Chapter 2 - The Photograph in the Envelope
The photograph showed me outside a campus parking garage, clutching a paper bag to my stomach. It was dated three years and ten months earlier, three days after I'd learned I was pregnant.
On the back, someone had written: WALK AWAY OR HE DIES NEXT.
I pressed Lily closer. "Where did you get this?"
"A box from my father's private office," Ethan said. "It was delivered to me six months ago after a legal dispute over his estate."
"Your father was already dead when they took this."
"I know."
The envelope also contained a carbon copy of a letter. It claimed I had accepted fifty thousand dollars to leave Ethan and never speak of Malcolm Caldwell's business. At the bottom was my name, written in an imitation of my signature.
"I never took money," I said.
"I checked. There was no payment to you."
"Then why didn't you ask me? You had three months. You passed me in the hallway every morning."
He lowered his eyes. "Because I thought the person behind the threats was watching this house. I wanted to know who contacted you."
"You let me clean your floors while you ran an investigation?"
"I thought keeping you employed here would keep you close to security."
"You should have given me the choice."
Grace Lin, the estate manager, came in with an ice pack and a first-aid kit. Lily reached for the ice pack because it was shaped like a penguin. That small ordinary gesture nearly broke me.
"I've called Dr. Patel," Grace said. "She's expecting you at her office."
Ethan offered to drive. I said no. I would take a car with Grace and make my own decisions. He didn't argue.
As I carried Lily out, Victoria appeared at the staircase. Her polished smile vanished when she saw the photograph in my hand.
"Careful with old stories, Rosa," she said. "You never know which ones come back with teeth."
Ethan took one step toward her. "How do you know what she's holding?"
May you like
Victoria's answer came too quickly.
"Because I was there when she left."
