Chapter 2 - The Woman in the Old Photograph
Daniel took the photograph from the table.
The woman standing beside the Mercer estate fountain looked no older than twenty-five.
She wore a housekeeping uniform nearly identical to Emily’s.
Her smile was shy.
Her dark eyes looked directly into the camera.
Daniel recognized the fountain.
He did not recognize the woman.
Margaret did.
“Anna.”
The name came out like a breath.
Emily looked at her.
“My mother.”
Daniel turned sharply.
“You knew her?”
Margaret lowered herself into a chair.
“She worked here.”
“When?”
“Twenty-nine years ago.”
Emily felt something tighten inside her chest.
Her mother had rarely spoken about the Mercer family.
Whenever Emily asked about the old photograph, Anna changed the subject.
Then, when Emily was sixteen, Anna supposedly died after her car went off a mountain road during a winter storm.
There had been no body recovered.
Only wreckage.
Emily had spent years believing that was the end of the story.
Until six months earlier.
While clearing out her aunt’s house, Emily had discovered a locked metal box belonging to Anna.
Inside were photographs.
A brass key.
Three handwritten letters.
And the sentence that had brought Emily to the Mercer mansion.
The necklace they used to destroy me is still inside that house.
Daniel looked at the diamond necklace in Margaret’s hand.
“What happened?”
Margaret’s eyes filled with shame.
“Your grandmother’s necklace disappeared.”
Daniel waited.
“Anna was accused.”
Emily’s face went still.
Margaret continued.
“It was found in her room.”
Exactly like tonight.
The realization moved through the foyer like electricity.
Emily looked toward the security screen.
Vanessa had placed the necklace inside her handbag.
Twenty-nine years earlier, someone had apparently placed the same necklace among her mother’s belongings.
Daniel whispered the obvious.
“She repeated the same setup.”
Margaret closed her eyes.
“We didn’t have cameras then.”
Emily’s voice shook.
“And you believed my mother stole it?”
Margaret could barely meet her gaze.
“Yes.”
Emily stepped back.
“You fired her.”
Margaret said nothing.
“You destroyed her reputation.”
“I believed the evidence.”
“So did everyone here tonight.”
The words hit harder than shouting could have.
Daniel looked at his mother.
“Who investigated the theft?”
Margaret hesitated.
That hesitation changed everything.
“Mother.”
“It wasn’t handled by the police.”
“Why?”
“Your father wanted to keep it private.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“Who handled it?”
Margaret finally answered.
“Charles Vale.”
Emily didn’t recognize the name.
Daniel did.
Charles Vale had served as chief financial officer of Mercer Holdings for more than twenty years.
He was now vice chairman of the board.
He was also Vanessa’s father.
Emily felt the room tilt beneath her.
Daniel stared toward the closed front doors through which Vanessa had just disappeared.
“That’s why she knew.”
Margaret’s expression changed.
“No.”
She stood suddenly.
“That’s impossible.”
“What?”
Margaret clutched the necklace.
“Vanessa wasn’t even born when Anna was accused.”
Daniel’s phone vibrated.
He looked down.
A message had arrived from an unknown number.
There was no greeting.
Only a photograph.
It showed Emily entering the Mercer mansion six months earlier.
Someone had taken it from across the street.
May you like
Underneath were six words.
We warned Vanessa to remove her.
