Chapter 2 - The Name Nobody Was Supposed to Say
August took the envelope from Elsie with both hands.
"Who gave you this?"
"My mom."
"When?"
"Before she went to the hospital."
Victoria stepped forward. "August, this is clearly some kind of scam."
Elsie flinched at her voice.
August noticed.
"Have you met this child before?"
"No."
Elsie stared at Victoria's diamond necklace. "You're the lady from the picture."
Victoria's mouth tightened.
"What picture?" August asked.
Elsie unzipped the pink backpack. Inside were two shirts, a toothbrush, a library book, and a cracked plastic frame. She handed it to August.
The photograph showed Caroline, older than the last image he remembered, standing in front of a cheap apartment building. One arm wrapped around a much younger Elsie.
At the edge of the frame, partly reflected in a parked car window, was Victoria.
August looked up slowly.
Victoria shook her head. "I have never been there."
"Then why are you in the photograph?"
"I don't know. Reflections distort things."
His longtime attorney, Nora Pierce, stepped closer. "August, don't open the envelope here."
"Why?"
"Because if this is real, whatever Caroline wanted you to know was hidden for a reason."
Victoria's eyes flicked toward Nora.
August saw it.
Victoria was afraid.
Elsie tugged his sleeve.
"My mom said I wasn't supposed to trust the lady in white."
Victoria was wearing white.
A murmur rolled through the ballroom.
August crouched until he was level with Elsie. "Sweetheart, where is your mother now?"
Elsie's face changed.
"She died twelve days ago."
August shut his eyes.
When he opened them, Victoria was backing toward the side door.
"Stop," he said.
She did.
Then August broke the seal on Caroline's envelope.
Inside was a single key.
And a note.
Dad, if Elsie made it to you, Victoria knows I'm gone.
Do not let her take the child.
May you like
August looked up.
Victoria had vanished.
