Chapter 10 - THE WOMAN WITHOUT A FACE
Sophie refused to explain the drawing at first.
She simply stared at the faceless woman.
“Is that Claire?” I asked.
She shook her head.
“Then who?”
“Someone Mommy didn't like.”
“What did she do?”
“She made Mommy cry.”
Harris asked whether Sophie remembered the woman's voice.
Sophie covered her ears.
“She talked like whispering.”
Claire's voice had never sounded like a whisper.
Then I remembered the first voice on the phone.
The unknown man who threatened me.
It hadn't been a man.
It had been a woman using a voice changer.
We traced the call.
The device had been purchased anonymously.
But the payment came from a credit card tied to my mother's name.
My mother.
I drove to her house alone.
She opened the door and immediately knew.
“What did you find?”
I stared at her.
“You knew about Emily.”
She closed her eyes.
“How much?”
“Enough.”
She stepped aside.
“Come in.”
On the dining table was a box of old documents.
My mother had saved letters from Emily.
“She came to me before she died,” Mom said.
“What did she say?”
“That Claire was dangerous.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because your father begged me not to.”
I felt betrayed all over again.
“Everyone decided I was better off not knowing.”
Mom began to cry.
“I thought I was protecting you.”
“No. You were protecting the story.”
She didn't argue.
Then she handed me a letter.
Emily's last letter to her.
If Ethan ever learns the truth, tell him I never blamed him.
My mother wiped her eyes.
“She loved you.”
“I know.”
“No,” Mom said. “You don't understand. She knew she might die. And her last concern was whether you would blame yourself.”
That destroyed me.
For years I had secretly believed I should have noticed something.
A warning.
A strange call.
A locked drawer.
Anything.
Emily had never blamed me.
Someone else had.
Claire.
The next morning, Claire's attorney requested a private settlement.
He offered money.
A lot of it.
In exchange for silence.
I refused.
Harris asked why.
“Because Emily didn't die for a settlement.”
That evening, the courthouse received a package.
Inside was the original insurance policy.
But this time, the beneficiary page was different.
Claire's name had been added after the policy was signed.
May you like
And the handwriting belonged to my father.
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