Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN WITH ISABELLA'S FACE
The woman stood beneath the portico lights.
Nobody moved.
Even the Christmas music seemed too loud.
Vincent held Arthur against his chest.
I had never seen him hold anything that gently.
Then the woman looked toward our window.
She raised one hand.
Leo hid behind my skirt.
“That's not Mom,” he whispered.
Vincent turned toward him.
“How do you know?”
“Mom had a little mark here.”
Leo touched the side of his neck.
“Behind her ear.”
The woman outside lowered her hand.
Her suitcase rolled across the wet stone.
Two guards moved toward her.
“Don't let her leave,” Vincent said.
Sabrina made a sound behind us.
I turned.
Her lipstick had smeared across her teeth.
“Vincent, this is insane.”
“Then you'll have no trouble explaining it.”
She glanced toward the side hallway.
I knew that look.
She had used it whenever Leo caught her searching his room.
Vincent saw it too.
“Stay where I can see you.”
The front doors opened.
Cold air swept into the foyer.
The woman stepped inside.
Up close, the resemblance was worse.
Same dark eyes.
Same narrow nose.
Same scar.
But her gaze moved differently.
Isabella smiled in the old family videos.
This woman watched every exit.
“My name is Claire Mercer,” she said.
Her voice was thin.
“I need to speak with Vincent Caruso.”
“You're speaking to him.”
Claire looked at Arthur.
Her expression cracked.
“Oh, God.”
Leo squeezed my hand.
“Where's Uncle Daniel?”
Claire swallowed.
“He told me to come alone.”
“Where is he now?” Vincent asked.
“I don't know.”
Vincent looked at his head of security.
“Marco. Search the car.”
Marco disappeared.
Claire stared at Sabrina.
“You promised he wouldn't be here.”
Sabrina stepped backward.
“I've never seen you.”
Claire laughed once.
It sounded like something breaking.
“That's what you said about Isabella.”
Vincent moved closer.
I could see the vein in his throat.
“Start talking.”
Claire placed her suitcase on the floor.
“Three years ago, Daniel hired me.”
“For what?”
“To look like your wife.”
Nobody breathed.
Claire opened her handbag.
Inside was a small photograph.
Isabella stood outside a hospital.
Claire stood beside her.
They looked like sisters.
“Who took this?” Vincent asked.
“Daniel.”
Sabrina lunged for the picture.
Marco caught her wrist.
“Enough,” Vincent said.
His voice barely rose.
It didn't need to.
Claire looked at Leo.
“I'm sorry.”
“Don't talk to him,” I said.
The words escaped before I could stop them.
Vincent glanced at me.
Then he nodded.
“Emma is right.”
Claire turned back to him.
“I didn't know about the child.”
“What did you know?”
“Daniel needed a woman seen leaving the hospital.”
She rubbed her palms together.
“He wanted cameras to place Isabella somewhere she wasn't.”
“Why?”
“He said his brother was divorcing her.”
Vincent's jaw tightened.
“We weren't divorcing.”
“I know that now.”
Claire pulled out a folded receipt.
“Someone paid me for the surgery.”
I looked at the scar.
It wasn't old.
It had been made to look old.
“Why come here tonight?” Vincent asked.
Claire opened her mouth.
Then stopped.
The lights flickered.
A distant crash sounded upstairs.
Leo flinched.
I knew that noise.
The nursery door.
I ran.
“Emma!” Vincent called.
I was already climbing.
The second floor smelled of pine cleaner.
I had polished it that morning.
Leo's door stood open.
His dresser drawers lay on the floor.
His blankets had been thrown aside.
And the little wooden music box was gone.
I heard footsteps behind me.
Vincent entered with Leo.
I knelt in front of the boy.
“Did you tell anyone about the music box?”
Leo shook his head.
“Only Mom knew.”
“What's inside it?”
He pressed his lips together.
Vincent crouched.
“You can trust us.”
Leo stared at the empty shelf.
“Mom said it wasn't the box.”
He pointed toward the wall.
“It was what played when you opened it.”
I looked at the tiny screw holes.
The box had been fastened to the shelf.
A wire disappeared through the plaster.
Someone had removed it in a hurry.
Vincent's phone rang.
Marco's voice carried through the speaker.
“Boss, the car is empty.”
“Find Daniel.”
“There's something else.”
Marco hesitated.
“The trunk has a second set of plates.”
Vincent closed his eyes.
“Registration?”
“Same numbers as Isabella's car.”
I felt the floor tilt.
The accident report had been wrong.
Or somebody had wanted it wrong.
Leo tugged my sleeve.
“Emma?”
“Yes, sweetheart?”
“Mom said Arthur would tell us which song.”
He touched the bear's torn seam.
I saw a strip of fabric inside.
It was folded around a tiny brass key.
Vincent carefully pulled it free.
A blue ribbon was tied around the metal.
One word had been stitched into it.
“December.”
Leo shook his head.
“No.”
“What is it?”
“That's the wrong key.”
Vincent looked at him.
Leo's face had gone gray.
“Mom stitched the silver one inside Arthur.”
He looked at the open doorway.
“Somebody changed it.”
A phone vibrated in my apron pocket.
I didn't recognize the number.
The message contained a photograph.
My younger sister, Lily, stood outside her college dorm.
A black SUV waited behind her.
Beneath the picture were six words.
KEEP THE BOY QUIET OR SHE DISAPPEARS.
I stared at the screen.
May you like
Then I heard Sabrina speaking downstairs.
“Emma will do exactly what she's told.”
