Chapter 2 - The Photograph in the West Library
Daniel ordered everyone out of the foyer.
No one argued.
The guests disappeared into side rooms and hallways.
Within minutes only Daniel, Emily, Vanessa, and Margaret remained.
Daniel turned toward Margaret.
“Show me the photograph.”
Margaret stood perfectly still.
Vanessa folded her arms.
“Go ahead.”
Her voice was sharp with satisfaction.
“Let him see it.”
Emily looked at Margaret.
“Please.”
Margaret finally walked toward the west wing.
Daniel followed.
Emily hesitated.
Daniel looked back.
“You’re coming too.”
Vanessa immediately stepped forward.
“So am I.”
Daniel’s expression hardened.
“No.”
Vanessa laughed.
“You think you can keep me out now?”
Daniel said nothing.
They entered the west library together.
Margaret opened a locked drawer beneath an antique desk.
Inside was the photograph.
Daniel took it.
For several seconds he did not react.
Then all color left his face.
Emily watched him.
“You know that child.”
Daniel’s fingers tightened around the photograph.
“Yes.”
“Who is she?”
He did not answer.
Emily stepped closer.
“Who is she?”
Margaret whispered, “Her name was Clara Ashbourne.”
Daniel turned sharply.
“Margaret.”
“She deserves to know.”
Vanessa appeared in the doorway.
“You should have told her years ago.”
Daniel glared at her.
“You were told never to come in here.”
Vanessa smiled.
“And yet here we all are.”
Emily looked again at the picture.
The resemblance frightened her now.
“Who was Clara?”
Margaret’s eyes filled with tears.
“Daniel’s sister.”
Emily looked at Daniel.
“You had a sister?”
He nodded slowly.
“She disappeared when she was seven.”
“When?”
“Twenty-three years ago.”
Emily’s stomach dropped.
She was twenty-nine.
Six years older than Clara would have been at the time of the photograph.
Something did not fit.
Then Margaret opened another drawer.
Inside was a second photograph.
This one showed the same little girl years later.
Maybe thirteen.
Maybe fourteen.
Emily’s breathing stopped.
The girl looked even more like her.
Daniel saw it too.
He sat down.
“No.”
Margaret whispered, “Daniel.”
“No.”
He stood again.
“This is impossible.”
Emily touched her eyebrow unconsciously.
The birthmark.
The same one appeared in the photograph.
“Why does she look like me?”
No one answered.
Vanessa laughed softly.
“Because your father never told you the entire story.”
Daniel looked at her.
“What did you do?”
Vanessa shrugged.
“I started asking questions.”
Emily turned.
“About me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Vanessa’s smile disappeared.
“Because the day you started working here, Margaret dropped a tray when she saw your face.”
Emily remembered.
Her first day.
Margaret had stared at her for almost a full minute.
Then she had asked where Emily was born.
Emily had said she did not know.
She had spent the first months of her life in foster care before being adopted.
Vanessa had noticed.
And unlike everyone else, Vanessa had investigated.
She stepped closer.
“I found your sealed adoption records.”
Margaret gasped.
“You had no right.”
Vanessa ignored her.
She looked directly at Emily.
“Your birth name wasn’t Emily Carter.”
Emily’s heart pounded.
“What was it?”
Vanessa smiled.
May you like
“Emily Clara Ashbourne.”
Daniel dropped the photograph.
