Chapter 3 - Ethan’s First Wife
Emma called Ethan from the ambulance.
He was forty minutes away on a business trip.
She expected confusion.
Instead, after she said the name Daniel Mercer, there was silence.
“Ethan?”
“I’m coming home.”
“You know him.”
Another pause.
“I know the name.”
“And your first wife?”
This time, Ethan did not answer at all.
Emma’s heart sank.
“Ethan.”
“There are things I should have told you.”
The sentence hurt more than she expected.
“Were you married?”
“No.”
Daniel had lied.
Relief came too quickly.
Then Ethan added:
“But I was engaged.”
Emma closed her eyes.
“To whom?”
“Her name was Claire Rowan.”
Emma had never heard it.
They had been together when Ethan was twenty-four.
Claire lived in the mansion briefly.
Three months before their wedding, she disappeared.
Emma’s relief vanished.
“What does disappeared mean?”
“She left.”
“Did you see her leave?”
“No.”
“Did she contact you?”
“One letter.”
“Do you still have it?”
Another silence.
“No.”
Emma almost laughed.
Every answer created something worse.
When Ethan returned that night, police had sealed the basement.
Daniel remained in custody.
Eleanor had been taken to the hospital for evaluation after complaining of chest pain, then transferred for questioning.
Henry stayed at the mansion because officers had not charged him.
Emma did not want him near Lily.
That hurt him.
She did not care.
Ethan arrived just after midnight.
He looked at the hidden door and stopped.
“You knew.”
Emma saw it immediately.
“No.”
“You knew the basement existed.”
“Yes.”
Henry turned sharply.
Ethan ignored him.
“When I was a child, I was told it was an old wine cellar.”
“Did you know about the locked room?”
“No.”
“Claire?”
His eyes lowered.
She had discovered the basement before disappearing.
Specifically, she found a box of photographs hidden behind a wall panel.
The photographs showed young Eleanor.
Young Henry.
Daniel Mercer.
And another woman.
Same mansion.
Same staircase.
The woman appeared in several images wearing a pale-yellow dress.
On the back of one, Claire had written:
WHO IS MARA?
Emma felt cold.
“Mara who?”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel’s statement to police offered another piece.
He claimed Claire did not run away.
He claimed she discovered something about the family and threatened to expose it.
Henry confronted her.
Eleanor helped cover it up.
Then Claire vanished.
Emma stared at Henry.
“Is that true?”
Henry’s face went gray.
“No.”
“What part?”
“All of it.”
Ethan looked at his father.
“You told me Claire left because she was afraid of marriage.”
“She did.”
“Then why did she leave everything?”
Henry had no answer.
That was the first time Ethan truly looked frightened.
Police obtained old missing-person records.
Claire Rowan had never been formally reported missing.
Her mother believed she had moved overseas after receiving a letter supposedly written by Claire.
Ethan received a similar letter.
Both were typed.
Neither contained a signature.
Emma whispered:
“Someone made everyone believe she left.”
Ethan’s hands trembled.
Henry said:
“Claire chose to go.”
“Then where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel, meanwhile, gave police one exact claim.
He said Claire discovered Mara’s identity.
He said Eleanor begged her to keep silent.
He said Henry threatened Daniel when Daniel tried to help Claire.
Then, twenty-seven years ago, Daniel disappeared too.
“Where did you go?” the detective asked him.
Daniel answered:
“Prison.”
For theft.
A conviction based partly on Henry’s testimony.
Daniel served eight years.
He claimed the stolen jewelry had been planted.
After release, he stayed away.
Until three weeks ago.
“What changed?”
Daniel smiled.
“I received a photograph.”
“Of what?”
He slid a printed copy across the interview table.
The photograph showed the concealed basement door.
Open.
On the floor lay a newspaper dated three weeks earlier.
And beside it—
May you like
a woman’s bare foot.
Someone was alive down there.
