I wanted to believe Rachel was wrong.
I wanted the voice on the phone to have been Olivia’s, because even a warning from my wife was better than six years of silence.
But Rachel was looking at me with the kind of terror that comes from recognizing a nightmare before anyone else sees it.
“Explain,” I demanded.
Rachel sat on the edge of a chair in the police station’s private interview room. Ruby was beside Sophie, drawing on the back of a discarded form while an officer arranged for a child welfare specialist to meet us.
“After Olivia and Elise reunited,” Rachel said, “they discovered that someone had been using Elise’s identity to move money through accounts connected to the Cole trust. Your father thought Olivia had the records. Victor believed Elise could tell him where they were.””
“So they kidnapped Olivia.””
“Yes. But they couldn’t afford to let anyone know they’d taken her. They needed someone to explain her disappearance without attracting suspicion.””
I felt sick.
“Elise.””
Rachel nodded.
“She knew Olivia better than anyone. She could copy her mannerisms, her voice, even the way she signed her name. When Olivia disappeared, Elise began appearing in places where people expected your wife to be seen.””
I remembered a call from a woman claiming to be Olivia, made two days after her disappearance.
She’d sounded distant and exhausted. She’d told me she needed time alone.
I’d spent months replaying that conversation, wondering why she hadn’t asked about the baby.
“Was that Elise?”” I asked.
“Probably.””
My hands curled into fists.
“She let me believe my wife had abandoned me.””
“Victor made sure you received messages that discouraged you from looking for Olivia. Elise delivered some of them.””
I stood abruptly, sending my chair scraping backward.
“Where is she?””
“I don’t know.””
“Stop saying that! Every time I ask where someone is, you tell me you don’t know.””
Rachel flinched.
“I know what Elise looks like. I know what she did. But I don’t know where she is now.””
I paced the room.
My wife might be alive. Her sister might have impersonated her. My father might have helped arrange the entire nightmare.
And somewhere in Atlanta, a man was photographing my daughter through her bedroom window.
An officer knocked and entered.
“Mr. Cole, we checked the photograph’s metadata. The image was taken from outside your home three nights ago.””
“Can you identify the photographer?””
“Not yet. But we found something else.””
He placed a printed image on the table.
It showed a black SUV parked near my house. A second vehicle was beside it, a dark blue sedan.
A woman stood near the sedan’s passenger door.
Even in the grainy image, I recognized Olivia.
She was wearing the necklace I’d given her.
But the photograph’s timestamp was from eight months earlier.
I leaned forward.
“Where was this taken?””
“Your street. The sedan stayed for eleven minutes before leaving.””
“Did anyone approach my house?””
“Not according to the available footage.””
I stared at the woman.
She looked thinner than I remembered, her shoulders tense beneath a dark coat. But she was alive.
My wife had been within walking distance of our home.
And she hadn’t come inside.
“Can you trace the sedan?””
“We’re trying.””
The officer left.
I sat down slowly.
Rachel looked at the image, then shook her head.
“That’s Elise.””
I felt something crack inside me.
“You’re certain?””
“Look at her left hand.””
The woman wore a ring.
Olivia had stopped wearing rings after her fingers swelled during pregnancy. Elise, according to Rachel, always wore a thin gold band on her right hand.
The image was grainy, but the ring was on the right hand.
I stared until the picture blurred.
“Why would she come to my house?””
“To see the girls,” Rachel said.
“Or to make sure you still believed Olivia was gone.””
I couldn’t imagine how anyone could look at a child’s bedroom window and then drive away.
“What kind of person does that?””
Rachel’s answer was barely audible.
“Someone who believes she has already lost everything.””
Before I could question her further, Ruby climbed down from her chair.
“Daddy Damien?””
I looked at her.
She seemed startled by her own words.
“I’m sorry. Mommy said I shouldn’t call you that.””
My heart twisted.
“Which mommy?””
Ruby rubbed the blackbird pendant between her fingers.
“The mommy in the pictures.””
Rachel went completely still.
“What pictures, sweetheart?””
Ruby reached into the small backpack Rachel had brought with her.
She pulled out a folded sheet of paper covered in crayon drawings. One showed two little girls holding hands. Another showed a woman with long brown hair standing beneath a tree.
The third drawing was different.
It showed a woman lying in a bed, with a man standing beside her.
Above them, Ruby had written a name in uneven letters.
OLIVIA.
“Where did you get this?”” I asked.
Ruby pointed at Rachel.
“Mommy gave it to me.””
Rachel looked confused.
“I’ve never seen that drawing before.””
Ruby frowned.
“You told me to keep it safe.””
Rachel took the paper with shaking hands.
On the back was a short message, written in blue ink.
If Damien ever finds you, tell him the truth about the hospital basement.
Rachel’s face drained of color.
I grabbed her wrist.
“What happened in the basement?””
She tried to pull away.
“Damien, not here.””
“Tell me!””
Ruby began to cry again, and I immediately released Rachel.
She looked at the children, then at the officer outside the room.
“I can’t explain it here. But I can take you to the place where Olivia was last seen.””
“When?””
“Tomorrow morning.””
“Why not tonight?””
“Because the hospital was demolished three years ago. The only surviving records are in a storage facility outside Savannah, and the people guarding them answer to Victor.””
I stared at her.
“You want me to drive into the territory of the man who’s threatening my children?””
“I want you to find your wife.””
“And what if it’s a trap?””
Rachel looked at Sophie and Ruby.
“Then at least we’ll finally know why he never let you find her.””
I agreed to let the police arrange a protected trip the following morning. Before we left the station, I called Martin and told him about the photograph.
He was silent for a long time.
Then he said, “Damien, your father left something else with me. I wasn’t supposed to show it to you until both girls were together.””
“What?””
“A recording.””
“Of whom?””
“Your father. And a woman claiming to be Olivia.””
I gripped the phone.
“When can I hear it?””
“Tomorrow morning. Nine o’clock. My office.””
I thought of the message demanding that I come alone.
“Send it to me now.””
“I can’t. The original is on an old recorder. But I’ll prepare it.””
“Martin, is there anything else you haven’t told me?””
Another pause.
“Yes.””
“What?””
“Your father believed Olivia was alive when he died.””
I stopped breathing.
“How long ago did he learn that?””
“Three days before his death.””
My father had died peacefully in his sleep, according to the official report.
But suddenly, I wondered whether his death had anything to do with the secret he’d carried to his grave.
Martin lowered his voice.
“He left one final instruction. If the twins were ever reunited, I was to tell you that the person who separated them wasn’t the only one who wanted them apart.””
The call ended.
I looked at the two little girls sitting beside each other.
Then I looked at Rachel.
“Who else wanted my daughters separated?””
May you like
Rachel’s eyes filled with tears.
“Someone who believed one of them was never supposed to have been born.””
