Chapter 2
The first thing Ethan asked of Claire after the service was that she stop asking about Vanessa.
They stood in the reception room while people lined up to offer their sympathy. Plates of untouched food covered a long table. Richard's photograph stood beside the guest book, smiling at everyone as if nothing had happened.
Ethan kept his voice low.
"She was Dad's friend. That's all."
Claire looked at him. "Friends don't sit between a man's wife and son at his funeral."
"She was already seated. Moving her would have caused a scene."
"You could have moved her before I arrived."
His mouth tightened. "You were late."
"I was six minutes early."
"Mom, please." Ethan rubbed a hand over his face. "Dad wanted her there. I respected what he wanted."
The answer changed again every time she questioned him.
First, Vanessa was someone Richard knew through work. Then she was important to him. Now Richard had personally wanted her in the front row.
Claire glanced toward the doorway.
Vanessa and the young man were gone.
"What's her full name?"
"You heard me say it. Vanessa."
"Vanessa what?"
Ethan looked past Claire at the people waiting to speak to him. "Cole."
"And Lucas is her son?"
"Yes."
"How old is he?"
Ethan's eyes returned to hers. For the first time, he seemed to understand that he had answered too much.
"I don't know. Eighteen, maybe."
Claire felt the cold begin in her hands.
He knew Vanessa's last name. He knew her son's name. He knew Lucas had just become an adult.
But a few minutes earlier, he had claimed he did not know how Vanessa knew Richard.
"Did your father know Lucas too?"
"Dad knew a lot of people."
"That isn't an answer."
"It's the only one I have."
Ethan's voice had grown sharper. Two guests turned toward them, and he immediately forced a tired smile onto his face.
Claire recognized that smile.
Richard had used it whenever she asked a question he did not want to answer. It made him look patient and made her look unreasonable.
Ethan leaned closer.
"You buried your husband today. You're upset, and you're looking for something to blame."
For one dangerous second, Claire almost believed him.
She had barely slept in three days. She had forgotten to eat that morning. Twice during the service, she had looked at Richard's coffin and expected him to open his eyes.
Perhaps grief had twisted a bad seating decision into something darker.
Then she remembered Vanessa smiling before Richard's friend finished the fishing story.
She remembered the words spoken beside the lilies.
He always hated them.
"No," Claire said. "I'm looking for the truth."
Ethan's expression went still.
Before he could answer, his uncle approached and pulled him toward a group of waiting relatives.
Claire remained beside the food table. People hugged her. They told her Richard had been a good man. They told her she was strong.
She thanked each person because that was what Richard's widow was supposed to do.
But she watched the doorway.
Vanessa did not return.
Twenty minutes later, Claire slipped out of the reception room and walked back toward the chapel.
The room was almost empty. Two employees were removing programs and gathering tissues from the pews. Most of the flowers had already been taken toward the hearse.
Claire walked to the front row.
The seat beside Ethan's was empty now. A folded program lay on the cushion. Beneath it, Claire saw the edge of a cream-colored card.
She pulled it free.
Two names had been printed in black ink.
VANESSA COLE
LUCAS COLE
Underneath, in smaller capital letters, was one word.
FAMILY.
Claire's fingers tightened around the card.
Ethan had told her Vanessa was only a friend. He had told her the woman had already been sitting there, as if no one had chosen the seat for her.
But someone had printed her name.
Someone had placed her beside Claire's son.
One of the funeral employees noticed the card in Claire's hand and walked quickly toward her.
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Bennett. We should have collected those."
"Who prepared the seating cards?"
The woman stopped. Her eyes moved toward the reception room.
"I only placed them where I was instructed."
"Instructed by whom?"
"I'd have to check the file."
She reached for the card.
Claire stepped back.
The woman's polite smile disappeared.
Before she could ask again, Claire took out her phone. Her hands were shaking, but she held the card steady and took a photograph.
Vanessa Cole.
Lucas Cole.
Family.
Whatever Ethan tried to tell her next, he could no longer make those words disappear.