Chapter 3
When my husband came downstairs, I pushed the black phone back into the gift bag.
He rubbed the water from his hair with a towel. “What was that sound?”
“Claire’s gift.” I opened the bag.
He reached for it, but I pulled out the champagne first and handed it to him. “Put this in the refrigerator for me.”
As he turned away, I quickly slipped the black phone into my pocket and motioned for Lily to go upstairs.
Then Daniel’s phone rang. He glanced at the number, walked into his study, and closed the door.
I took out the black phone. It required a pass-code.
I tried my sister’s birthday. Wrong.
Then I entered Lily’s birthday.
The phone unlocked.
A new email contained several photographs and a note.
In the pictures, Daniel was holding Claire in his arms and kissing her in the hospital parking lot.
Claire was wearing the pearl earrings I had given her.
The photos were dated the day of my surgery.
Daniel had said he’d been called in for an emergency shift. Claire had claimed she couldn’t get a flight back in time.
I had waited alone for the anesthesia to wear off—and sent them both the same message:
Don’t worry about me.
With a bitter smile, I backed up the photographs to my email. I didn’t reply to the unknown number. Instead, I texted my mother:
Come get Lily tomorrow morning. Keep her with you for two days. Daniel and I need to talk.
She replied with a simple Okay. Only then did my clenched hand loosen slightly.
Another message appeared on the black phone:
Tomorrow, 10:00 a.m. St. Margaret’s Cemetery. Bring the original.
As I studied the message, I heard Daniel speaking inside the study.
“I’ll take it to the hospital myself tomorrow morning.”
Then: “Destroy it after you scan it. We can’t let her see that signature again.”
I crept closer to the door, raised my own phone, and started recording.
“Don’t try to scare me with Evelyn,” Daniel snapped. “She can’t come back.”
A chair scraped against the floor.
I hurried back to the kitchen.
When Daniel emerged from the study, I was warming milk for Lily.
“Were you in my study?” he asked, watching me closely.
“I came to ask if you wanted some.” I kept my voice casual.
“You never drink milk.” His suspicion didn’t fade.
“I can’t sleep tonight.” I raised my eyes to the stranger I knew better than anyone.
He studied me for several seconds, then reached for the glass.
I didn’t release it.
“It’s for Lily.”
At that moment, the black phone rang inside my pocket.
It wasn’t a ringtone Daniel recognized.
He instantly went on alert. His gaze dropped to my pocket.
“Take it out.”
I backed around to the other side of the dining table, pulled out the phone, answered it, and turned on the speaker while keeping my own phone’s recorder running.
A woman said my name.
“Emma.”
Her voice sounded so much like my sister—the sister who had died three years ago—that I nearly answered. Instead, I bit down on my lip.
The glass slipped from Daniel’s hand and shattered on the floor. Milk splashed everywhere.
“Who are you?” I asked without emotion.
The woman ignored my question.
“Tomorrow at ten. Don’t give the original to Daniel.”
“How can you prove—” I began, trying to draw out more information.
The call ended.
I looked at the wreckage on the floor. Daniel almost never lost control like that.
“Do you know her?” I asked.
He didn’t answer. He merely stared at the phone and murmured, “Evelyn is dead.”
I frowned. “I never said who it was.”
He finally realized his mistake and looked up at me.
I turned my own phone around.
The recording timer was still running.