Chapter 3
Daniel checked the back door twice while I stood at the front window, looking past my reflection into the dark. Every latch seemed secure. That should have comforted me. Instead, I kept seeing the empty space beneath the hall cabinet.
“Lily’s still asleep,” Daniel said quietly. “I’ll call Emily.”
I moved away from the window. “Ask who left the wedding early.”
He glanced at me, then nodded and put the call on speaker. Emily answered after two rings, her voice tired but alert.
“Daniel? Is something wrong?”
“Maybe. Did anyone leave the reception early—anyone you noticed?”
There was a pause. In the background, I heard a door close and the muffled rush of traffic.
“Brenda left before the last dance,” Emily said. “I saw her heading toward the lobby. Gavin stayed behind.”
“Did she say where she was going?”
“She told me she had a headache.” Emily hesitated. “Why?”
Daniel looked at me. I didn’t have an answer that wouldn’t make the night feel worse.
“We’re checking something,” he said. “Thanks, Em. We’ll explain tomorrow.”
When he ended the call, the silence settled heavily around us. Brenda had left early. That didn’t mean she’d been here, or that she knew where we lived. It did mean she hadn’t been standing beside Gavin when he sent that warning.
A knock at the front door made me flinch.
Daniel stepped in front of me, one hand raised. He checked the peephole, then looked back.
“It’s Mr. Alvarez.”
Our neighbor stood on the porch in a robe and house slippers, his gray hair flattened on one side. Daniel opened the door only as far as the chain allowed.
“Sorry to bother you this late,” Mr. Alvarez said. His eyes shifted past Daniel to me. “I thought you should know about something I saw.”
My stomach tightened. “What did you see?”
“A delivery van. No logo I could make out. It came down the street twice while you were gone.” He rubbed his palm over his robe. “The driver got out the second time and took pictures of your house.”
Daniel’s face hardened. “You saw him take pictures?”
“Across the street. Near the mailbox.” Mr. Alvarez leaned closer to the gap. “I figured he was lost at first. But he didn’t ring the bell or leave anything. He just pointed his phone at the windows, then drove off.”
“How long ago?” I asked.
“Maybe an hour. I’m sorry. I should’ve called you sooner.”
“You called when you could,” Daniel said. He thanked him and promised we’d be careful.
After he shut the door, Daniel lowered the chain and checked the lock again. I watched him, trying to decide whether the neighbor’s story made the fresh shoeprint in the hall seem more likely—or only made it harder to breathe.
My phone buzzed on the entry table. I jumped before I could stop myself.
A message from an unknown number appeared on the screen: I’m outside. Please don’t make me leave.
Daniel took the phone from my hand and looked through the front window without touching the glass.
“Someone’s on the porch,” he said.
“Brenda?”
“I can’t tell.”
He went to the side window, keeping to the wall, and peered through a narrow gap in the curtains. His shoulders eased a fraction.
“It’s her.”
“Alone?”
“Looks like it.”
I didn’t ask him to open the door. I didn’t tell him to send her away, either. Brenda had been standing beside Gavin when he tried to turn my life into a punch line. Now she was on our porch after leaving the wedding early, asking us not to make her go.
Daniel checked the porch through the peephole again. Then he opened the door, leaving the chain in place.
Brenda stood under the porch light, her red wedding dress hidden beneath a tan coat. Her eyes flicked toward the narrow strip between the door and frame.
“I need to talk to Nora.”
“You can talk from there,” Daniel said.
“Gavin sent me.”
My fingers curled against my palm. “To do what?”
“To warn you. He knows about the book.”
Daniel’s expression changed—not surprise, exactly, but the look of a man hearing the fear he’d tried to keep out of a child’s bedroom.
“Did he tell you where it was?” he asked.
“No. He asked if I knew what Claire had left for Lily. He wanted to know whether you’d kept it.” Brenda’s voice shook, and she pressed her lips together before continuing. “I told him I didn’t know.”
“Why would he believe you?” I asked.
“Because I didn’t know.”
That answer came too quickly to settle anything. “You were with him when he left me.”
Her gaze dropped. “I know.”
“And now you want me to believe you came here because you care what happens to us?”
“I came because he’s frightened.” Brenda lifted her eyes again. “And when Gavin gets frightened, he makes other people pay for it.”
Daniel glanced toward the hall, where the stairs led up to Lily’s room. Brenda followed his gaze and lowered her voice.
“I’m not asking you to trust me. I’m asking you to listen.”
The phone rang in Daniel’s hand. Gavin’s name lit the screen.
Brenda went pale. Daniel answered without greeting and put it on speaker.
“Where are you?” Gavin demanded.
Brenda stared at the phone. “At Nora’s.”
“Get away from that house.”
“No.”
“Brenda, don’t make this worse.”
She took one step closer to the doorway, though the chain still divided us. “You’re the one who sent me.”
“I sent you to tell them to leave it alone. You’ve done that. Now come home.”
I watched Brenda’s face. Her hands trembled inside the sleeves of her coat, but she didn’t look away from the phone.
“You don’t get to decide when I’m finished,” she said.
Gavin’s voice sharpened. “You have no idea what you’re doing.”
“Maybe I’m starting to.”
She ended the call. For a moment, no one spoke. The quiet felt fragile enough to break if any of us moved too quickly.
“Why would he send you here?” Daniel asked.
“Because he thinks I can make Nora listen. Because he thinks I still do what he says.” Brenda swallowed. “I’m not sure he knows the difference between a warning and a threat anymore.”
“Does he know where the book was hidden?” I asked.
“I don’t know.” She looked at me directly. “But he asked about Claire’s things. He said the book could make Daniel look guilty.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened. “Guilty of what?”
Brenda shook her head. “He said you signed the key page.”
The words hung between us. Daniel went still. I looked from him to Brenda, searching her face for a reason she’d brought that particular claim to our door.
“Gavin said Daniel signed it?” I asked.
“He said it was proof Daniel had approved what happened. I didn’t see the whole page. I only heard him say the signature was there.”
Before I could ask what she meant by what happened, a sharp crack split the room.
The front window burst inward.
May you like
Daniel grabbed my arm and yanked me down as glass scattered across the floor. A stone struck the wall behind us and dropped into the entryway with a hard, final clatter.
For one suspended second, the only sound was the rain of tiny shards settling around our feet. Then, upstairs, Lily screamed.
