Chapter 2 - The Woman in the Darkness
The gun was in Adrian’s hand before the laugh ended.
“Stay behind me.”
His voice carried none of the grief Clara had seen seconds earlier.
This was the other Adrian Blackwood.
The one Chicago feared.
Lily grabbed the back of his jacket.
Clara pressed herself against the nursery wall.
“Adrian,” the woman whispered again.
“Show yourself.”
Nothing.
Then the curtains moved.
Adrian aimed.
“Now.”
A shape stepped from the darkness.
Lily inhaled sharply.
“Mommy?”
Adrian nearly dropped the gun.
The woman looked almost exactly like the photographs.
Almost.
Her dark hair was shorter. A thin scar ran from her temple toward her ear. Her face was thinner, older, marked by years that no photograph could explain.
But those eyes were unmistakable.
Evelyn Blackwood.
Adrian’s wife.
Lily took one step.
Adrian caught her.
“No.”
Evelyn’s face crumpled.
“My baby.”
“Don't move,” Adrian warned.
“Adrian—”
“Six years.”
His voice cracked.
“You had six years.”
Evelyn stared at him.
“You think I chose this?”
Clara remained frozen near the bookshelf.
Evelyn suddenly looked at her.
The tenderness vanished.
“Get her away from Lily.”
Adrian glanced toward Clara.
“Why?”
“She isn't who you think she is.”
Clara felt the room tilt.
“I don't even know you.”
Evelyn laughed bitterly.
“No. But I know your name.”
Adrian’s gaze hardened.
“Explain.”
Evelyn opened her mouth.
A gunshot exploded downstairs.
Lily screamed.
Adrian shoved her toward Clara.
“Take her into the bathroom. Lock it.”
“You just heard your wife tell you not to trust me.”
“I heard a woman who has been missing for six years make an accusation without evidence. Move.”
Another shot.
Then shouting.
Security alarms erupted through the manor.
Clara grabbed Lily.
“Come on.”
Lily resisted.
“Daddy!”
Adrian knelt long enough to touch her cheek.
“Go with Clara.”
“But Mommy—”
“Go.”
Something in his voice made her obey.
Clara hurried Lily into the adjoining bathroom and locked the heavy door.
Outside, Adrian turned back.
Evelyn was gone.
The window stood open.
He crossed the room and looked outside.
Nothing but rain and darkness.
His phone vibrated.
His security chief, Marcus Reed.
“We've got an intruder on the south grounds.”
“Woman?”
“No. Male. Masked. He shot one of our men.”
“Alive?”
“The guard is. Intruder escaped.”
Adrian stared at the open window.
“Lock the estate down.”
He ended the call.
Then he noticed something on the carpet.
A photograph.
Evelyn must have dropped it.
Adrian picked it up.
His blood went cold.
It showed Clara.
Not Clara at Blackwood Manor.
Clara somewhere else.
She was younger, perhaps nineteen.
Standing beside a man Adrian recognized instantly.
Victor Hale.
On the back, someone had written:
Bennett girl. Keep close.
Adrian slowly turned toward the bathroom.
For the first time since hiring Clara, he wondered whether her arrival had been an accident.
Inside the bathroom, Lily sat on the edge of the bathtub.
“Is Mommy really alive?”
Clara crouched.
“I think so.”
“Why didn't she come home?”
“I don't know.”
“Why did she say you're bad?”
That hurt more than Clara expected.
“I don't know that either.”
Lily studied her carefully.
“I don't think you're bad.”
“Thank you.”
“Bad people don't make cinnamon toast.”
Despite everything, Clara laughed.
Then Lily noticed the necklace around Clara’s neck.
A small silver pendant had slipped outside her uniform.
“What’s that?”
Clara touched it.
“My mother gave it to me.”
“Can I see?”
Clara hesitated, then opened the pendant.
Inside was a tiny photograph.
Her mother, Anna.
Lily leaned closer.
“She looks like you.”
“I hope so.”
“And who's that?”
Clara looked at the faded figure standing beside her mother.
A man whose face had been partly damaged by water.
“I don't know.”
Her mother had refused to discuss him.
The bathroom door opened.
Adrian stood there.
His expression had changed.
“Lily, Marcus is outside. Go with him.”
