Daniel did.
He pushed through the crowd and ran into the rain, barely able to breathe.
“Emily?”
The woman’s eyes filled with tears.
For eight years, Daniel had visited her grave every Sunday.
Now she was standing three feet away from him.
Alive.
“I tried to come back,” Emily whispered. “Every time I got close to you, Vanessa found me first.”
Daniel looked back through the glass doors.
Vanessa was gone.
So was the maid.
Then Emily grabbed his arm.
“Daniel, listen to me. We don’t have much time.”
“What happened to you?”
Emily looked at their daughter.
“Vanessa paid someone to make the accident look fatal. They gave you another woman’s body and told me you were the one who wanted us gone.”
Daniel’s face went pale.
“She told you I did it?”
“For years.”
Then the little girl suddenly spoke.
“Mom… tell him about the basement.”
Emily froze.
Daniel stared at her.
“What basement?”
Before she could answer, Daniel’s phone rang.
Vanessa.
He answered immediately.
Her voice was strangely calm.
“You should have stayed inside, Daniel.”
Then Daniel heard something in the background.
A man crying.
Daniel recognized the voice instantly.
It was his younger brother.
Vanessa continued:
“If you want to know why Emily really disappeared… come to the old Cross estate alone.”
Daniel tightened his grip on the phone.
Then Vanessa whispered one final sentence:
“And bring the girl. Because she isn’t your daughter.”
The call ended.
Daniel slowly looked down at the child.
Emily began crying.
And Daniel realized there was still one secret everyone had been hiding from him.
