Chapter 4 - The Photograph Behind the Wall
The basement went silent except for the storm.
Ethan stared at the man who had taught him to ride a bicycle, punished him for lying, attended his high school graduation—and whose funeral Ethan had personally arranged.
“Dad?”
Thomas Cole stepped down from the final stair.
Older.
Thinner.
But unmistakable.
Ethan moved forward.
“You're dead.”
Thomas looked almost disappointed.
“Apparently not.”
“You let me bury you.”
“It was necessary.”
“For what?”
Thomas's gaze shifted toward Claire.
“To protect this family.”
Claire laughed bitterly.
“You've never protected anyone.”
Emma clung tighter to her mother.
Thomas's eyes hardened.
“I told you not to bring her upstairs.”
“You locked us down here.”
“The storm made it unsafe.”
“You've kept us hidden for seven years.”
Lily stared at Thomas.
“Who is Claire?”
Thomas looked at her for the first time.
Something like recognition passed over his face.
“Rose's granddaughter.”
Lily stepped forward.
“You knew my grandmother.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Thomas hesitated.
Claire answered for him.
“She was his sister-in-law.”
Lily's thoughts tangled.
“Ethan said the same thing.”
Claire nodded.
“Rose was Ethan's aunt.”
Lily turned toward Ethan.
That would mean—
“No,” Lily whispered.
Claire understood immediately.
“You and Ethan aren't related.”
Lily released a breath she hadn't realized she was holding.
“Rose wasn't my biological grandmother.”
Another shock.
“What?”
“She adopted your mother.”
Lily's head spun.
“Why?”
Thomas interrupted.
“This isn't the time.”
Ethan rounded on him.
“You don't get to decide that anymore.”
Thomas's jaw tightened.
Ethan stepped closer.
“Where is Anna?”
For the first time, Thomas seemed genuinely unsettled.
Claire looked between them.
“You still don't know?”
Ethan turned.
“Know what?”
Claire glanced at Emma.
“Sweetheart, go behind the divider.”
Emma obeyed reluctantly.
Claire waited until she was out of earshot.
Then said, “Anna didn't die in the flood.”
Ethan's eyes closed.
Some part of him had already known.
“Where did she go?”
Claire looked at Thomas.
“You tell him.”
Thomas remained silent.
“Tell me!” Ethan shouted.
Thomas finally spoke.
“Your mother took Anna away.”
Ethan stared.
“What?”
“The night of the flood.”
“Why?”
“Because she discovered something she wasn't supposed to know.”
“What?”
Thomas's expression darkened.
“About Emma.”
Ethan looked toward the photograph in his hand.
“The first Emma?”
“Yes.”
“Who was she?”
Thomas refused to answer.
Claire did.
“She was your half-sister.”
Ethan stopped breathing.
Lily covered her mouth.
Claire continued.
“Thomas had another daughter.”
Ethan turned slowly toward his father.
“You cheated on Mom?”
Thomas looked away.
“Before our marriage.”
“And Emma lived with us?”
“For a short time.”
“Why don't I remember?”
“Because you were eight.”
“No.”
Ethan stepped closer.
“I remember Anna. I remember school. I remember our dog dying. I remember that house.”
His voice dropped.
“But I forgot an entire sister?”
Thomas's silence said enough.
“What did you do to me?”
“Nothing.”
“Then why can't I remember?”
Claire whispered, “Because after the flood, you were hospitalized.”
Ethan looked at her.
“For what?”
“A head injury.”
He stared blankly.
Nobody had ever told him that.
Thomas sighed.
“You fell down the basement stairs.”
A memory flashed.
A child's scream.
Blood on his own fingers.
His mother's voice.
Ethan, don't look.
Another flash.
Anna pulling him toward the stairs.
Emma crying behind a door.
Ethan grabbed the wall.
Lily touched his arm.
“Ethan?”
He breathed through the memory.
“I saw something.”
Thomas looked alarmed.
“What?”
Ethan met his father's eyes.
“You were arguing with Mom.”
Thomas said nothing.
“And Anna was crying.”
His voice became stronger.
“Emma was locked in the basement.”
“No.”
“You told me not to open the door.”
Thomas stepped closer.
“Memory after trauma is unreliable.”
“So is a dead man standing in front of me.”
Claire almost laughed.
Thomas didn't.
Ethan stared at his father.
“What happened to Emma?”
Thomas's expression changed again.
“She disappeared.”
“During the flood?”
“Yes.”
“Like Anna?”
Thomas nodded.
Lily looked around the basement.
“Two little girls disappear during the same flood?”
Nobody answered.
She pointed toward Emma behind the divider.
“And twenty-two years later, another girl named Emma is living secretly in the same house?”
Thomas's face went hard.
“You don't understand.”
“Then explain.”
Claire stood.
“I will.”
Thomas snapped, “Claire.”
She ignored him.
“My mother was the first Emma.”
Ethan looked at her.
Claire continued.
“She survived.”
The words hit him with physical force.
“My sister lived?”
“Yes.”
“For how long?”
“Until four years ago.”
Ethan staggered backward.
All those years.
A sister.
Alive.
A family.
And he had known nothing.
“Why didn't she contact me?”
“She tried.”
Thomas interrupted.
“That isn't true.”
Claire pulled open a drawer.
Inside were letters.
Dozens.
Every envelope was addressed to Ethan.
None had stamps.
None had been mailed.
Claire threw them onto the table.
“She wrote to him every year.”
Ethan picked one up.
His name was written in handwriting he didn't recognize.
He opened it.
Dear Ethan,
You probably don't remember me anymore, but I remember you every day.
His hands trembled.
Another sentence.
You were the only person who tried to open the basement door.
Ethan stopped.
He looked at Thomas.
“You kept her letters.”
Thomas's face remained unreadable.
Ethan picked up another.
And another.
Twenty years of letters.
Birthdays.
Christmases.
Apologies.
Hope.
Then Ethan found one that had never been opened.
The final letter.
Dated four years earlier.
He unfolded it.
Dear Ethan,
If you're reading this, then either I finally became brave enough to find you, or something happened to me.
There is one thing you must know.
Anna survived too.
Ethan could no longer hear the storm.
His eyes moved rapidly across the page.
I saw her six years ago.
She didn't recognize me.
She was living under another name.
Thomas took the letter from Ethan's hand.
Too late.
Ethan had already read the final sentence.
If you want to find Anna, start with the photograph behind the wall in her old bedroom.
Ethan ran upstairs.
Lily followed.
He reached Anna's room and tore at the faded star-covered wallpaper.
“Ethan!”
He ripped away an entire strip.
Behind it was a shallow opening in the plaster.
Inside sat a photograph.
Ethan pulled it free.
Three children.
Him.
Anna.
Emma.
But someone had written another name beneath Anna.
Sarah Whitmore.
And beneath the name was an address.
Lily stared.
“Do you know where that is?”
Ethan did.
It was less than twenty miles away.
And as he turned the photograph over, he discovered one more message.
May you like
Written in his mother's handwriting.
If Ethan ever remembers, tell him Anna is still waiting for him.
