Chapter 3 - BEFORE THE WEDDING
I knelt in front of Emma.
"Sweetheart, when did Vanessa show you the other girl?"
Emma thought hard.
"At the ice-cream place."
I remembered the afternoon.
Vanessa and I had been dating for two months. She offered to take Emma for ice cream while I finished a conference call.
"What did she say?"
Emma rubbed Bunny's ear.
"She said the girl was good because she got a new mommy."
Vanessa snapped, "She's four. She mixes things up."
"How did you meet your wife?"
"At a grief-support fundraiser."
"Which one?"
"The Bright Tomorrow Foundation."
Vanessa's eyes moved toward the door.
Ramirez noticed again.
"Vanessa?"
She said nothing.
"Did you know who I was before that night?"
"No."
"Did you know about Emma?"
"Daniel, stop."
"Answer me."
She grabbed her purse.
"I am not doing this."
Ramirez blocked the doorway.
"Mrs. Mercer, we're asking simple questions."
Vanessa's voice dropped.
"You don't understand what you're interfering with."
The detective went still.
"What does that mean?"
Vanessa realized what she had said.
Too late.
Her phone buzzed.
She looked at it.
Ramirez held out her hand.
"May I see that?"
"No."
Vanessa turned the screen facedown.
I caught one word in the notification.
HEARTH.
The detective caught it too.
"What's Hearth?"
"Nothing."
Ramirez's partner began searching public records.
Five minutes later he found a nonprofit.
Hearth Family Transition Services.
Its website promised "support for widowed parents rebuilding safe family systems."
Ramirez looked at her.
"Your brother runs Hearth?"
Vanessa said nothing.
I opened the staff page.
There she was.
A photo from six years earlier.
Vanessa Cross.
Family Reintegration Coordinator.
My wife had not met me by chance.
May you like
She had worked for the organization that invited me into the room where we met.
And according to the archived page, Hearth specialized in families with children under six.
