Chapter 2 - The Name James Had Forgotten
Dr. Morrison arrived before sunset.
James watched from the library window as the physician's sedan rolled through the gates. For nearly an hour, he had tried to return to business.
He had failed.
Luna.
The name kept circling through his mind.
Mommy named me after the moon because daddy loved the moon.
James didn't know whether he loved the moon.
That was the problem.
Five years of his life existed with sharp, brutal clarity. Everything before the accident was a locked room.
Doctors had called it retrograde amnesia.
Rebecca had called it a blessing.
“You survived,” she had told him countless times. “Why torture yourself trying to remember a life that nearly killed you?”
For years, James had accepted that.
Now a starving child had arrived carrying evidence that his forgotten life contained a wife.
And perhaps a daughter.
Victor entered without knocking.
James turned.
“Well?”
“Dr. Morrison is examining her.”
“I mean the photograph.”
Victor placed a tablet on the desk.
“I had the image scanned.”
The photograph appeared on the screen.
James stared at his younger self.
He looked happy.
That disturbed him more than anything else.
James Thornton understood victory, satisfaction, power and revenge.
He didn't recognize the expression on that man's face.
Love.
Victor enlarged the bride.
“I ran facial recognition privately.”
“And?”
“Her name was Evelyn Park.”
James repeated it.
“Evelyn.”
Pain stabbed behind his eyes.
Rain.
A woman's laughter.
Moonlight reflected on dark water.
Then—
Gone.
Victor noticed.
“You remembered something.”
“No.”
“James.”
“A fragment.”
Victor remained silent.
James looked at the photograph again.
“What did you find?”
“Evelyn Park was born in Seattle. Her mother was Korean American. Her father taught architecture at Northwestern. Both parents are deceased.”
“And the marriage?”
Victor's expression changed.
“That is where it gets strange.”
James leaned back.
“There is no marriage certificate.”
Rebecca appeared in the doorway.
“Because there was no marriage.”
Both men turned.
She entered wearing a cream dress, perfectly composed again.
“The photograph is fake.”
Victor's gaze hardened.
“I didn't say that.”
“You said there's no certificate.”
“That isn't the same thing.”
Rebecca approached James.
“Darling, think rationally. Someone finds an old photograph, manipulates it, sends a child here and invents a tragic story. You're a wealthy man. This happens.”
James studied her.
“How did you know the woman was Evelyn Park?”
Silence.
Rebecca's face changed for less than a second.
But James saw it.
“I didn't.”
“You just said there was no marriage.”
“You've been asking questions. I assumed Victor found a name.”
“No.”
Victor's voice was cold.
“I hadn't said her name before you entered.”
Rebecca looked between them.
James stood.
“Who was Evelyn Park?”
“I don't know.”
“Wrong answer.”
His voice wasn't loud.
It didn't need to be.
Rebecca's jaw tightened.
Before she could respond, Dr. Morrison appeared.
“James.”
James immediately turned.
“How is she?”
The doctor removed his glasses.
“Malnourished. Dehydrated. Several healed injuries. Nothing immediately life-threatening, but she's been living rough for some time.”
James felt anger rise without knowing where to put it.
“How long?”
“Months, possibly.”
“And DNA?”
“I took samples from both of you.”
Rebecca stepped forward.
“That isn't necessary.”
James looked at her.
Nobody spoke.
Rebecca slowly lowered her hand.
Dr. Morrison continued.
“I'll rush the test.”
“How quickly?”
“Tomorrow.”
James nodded.
Then Morrison hesitated.
“There is something else.”
He handed James a small plastic evidence bag.
Inside was a silver necklace.
A crescent moon hung from its chain.
James stopped breathing.
His fingers touched his chest.
Nothing was there.
Yet suddenly he could feel a phantom weight against his skin.
A necklace.
Not that one.
Another crescent.
A woman fastening it around his neck.
“For when you forget where home is.”
James gripped the desk.
The room tilted.
“James?”
Victor caught his shoulder.
A memory tore through him.
Evelyn laughing beneath snowfall.
His hand around her waist.
A tiny apartment kitchen.
Her forehead pressed to his.
Then another image.
Rebecca.
Standing across a hospital corridor.
Arguing with someone.
James staggered backward.
Rebecca went pale.
“What did you see?”
James stared at her.
That question was too fast.
Too frightened.
Before he could answer, a scream came from upstairs.
James ran.
Victor followed.
They reached Luna's bedroom to find the child backed against a wall, trembling violently.
A broken glass lay on the carpet.
A maid stood near the door.
“What happened?”
Luna pointed toward the open window.
“There was a man.”
Victor immediately crossed the room.
“Where?”
“Outside.”
“This is the second floor.”
“He was watching me.”
James crouched before Luna.
“Did you recognize him?”
She shook her head.
Then stopped.
“Maybe.”
James's blood chilled.
“From where?”
Luna looked toward Rebecca, who had just arrived behind them.
Her little face lost color.
“Mommy had a picture.”
Rebecca froze.
Luna pointed past her.
“Of him.”
Victor and James exchanged a look.
“Who?” James asked.
Luna whispered:
“The man who came to our apartment the night Mommy disappeared.”
Rebecca's hand tightened around the doorframe.
James saw it.
So did Victor.
James rose slowly.
“Victor.”
“Yes?”
“Lock the estate down.”
Rebecca stared at him.
“You can't possibly believe—”
“Nobody leaves.”
May you like
For the first time in five years, James watched genuine fear enter Rebecca Hartwell's eyes.
And downstairs, unnoticed beneath the noise of the lockdown, someone slipped into James's study and removed a single medical file from the hidden safe.
