Chapter 3 - The Man in the Photograph
Rachel researched Daniel Mercer.
He had existed.
Architect.
Born 1968.
Reported missing in 2001.
No confirmed death.
Evelyn would have been thirty-two.
Daniel was listed as her younger brother.
Rachel stared at the record.
Her mother had lied about being an only child.
Why?
Then she researched the Mercer trust.
The house was only one asset.
There were six properties.
A commercial building.
Investment accounts.
Land in Virginia.
Estimated combined value:
$11.8 million.
Rachel almost laughed.
Vanessa had called her poor.
Meanwhile Rachel had unknowingly been the beneficiary of a multimillion-dollar family trust.
But wealth did not answer the real question.
Why hide it?
Rachel opened the flash drive.
One video.
Evelyn appeared on-screen.
Thinner than Rachel remembered.
Sick.
But completely lucid.
“Rachel, if you're seeing this, then Vanessa either frightened you out of the house or Daniel finally came back.”
Rachel froze.
Daniel was alive when Evelyn recorded this?
Evelyn continued.
“Do not assume your sister stole the house. I let her believe it would become hers.”
Rachel frowned.
Why?
“Vanessa has spent most of her life believing money means love. That is partly my fault.”
Evelyn coughed.
Then:
“But the house was never the real inheritance.”
The video cut.
Another file began.
Security footage.
Same living room.
Six months earlier.
Vanessa entered alone.
She walked directly to the antique vase.
Touched it.
Then stopped.
A man appeared from the hallway.
Rachel leaned closer.
Older.
Gray-haired.
But unmistakably the man from the photograph.
Daniel Mercer.
Alive.
Vanessa looked furious.
No audio.
Daniel handed her something.
Vanessa slapped it away.
He pointed toward the vase.
She shook her head.
Then Daniel mouthed something.
Rachel replayed it.
Three words.
Rachel could read them.
TELL HER NOW.
Vanessa had known Daniel was alive.
For at least six months.
Then Caleb appeared behind Rachel.
“Mom?”
She closed the laptop.
“What's wrong?”
“Nothing.”
He noticed the photograph.
“That's Grandpa Danny.”
Rachel stopped breathing.
“What did you call him?”
Caleb pointed at Daniel.
“Grandpa Danny.”
“Where have you seen him?”
Caleb shrugged.
“At Aunt Vanessa's.”
“When?”
“When you were working.”
Rachel's heart began pounding.
Vanessa had babysat Caleb several times.
“Did Aunt Vanessa tell you not to tell me?”
Caleb thought.
“No.”
“Then why didn't you?”
“He said you knew him.”
Rachel swallowed.
“What did he do with you?”
“Played airplanes.”
The wooden airplane.
Rachel looked toward Caleb's backpack.
“Where did you get your airplane?”
“Aunt Vanessa gave it to me.”
Rachel had assumed it came from Michael's old belongings.
It hadn't.
Caleb continued:
“Grandpa Danny said Daddy used to play with it.”
Rachel's entire body went cold.
Michael.
Her husband had died in a construction accident four years earlier.
Daniel Mercer disappeared twenty-five years ago.
How could Daniel have known Michael as a child?
Unless Michael's family history was another lie.
Rachel called Vanessa again.
This time her sister answered.
Rachel said only:
“Caleb remembers Daniel.”
Vanessa began crying.
Not fake crying.
Rachel knew the difference.
“I'm sorry.”
“For what?”
“I thought Mom would tell you before she died.”
“Tell me what?”
May you like
Vanessa whispered:
“Michael wasn't the first Mercer man you married.”
