Chapter 2 - THE PICTURE INSIDE
“Elena.”
Adrian’s voice was quiet.
That frightened her more than shouting.
Nora remained in his arms.
“Mommy, kitty!”
Elena barely looked at the cat.
Her eyes stayed on the open locket.
“Mr. Kane, I can explain.”
“Good.”
Adrian glanced at Nora.
“But not while she’s frightened.”
Elena seemed surprised.
Nora was not actually frightened.
She was trying to reach for the white cat.
Still, Adrian handed her carefully to Elena.
The moment Nora left his arms, the room felt colder.
Elena hugged her daughter.
“We’re going downstairs.”
“No.”
Elena froze.
Adrian corrected himself.
“I’m asking you to stay long enough to tell me where the locket came from.”
Nora played with her mother’s apron.
Elena looked toward the doorway.
Two security men had arrived.
Adrian noticed.
“Leave.”
They did.
He closed the doors.
Not locked.
Deliberate.
“You can walk out if you choose,” Adrian said. “But if you leave without explaining that necklace, my lawyers will still contact you.”
Elena swallowed.
“It belonged to Nora’s grandmother.”
Adrian stared.
“What was her name?”
Elena hesitated.
“Margaret.”
“Last name?”
“Castillo.”
“Was she related to Evelyn Kane?”
“No.”
“Then how did Margaret Castillo get my wife’s locket?”
Elena’s hands tightened around Nora.
“I don’t know.”
Adrian almost laughed.
“Wrong answer.”
“It’s the only one I have.”
He held out the locket.
“Then explain the photograph.”
Elena went still.
Adrian finally looked down properly.
Inside was Evelyn.
Alive.
Smiling faintly.
Her hair pulled back.
No funeral portrait.
No photograph Adrian recognized.
She held a newborn baby wrapped in a pale blanket.
Behind the image was a tiny handwritten notation.
Nora.
Adrian’s vision blurred.
Three years vanished.
Evelyn supposedly died after a private medical transport vehicle crashed during a storm.
She had been returning from a specialist appointment out of state.
The vehicle burned.
Identification had been based on dental records and personal belongings.
Adrian never viewed the body.
The memory now felt poisonous.
He turned the photograph over.
More writing.
Not enough to read with Nora moving nearby.
Elena whispered:
“Please.”
Adrian looked at her.
“Please what?”
“Don’t do this in front of her.”
Finally, something he agreed with instantly.
He pressed the locket closed.
“Nora.”
She looked up.
“Would you like to play with the cat downstairs?”
“Yes!”
Elena hesitated.
Adrian called a senior female housekeeper he trusted.
Nora left happily.
Elena remained.
The door closed.
Adrian reopened the locket.
The back of the tiny photo contained four words.
For Nora. When safe.
Below them:
E.K.
Adrian sat.
Elena looked like she might collapse.
“Now,” he said.
“Tell me everything.”
Elena insisted she did not know Evelyn personally.
The locket came from her mother Margaret shortly before Margaret died sixteen months earlier.
“She told me it belonged to someone who needed Nora protected.”
“Why Nora?”
“I asked.”
“What did she say?”
“That one day I’d understand.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
“When did Nora start wearing it?”
“Two months ago.”
“Why?”
“She found it in my jewelry box.”
“You let a three-year-old wear a mystery belonging to a dead woman?”
“I didn’t know it was yours.”
Fair.
Still infuriating.
Adrian looked at the photo.
“How old is Nora?”
“Three.”
“Exactly?”
Elena stared at him.
He hated the answer before hearing it.
“Three years and two months.”
Evelyn died three years ago.
Timing.
Possible.
Not proof.
“Who is Nora’s father?”
Elena looked down.
“Unknown.”
Adrian stood.
“No.”
She flinched.
“You know more than that.”
“I don’t.”
“Were you pregnant?”
Elena’s head snapped up.
“What?”
“When Evelyn died.”
“No.”
Adrian froze.
Nora was not Elena’s biological child.
He knew before she said it.
Elena began crying.
“She’s my daughter.”
“That is not what I asked.”
“I raised her.”
“Where did she come from?”
Elena looked toward the closed door.
“My mother brought her to me.”
“When?”
“Three years ago.”
Adrian’s heartbeat became loud in his ears.
“How old?”
“Newborn.”
“Who gave her to your mother?”
“I never knew.”
Adrian stared at the photograph again.
Evelyn holding a newborn.
Nora’s name written behind it.
He still refused certainty.
But certainty was now close enough to hurt.
“Did your mother say who the baby belonged to?”
Elena shook her head.
“She said the mother was in danger.”
“What mother?”
“She wouldn’t tell me.”
“Father?”
“She said he could never know until it was safe.”
Adrian’s face hardened.
“Why?”
Elena cried harder.
“She said because the people hunting the mother were inside his own house.”
Silence.
Adrian slowly looked toward the bedroom doors.
His house.
Three years ago.
Someone inside.
May you like
And the first true possibility finally entered his mind.
Evelyn may not have died in that crash.
