Chapter 4 - The Room No One Knew AboutWe searched Vivienne's house that evening.
The police had obtained a warrant.
Behind a bookshelf in her study, we found a hidden door.
Inside was a room.
No windows.
No furniture except a desk and filing cabinets.
The walls were covered with photographs of me.
My prenatal appointments.
My grocery trips.
My visits with friends.
My conversations with Reid's relatives.
Even photographs of me sleeping.
I covered my mouth.
Reid stood beside me, shaking.
“I should have protected you.”
“You didn't know.”
“I should have.”
Daniel opened a drawer.
Inside were dozens of medical forms.
Some were mine.
Some belonged to other women.
All had similar allegations.
Unstable.
Unfit.
Emotionally compromised.
Daniel stared at them.
“She has done this before.”
A hidden camera was still running in the corner.
An officer removed it.
Then Reid noticed something on the desk.
A photograph of him.
Taken from inside the house.
The date was yesterday.
But Reid had been overseas.
Someone had been inside our home before he returned.
That meant the enemy was still watching.
At midnight, I woke to a sound downstairs.
A soft click.
I reached for Reid.
He was already awake.
He raised one finger.
Stay.
He moved toward the hallway.
A shadow passed beneath the bedroom door.
Then silence.
Reid opened it.
Nobody.
But on the floor was a white envelope.
Inside was a single sentence.
YOUR DAUGHTER IS NOT SAFE UNTIL YOU KNOW WHO HER FATHER REALLY IS.
I stared at the words.
“What does that mean?”
Reid's face changed.
“I don't know.”
Then he looked toward me.
“Clara, there is something I never told you.”
My heart sank.
“Before we married, I was investigating financial crimes connected to my family.”
“Your family?”
“My father.”
I had always known Reid's father had died years ago.
But I had never known how.
Reid told me his father had been suspected of laundering money through private foundations.
“He denied it.”
“Was he guilty?”
“I never found out.”
“What does this have to do with our daughter?”
“I don't know.”
Then Daniel entered.
He held another document.
“This just came from the military.”
Reid read it.
His face went white.
“What?”
“The operation where Reid disappeared wasn't a standard mission.”
Daniel swallowed.
“Someone inside the command structure altered the records.”
Reid looked at me.
“The person who ordered my death on paper had authorization from someone in my family.”
Vivienne was not the mastermind.
She was following orders.
And somewhere above her was someone with access to military records.
May you like
Someone powerful enough to erase a man.
Someone who had been waiting for our child to be born.
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