Chapter 2 - The Woman Who Knew My Past
Anna Carter looked like someone who had spent years learning how to survive without being noticed.
That was my first thought when I entered her hospital room.
She was thinner than I remembered from the hallway.
Too thin.
An oxygen tube rested beneath her nose. Her blonde hair was tied back loosely, and exhaustion carved shadows beneath her eyes.
But she wasn’t Claire.
There was no possibility of that.
Claire Carter had been taller, darker-haired, louder.
Anna looked younger.
Quieter.
Still, the resemblance between them was obvious around the eyes.
She watched me approach.
“Ethan.”
Hearing my name from a stranger shouldn’t have felt personal.
It did.
“You know me.”
“Yes.”
“From where?”
Her eyes moved toward the doorway.
“Where’s Lily?”
“With the social worker.”
“Is she scared?”
“Yes.”
Anna closed her eyes.
“I told her not to leave the apartment.”
“She left because she thought you were dead.”
Pain crossed her face.
“I know.”
“She walked into my store with eleven dollars and thirty-seven cents and tried to buy a father.”
Anna’s eyes opened.
For several seconds, she said nothing.
Then tears appeared.
“She did what?”
“She said she needed a good kind. Someone who stays.”
Anna turned her head.
I could see embarrassment mixing with grief.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“She shouldn’t have dragged you into this.”
“She saved your life.”
“She shouldn’t know she had to.”
I pulled the photograph from my pocket.
“Who are you?”
Anna stared at it.
“Claire’s sister.”
The answer hit me with equal parts recognition and confusion.
“Claire never mentioned a sister.”
“She had reasons.”
“What reasons?”
Anna looked toward the machines beside her.
“I don’t know where to start.”
“Try six years ago.”
She was quiet.
“Claire didn’t leave Seattle because she stopped loving you.”
My jaw tightened.
“I didn’t say she did.”
“You still think it.”
“Claire disappeared three weeks before we were supposed to move in together.”
“She was scared.”
“Of me?”
“No.”
“Then of what?”
Anna swallowed.
“Your family.”
I almost laughed.
“My family?”
“Your father.”
That erased every trace of amusement.
“My father has been dead for four years.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“Because Claire kept every article.”
Something cold moved through me.
“What does this have to do with Lily?”
Anna hesitated.
“Everything.”
Before she could continue, the door opened.
Denise stepped inside.
“Mr. Rowe, I’m sorry, but I need to speak with Ms. Carter regarding temporary custody arrangements.”
Anna immediately became tense.
“No.”
Denise softened her tone.
“We need to establish where Lily can safely stay while you recover.”
“She stays with me.”
“You’re being admitted.”
“Then with my neighbor.”
“Your neighbor has already declined due to medical issues.”
Anna looked panicked.
I stepped closer.
“She can stay with me.”
Both women turned.
Denise sighed.
“As I said earlier, it isn’t that simple.”
“Then tell me what is.”
Anna stared.
“You’d do that?”
“Yes.”
“For a child you met today?”
I looked at her.
“I’m beginning to suspect she isn’t just some child.”
Anna went pale.
Denise noticed.
“What does that mean?”
“Nothing yet.”
I didn’t want bureaucracy involved until I knew what Anna was hiding.
Denise discussed emergency placement options.
I barely heard them.
My mind remained on Claire.
My father.
Lily.
After Denise left, I shut the door.
“Finish.”
Anna looked exhausted.
“You’re angry.”
“I have questions.”
“Ethan—”
“Was Claire pregnant when she left Seattle?”
Anna’s face answered before her voice did.
My heart slammed once.
Hard.
“Was she?”
“Yes.”
The room seemed to tilt.
“With my child?”
Anna’s eyes filled.
“She believed so.”
“Believed?”
“You were the only man she had been with.”
I turned away.
For six years I had built companies, bought properties, traveled through airports, slept in hotel rooms, attended charity dinners, signed contracts.
And somewhere in the world, Claire had been carrying my child.
“Where is Claire?”
Anna began crying silently.
I already knew.
There are moments when your body understands something before your mind allows it.
“Where is she?”
“She died.”
I closed my eyes.
“When?”
“Five years ago.”
Lily was five.
The math happened automatically.
I turned around.
“Lily.”
Anna said nothing.
“Is Lily Claire’s daughter?”
“Yes.”
I could barely breathe.
“And you’ve been raising her?”
“Since she was four months old.”
“Why?”
“Because Claire died.”
“How?”
“Complications after a heart condition nobody caught during pregnancy. She lasted months after Lily was born.”
I sat down.
Not because I wanted to.
Because my legs stopped feeling reliable.
“She had my child.”
“Yes.”
“And nobody told me.”
Anna looked at me.
“She tried.”
I laughed once.
It sounded ugly.
“No, she didn’t.”
“She wrote you.”
“I never received anything.”
“She called.”
“I changed my number once. My office would have found me.”
“She came to your building.”
I froze.
“When?”
“Two weeks after Lily was born.”
“That’s impossible.”
