy businessman whose financial records Nathan had been investigating before he disappeared.
The man who owned half the properties surrounding Cedar Ridge.
The man whose charitable foundation managed settlement funds for vulnerable children.
Nathan looked at Cole.
"You work for Voss."
Cole didn't answer.
He didn't need to.
A small voice came from the doorway.
"Daddy?"
Both men turned.
Ismerie stood there holding a threadbare stuffed rabbit.
Her eyes moved between the two identical faces.
For the first time, Nathan understood the terrible confusion in his daughter's expression.
To her, there were two fathers.
One who had lived in her house for months.
And one who had arrived in the rain.
Cole immediately softened his voice.
"Princess, come here."
Ismerie took one hesitant step.
Nathan raised his hand.
"Don't."
Cole glared at him.
"She's my daughter."
"She's not."
"Try telling that to her."
He crouched.
"Sweetheart, remember what we talked about? This man is sick. He's pretending to be me."
Ismerie looked at Nathan.
Then at Cole.
Her fingers tightened around the rabbit.
Cole extended his hand.
"Come to Daddy."
Nathan felt something inside him crack.
He had missed birthdays.
He had missed bedtime stories.
He had missed teaching her to ride a bicycle without training wheels.
And now his own brother was using those stolen months to claim his child.
Ismerie moved forward.
Then stopped.
"Why did Mommy cry?" she asked Cole.
His smile faltered.
"What?"
"Last night. I heard Mommy crying. You told me she was having a bad dream."
"She was."
"But she said your name."
Cole's jaw tightened.
Ismerie looked down at her rabbit.
"She said, 'Please, Cole. Don't hurt him anymore.'"
Nathan stared at his brother.
Cole stood.
"Enough."
He grabbed Ismerie by the arm.
She screamed.
Nathan struck him.
The blow knocked Cole into the bedroom window. Glass cracked beneath his shoulder.
Ismerie stumbled free and ran to Meredith.
Nathan reached beneath the bed, recovered the syringe, and flung it into the bathroom before Cole could retrieve it.
Then he tore the tape from Meredith's wrists.
"Can you walk?"
"I think so."
She grabbed his face with both hands.
For one heartbeat, they simply stared at each other.
"Nathan?"
"It's me."
Her eyes filled.
"I thought you were dead."
"I almost was."
She pressed her forehead against his.
Then she whispered something that sent ice through his veins.
"He put something in Ismerie's dinner."
Nathan turned.
His daughter was standing beside the bed.
"What did you eat, sweetheart?"
Ismerie pointed toward the hallway.
"The funny potatoes."
"How much?"
"One bite."
Nathan swallowed.
"Did they taste bitter?"
She nodded.
Cole was already moving toward the window.
Nathan stepped forward, but Meredith caught his sleeve.
"Let him go."
"He'll come back."
"I know."
Her voice trembled.
"But if you chase him, you'll leave her alone again."
Nathan looked at Ismerie.
His little girl had backed against the wall.
She was watching him with the desperate expression of a child who had already learned that adults could disappear without warning.
Nathan stayed.
Cole pushed through the broken window and dropped onto the porch roof.
Seconds later, a vehicle engine roared outside.
Nathan scooped Ismerie into his arms.
She went stiff.
He loosened his hold immediately.
"It's okay. You don't have to hug me."
For a moment, she studied his face.
Then she whispered, "The other Daddy gets mad when I say no."
Nathan closed his eyes.
He knew then that whatever Cole had done to his family went far beyond impersonation.
A pair of headlights swept across the bedroom wall.
An SUV pulled into the driveway.
Meredith struggled to sit up.
"Oh, God."
Nathan looked outside.
A sheriff's vehicle.
Relief flashed through him.
"The police are here."
Meredith grabbed his wrist with surprising strength.
"No."
"Meredith—"
"Listen to me."
She was shaking.
"The sheriff isn't here to help us."
Downstairs, the front door opened.
Heavy footsteps crossed the foyer.
A man's voice called out.
"Nathan Rowan! Cedar Ridge Sheriff's Department!"
Nathan recognized the voice.
Sheriff Wade Harlan.
An old family acquaintance.
A man who had shaken his hand at his wedding.
Nathan started toward the hallway.
Meredith caught him again.
"Please," she whispered. "He helped them take you."
Nathan stopped.
Below them, the sheriff laughed.
"Come on out, Nathan. I know you're upstairs."
Then came the unmistakable sound of a handgun being cocked.
Harlan spoke again.
"Charles Voss told me you were dead."
A pause.
"Looks like I'm going to have to fix that mistake."
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And behind Nathan, Ismerie whispered the words that terrified him most.
"Daddy, he's the man who told me Mommy wasn't ever going to wake up."