Lily immediately shook her head.
“No.”
“Sweetheart.”
“I want Mommy.”
Adrian swallowed.
“I know.”
Those two words softened her resistance.
Marcus appeared.
Lily reluctantly took his hand.
As soon as they disappeared, Adrian shut the door.
Then he held up the photograph.
“Tell me why you're standing beside Victor Hale.”
Clara stared.
Her face emptied of color.
“I…”
“Careful.”
“I was nineteen.”
“So?”
“I worked at a private club during college. Catering. Rich businessmen came through constantly.”
“You expect me to believe you don't remember Victor?”
“I remember him.”
Adrian went still.
Clara took the photograph.
“He called himself Mr. Vale.”
Adrian’s expression sharpened.
“He asked me questions about my mother.”
“What questions?”
“Where she lived. Whether she had family. Whether she ever talked about Chicago.”
“Why?”
“I never knew.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“And eleven days ago you just happened to become my daughter's maid?”
“I needed work.”
“At my house.”
“Yes.”
“Who recommended you?”
Clara stopped.
The agency had called her unexpectedly.
A private household needed someone experienced with children.
The salary had been nearly twice what she usually earned.
“I was recruited.”
“By whom?”
“An agency.”
“Name.”
“Sterling Domestic.”
Adrian pulled out his phone.
He made one call.
“Find everything on Sterling Domestic. Ownership, employees, payments. Now.”
Clara folded her arms.
“You think Victor planted me here?”
“I think coincidences are stories people tell themselves when they're afraid of answers.”
“You hired me.”
“My house manager hired you.”
“Then ask him.”
Adrian looked toward the door.
His house manager.
Samuel Pierce.
Sixty-two.
Worked for Adrian’s father before Adrian inherited the estate.
The man who had held Lily at her baptism.
The man who had identified Evelyn’s burned vehicle six years ago.
The person Adrian trusted most inside Blackwood Manor.
Evelyn’s letter echoed through his mind.
The person you trust most in this house knows where I am.
“Where is Pierce?” Adrian asked.
Marcus answered through his earpiece.
“Can't find him.”
Adrian’s blood chilled.
“When was he last seen?”
“Twenty minutes ago.”
“Seal the gates.”
“Already done.”
Adrian turned toward Clara.
Before either could speak, Lily screamed from the hallway.
They ran.
She stood beside an antique console table, staring at something beneath it.
A phone.
Old-fashioned.
Corded.
It had not been there before.
And it was ringing.
Adrian approached slowly.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
He lifted the receiver.
Nobody spoke.
Then came a distorted male voice.
“You opened the room.”
Adrian’s grip tightened.
“Who is this?”
“You should have left your dead wife buried.”
“Where is Evelyn?”
A chuckle.
“Closer than you think.”
Adrian looked at Clara.
The voice continued.
“And Adrian?”
“What?”
“The maid didn't come to your house by accident.”
The line went dead.
Clara stared at him.
“I swear I don't know what this is.”
Adrian didn't answer.
Marcus returned, pale.
“Sir.”
“What?”
“We found Pierce's car.”
“Where?”
“Still in the garage.”
“And Pierce?”
Marcus looked toward Lily before lowering his voice.
“Gone.”
Adrian's phone buzzed again.
This time it was a message containing a single security-camera image.
Samuel Pierce was walking through the west corridor two nights earlier.
Beside him stood Evelyn.
Alive.
Adrian stared at the photograph until his vision blurred.
Then another message appeared.
ASK CLARA WHO HER FATHER WAS.
Clara saw it.
And for the first time, Adrian watched genuine terror enter her eyes.
“My father died before I was born,” she whispered.
Adrian looked at her.
“Who told you that?”
“My mother.”
“And what was his name?”
Clara swallowed.
“She never told me.”
Behind them, Lily picked up the photograph Clara had dropped.
She stared at Victor Hale’s face.
Then at the open silver pendant around Clara’s neck.
The damaged man beside Clara’s mother was barely visible.
But a child noticed what the adults didn't.
The ring.
A thick black ring on his right hand.
The same ring Victor Hale wore in the photograph.
Lily lifted her head.
“Miss Clara?”
Clara turned.
May you like
Lily pointed.
“I think Uncle Victor is in your necklace.”
