Chapter 3 - THE PHOTOGRAPH THAT SHOULD NOT EXIST
Daniel looked at the photograph for a long time.
Martin Sloan had handled virtually every serious legal problem the Caruso family had faced for twenty-one years.
He had negotiated acquisitions.
Settled lawsuits.
Protected Claudia during her divorce from her first husband.
Sat beside Daniel when Angelo Caruso died.
Martin had even stood beside Rachel’s grave.
Daniel remembered his hand on Daniel's shoulder.
You don't have to carry everyone forever.
Now Daniel stared at Martin's handwriting beneath four words that changed every memory.
SHE SHOULD HAVE DIED.
Noah spoke first.
“I'll bring him in.”
“No.”
Everyone looked at Daniel.
“If Martin knows we found this, he'll destroy whatever remains.”
Eric gave a bitter laugh.
“You still think there's something left to destroy?”
Daniel turned.
“You're going to start talking.”
Eric's face tightened.
Claudia stepped between them.
“Not in front of Lucy.”
For once, Daniel agreed.
He carried Lucy back toward the kitchen.
Mrs. Alvarez was awake now, sitting weakly in a chair while a private physician examined her.
The moment she saw Lucy, tears filled her eyes.
“Mi niña.”
Lucy climbed from Daniel's arms and went to her.
Mrs. Alvarez held her tightly.
Daniel knelt in front of Lucy.
“I'm going downstairs for a little while.”
“Are you coming back?”
The question landed harder than he expected.
“Yes.”
“Promise?”
Daniel looked directly at her.
“I promise.”
Lucy studied his face as if measuring whether adults' promises were worth anything anymore.
Then she nodded.
Daniel returned to Eric's office.
Gabriel remained near the door.
Noah stood beside the desk.
Claudia had not sat down.
Eric had.
He looked twenty years older.
Daniel placed Martin's photograph in front of him.
“Start.”
Eric stared at it.
“I met Martin eighteen months ago about a loan.”
Claudia turned.
“What loan?”
Eric closed his eyes.
“My company was failing.”
“You told me business was good.”
“I lied.”
Claudia laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“How much?”
“Four million.”
Her face drained.
Eric continued.
“I'd guaranteed projects personally. Interest rates changed. Two investors pulled out. I was drowning.”
Daniel said, “So Martin helped you steal from me.”
Eric looked up sharply.
“No. At first he helped me hide losses.”
“At first.”
Eric rubbed both hands over his face.
“Then he showed me how money moved through your shipping companies. Small amounts. Vendors nobody checked twice.”
Daniel felt Noah shift beside him.
“How much did you take?”
“Less than two hundred thousand.”
Noah muttered, “That's supposed to help?”
Eric looked at him.
“I'm not proud of it.”
Daniel said nothing.
Eric understood the silence.
“Martin took the rest.”
“How much?”
“I don't know.”
Daniel leaned closer.
“Try.”
“Maybe twelve million.”
Claudia sat down.
Not gracefully.
Her knees seemed to stop holding her.
Rachel's warning had been true.
But only partly.
Eric had been stealing.
He had simply not been the architect.
Daniel asked, “When did Rachel find out?”
“Last fall.”
“And the blue house?”
“Martin used it.”
“You owned it.”
“On paper.”
“Rachel owned it too.”
Eric shook his head.
“She didn't know.”
Daniel's eyes hardened.
“Her name appeared on a deed three months after her funeral.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“Martin forged the transfer.”
Gabriel spoke from the doorway.
“He didn't forge Rachel's signature.”
Everyone turned.
Gabriel reached into a document folder beneath his coat.
He placed a photocopy on the desk.
Rachel's signature appeared at the bottom.
Dated February 14.
Three months after her supposed death.
Claudia whispered, “She signed it?”
“Yes.”
Daniel stared at Gabriel.
“You've been helping her.”
“For eleven months.”
“Then you know what happened.”
“I know parts.”
Daniel's temper moved closer to the surface.
“I'm getting tired of parts.”
Gabriel did not react.
“Rachel survived the crash.”
Daniel's breathing changed.
“Obviously.”
“She wasn't supposed to.”
Silence filled the room.
Gabriel continued.
“The car went off Sheridan Road shortly after eleven-thirty. It hit the barrier, rolled down the embankment, and caught fire.”
Daniel remembered the call.
The road.
Snow.
Red emergency lights reflected across frozen pavement.
“I was following her,” Gabriel said.
“Why?”
“Rachel asked me to.”
Daniel stared.
“She knew somebody was watching her?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“She thought Eric.”
Eric looked down.
Gabriel shook his head.
“She was wrong.”
Daniel remembered the recording.
Rachel had said Eric wasn't doing what Claudia believed.
“What happened after the crash?”
“I pulled Rachel out through the passenger side.”
Claudia closed her eyes.
Gabriel continued.
“She was injured. Disoriented. But alive.”
Daniel's voice was quiet.
“What body did I identify?”
Nobody answered immediately.
That frightened him more than the answer.
Claudia finally spoke.
“There was another car.”
Daniel looked at her.
“A woman lost control trying to avoid Rachel's vehicle.”
“What woman?”
“We never knew at first.”
Daniel felt nausea rise.
“You let me bury someone.”
Claudia's eyes filled.
“I thought Rachel would be killed if they knew she survived.”
“So you put Rachel's things on another dead woman?”
“I put her necklace beside the body.”
Daniel stepped backward.
Claudia began crying.
“The fire had damaged everything. Daniel, you saw her for seconds. They told you not to look closely.”
“I held her hand.”
His voice cracked for the first time.
“I thought it was my sister's hand.”
Claudia covered her face.
Daniel walked to the window.
For eleven months, he had carried guilt over every argument with Rachel.
Every missed call.
Every holiday he had assumed would come again.
And Claudia had watched him do it.
“You should've told me.”
“I wanted to.”
“Eleven months.”
“Martin said if you knew—”
Daniel turned.
“There it is again.”
Claudia went silent.
“Martin.”
Daniel's voice sharpened.
“Why was my attorney deciding whether I could know my sister was alive?”
Claudia whispered, “Because he had something.”
“What?”
“Evidence.”
“Of what?”
She looked at Eric.
Eric shook his head.
Daniel noticed.
“What did Martin have?”
Claudia's hands trembled.
“Something your father did.”
Daniel went still.
Angelo Caruso had been dead six years.
“What?”
“I never saw it.”
“Then why believe him?”
“Because Rachel did.”
Daniel looked at Gabriel.
Gabriel gave the smallest nod.
Rachel believed Martin possessed something capable of destroying Daniel.
Daniel's phone buzzed.
Not a call.
A message from the security team searching Eric's office.
Found silver box behind file cabinet.
Daniel looked at Eric.
Lucy had told the truth again.
Minutes later, the dented silver box sat on the desk.
Inside were photographs.
Recorders.
Receipts.
And a child's folded drawing.
Daniel opened it.
Crayon covered the page.
A black road.
A silver car.
A red car behind it.
Snowflakes drawn as giant blue stars.
Near the bottom, a woman stood beside a tree.
Rachel.
A little girl sat inside another car.
Lucy.
And beside the red car stood a tall figure.
The person had no face.
But Lucy had carefully drawn something hanging from his hand.
A round gold object on a chain.
Daniel stared.
He knew that object.
He had seen it every Sunday of his childhood.
His father's pocket watch.
Angelo Caruso's watch had disappeared after his funeral.
Daniel slowly turned toward Gabriel.
“Who has my father's watch?”
Gabriel didn't answer.
May you like
Eric did.
“Martin Sloan.”
