Chapter 2 - THE NAME EMILY NEVER TOLD HIM
Ryan had never heard the name Ava Bennett.
That fact bothered him immediately.
If the frightened child standing inside his hallway belonged to Claire, Emily’s younger sister, then his wife had kept something from him for years.
Something enormous.
But the little girl was trembling.
Questions could wait ten minutes.
Ryan took off the dark overshirt he had thrown on after getting out of bed and wrapped it around Ava’s shoulders.
She flinched.
Ryan stopped.
“Okay.”
He lowered his hands.
“You can put it on yourself.”
Ava studied him.
Then accepted it.
Lily climbed onto the hallway bench and patted the space beside her.
Ava sat.
Lily handed her a sandwich.
Ava ate as if she had been trying not to think about hunger.
Emily covered her mouth.
Ryan looked at his wife.
“Kitchen.”
“Ryan—”
“Now.”
Emily glanced at Ava.
“I don’t want to leave her.”
“Neither do I.”
His voice stayed controlled.
“That’s why we’re talking ten feet away.”
Ryan called the family physician first.
Then his security chief.
Then, after a hesitation, he called the police—but requested that responding officers remain outside until the doctor examined Ava.
He had no intention of hiding a child.
He also had no intention of surrounding a terrified six-year-old with uniforms before learning whether she needed medical care.
Emily followed him into the kitchen.
Ryan closed the glass door.
“Start.”
Emily’s hands shook.
“My sister had a baby.”
“I know.”
Ryan held up the photograph.
“I was there.”
“That isn’t what I mean.”
Ryan waited.
Emily looked toward the hallway.
“Claire named her Ava.”
Ryan frowned.
“You told me the baby died.”
The words landed between them.
Six years earlier, Claire had gone into labor unexpectedly.
Emily had been out of state visiting their mother after surgery.
Claire called Ryan because she had no one else nearby.
Ryan drove her to Northwestern Memorial.
He stayed.
He remembered the baby crying.
He remembered Claire laughing and crying at the same time.
He remembered falling asleep in the chair after twenty hours awake.
Three days later, Emily returned.
A week after that, Claire vanished from Chicago.
Emily told Ryan there had been complications.
The infant had died.
Claire could not bear staying near the family and had left.
Ryan had believed her.
Until now.
“You lied to me.”
Emily’s eyes filled.
“I repeated what I was told.”
“By whom?”
She looked away.
“Claire.”
Ryan stared.
“Claire told you her daughter died?”
“Not exactly.”
“Emily.”
“She called me.”
“When?”
“Eleven days after the birth.”
Ryan’s anger sharpened.
“You never told me.”
“She was hysterical.”
“What did she say?”
Emily wrapped both arms around herself.
“She said she had to disappear.”
“Why?”
“She wouldn’t explain.”
Ryan looked toward Ava.
“Did she say the baby was alive?”
Emily did not answer.
That was an answer.
Ryan stepped closer.
“You knew.”
“I knew Claire left the hospital with her.”
“For how long?”
Emily's voice cracked.
“Three days.”
Ryan stared at her.
“Then?”
“I got a call from a number I didn’t recognize.”
“Claire?”
“No.”
“Who?”
“A man.”
Ryan felt something cold settle in his chest.
“What man?”
“He said there had been a fire.”
Emily swallowed.
“At a cabin in Wisconsin.”
Ryan remembered the news story.
Remote property.
Electrical fire.
Two unidentified victims believed to be a young woman and infant.
The bodies had been badly burned.
Emily had broken down that week.
Ryan thought she was grieving her sister.
Maybe she had been.
“He said Claire and Ava were dead?”
Emily nodded.
“Who was he?”
“He said he worked with a private investigator Claire had hired.”
“And you believed him?”
“I was twenty-nine. My sister had vanished with a newborn. Then the police confirmed they believed the victims were a woman and baby.”
Ryan’s voice lowered.
“Believed.”
Emily wiped tears from her face.
“There was nothing left to test properly. At least that’s what we were told.”
Ryan looked again through the glass.
Ava had finished one sandwich.
Lily was giving her another.
Ryan had spent six years thinking Claire and her child were dead.
Now the child was in his hallway.
And she had called him Daddy.
He turned back.
“Why did she call me that?”
Emily looked at the photograph in his hand.
“I don’t know.”
“Don’t lie again.”
“I’m not.”
Ryan studied her.
She looked terrified.
But not guilty of everything.
Only something.
“Why were you so afraid when you saw her?”
Emily’s eyes moved toward Ava.
“Because I saw Claire three months ago.”
Ryan went still.
“What?”
Emily immediately looked as though she wished she could pull the words back.
Ryan’s voice became dangerously calm.
“You saw your supposedly dead sister three months ago?”
“Yes.”
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“She begged me not to.”
“Where?”
“A diner outside Evanston.”
“Why?”
“She said someone had found her.”
“Who?”
“She wouldn’t give me a name.”
Ryan pressed both palms against the counter.
“You saw her daughter?”
“No.”
“Did Claire say Ava was alive?”
Emily hesitated.
“She said she had kept her safe.”
Ryan looked toward the hallway again.
“Apparently not.”
The family physician arrived twenty minutes later.
Dr. Elaine Morris examined Ava gently in one of the guest bedrooms.
Dehydrated.
Underfed.
Several old bruises on her knees and arms consistent with climbing and falls.
No signs of recent serious physical injury.
Ryan felt his lungs work normally again.
Ava refused to let Lily leave.
So Lily sat beside her holding a stuffed rabbit.
Emily remained near the doorway.
Ryan crouched several feet away.
“Ava?”
She looked at him.
“You called me Daddy.”
Her face tightened.
“Did somebody tell you I was your dad?”
Ava nodded.
“Who?”
She looked immediately toward the closed bedroom door.
Ryan followed her gaze.
“Are you scared of someone?”
Another nod.
“Who?”
Ava whispered something.
Ryan leaned closer.
“What?”
“The man with shiny hands.”
Ryan frowned.
“Shiny hands?”
She touched her wrists.
“Here.”
Cufflinks.
Ryan’s mind moved quickly.
“Did he hurt you?”
Ava shook her head.
“He told Mommy if she talked…”
She stopped.
Ryan waited.
Ava’s eyes filled with tears.
“What would happen if your mom talked?”
The child looked at him.
“He said Lily would disappear too.”
Ryan felt every muscle in his body tighten.
Ava knew Lily’s name.
May you like
Someone threatening Claire knew Ryan’s daughter.
And that meant whatever had driven Claire into hiding six years ago had never ended.