“Your father met her downstairs.”
I stared.
Anna continued.
“He told her you wanted nothing to do with her.”
I stood.
“That is not true.”
“I know.”
“How do you know?”
“Because Claire didn’t believe him.”
“She kept trying?”
“For months.”
“Why didn’t she come to my apartment?”
“She did.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
“The doorman told her you’d moved.”
“I hadn’t.”
“Your father controlled the building.”
Anger came slowly.
Then all at once.
My father had controlled everything.
Where I lived.
Who worked for me.
Which assistants handled my calls.
He had financed the earliest expansion of my company.
Back then I had called it support.
Now I wondered what else it had been.
“Why would he do that?”
Anna looked at me carefully.
“Claire knew something.”
“What?”
“She found financial records.”
My laugh was bitter.
“My father had a hundred financial records.”
“These involved the company.”
“What company?”
“Yours.”
I stopped.
Anna looked toward the hallway.
“Ethan, Claire didn’t leave because of your relationship. She left because your father threatened her.”
“Threatened how?”
“He said if she stayed near you, he would destroy her family.”
“My father was controlling, not criminal.”
Anna didn’t answer.
That silence frightened me more than an accusation.
“What did Claire find?”
“I don’t know everything.”
“What do you know?”
“She worked part-time for Rowe Foundation while finishing graduate school.”
I remembered.
The foundation had been my father’s charitable project.
After-school programs.
Housing grants.
Scholarships.
“She saw payments that didn’t make sense.”
“To whom?”
“Companies that didn’t exist.”
I frowned.
“Shell entities?”
“I think so.”
“And she told my father?”
“She asked questions.”
“That would have irritated him.”
“It terrified him.”
“Why?”
Anna whispered, “Because she copied everything.”
The door opened again.
This time Lily stood there.
Denise behind her.
Lily walked straight toward Anna.
“Mommy!”
Anna held out both arms.
Lily climbed carefully onto the bed.
I turned away.
Mommy.
That was who Anna was to her.
Biology didn’t erase five years of bedtime stories.
Anna stroked Lily’s hair.
“You shouldn’t have gone outside.”
“You wouldn’t wake up.”
“I know.”
“I tried water.”
“I know.”
“And toast.”
Anna cried.
“I’m sorry.”
Lily leaned against her.
“I bought Ethan.”
Despite everything, Anna laughed weakly.
“So I heard.”
Lily looked at me.
“He says he isn’t expensive.”
“That’s debatable,” Anna whispered.
Lily smiled.
It was the first time I had seen her do it.
Then she reached into her raincoat pocket.
“I forgot this.”
She handed Anna a tiny silver key.
Anna’s entire expression changed.
“Where did you get that?”
“Your drawer.”
“You opened my drawer?”
“I was looking for medicine.”
Anna looked at me.
Then at Denise.
“Could Lily get some juice?”
Denise understood the request.
“Come on.”
Lily protested.
“I’m not thirsty.”
“I hear they have apple.”
“Cold apple?”
“Yes.”
She went.
The moment the door closed, Anna held out her hand.
“Give me the key.”
I did.
“What does it open?”
“Claire’s safe deposit box.”
“You still have it?”
“She left it to me.”
“What’s inside?”
“I don’t know.”
“You never opened it?”
“I tried once.”
“What happened?”
“The bank said there was a second authorization requirement.”
“What authorization?”
Anna looked directly at me.
“Yours.”
Silence.
“That makes no sense.”
“She listed you.”
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
“Which bank?”
“Cascade Pacific.”
I knew it.
My father had served on its board for twenty years.
“What’s in the box?”
“I think Claire’s evidence.”
I stepped back.
“For five years you never told me.”
“I was scared.”
“Of a dead man?”
“No.”
Her answer came instantly.
“Of the people who worked for him.”
I stared.
“Who?”
Anna’s gaze shifted toward the window.
“Claire believed your father wasn’t acting alone.”
A knock sounded.
My chief operating officer, Daniel Voss, entered carrying a bouquet.
I hadn’t told Daniel where I was.
He smiled.
“Ethan.”
Then he saw Anna.
And for half a second, Daniel Voss looked terrified.
Anna saw it too.
I turned.
“How did you know I was here?”
Daniel’s smile returned.
“Your driver called the office.”
My driver had explicit instructions never to do that.
Anna gripped the silver key in her fist.
Daniel looked at her.
“Have we met?”
Anna said quietly, “No.”
But I knew a lie when I heard one.
So did Daniel.
He set the flowers down.
“I’m glad you’re okay.”
Then he left.
I waited until the door closed.
Anna whispered, “That man.”
“What about him?”
“I’ve seen him before.”
“Where?”
She opened her hand.
The key lay in her palm.
“Standing beside your father.”
“When?”
“The night Claire disappeared.”
May you like
And suddenly the secret inside that deposit box felt far more dangerous than the question of whether Lily was my daughter.
Because if Anna was telling the truth, the man currently running half my company had been part of the reason Claire vanished.
