Chapter 9: The Daughter I Would Never Abandon
I was already running before the call disconnected.
Officer Hayes shouted for his partner to follow me. Sirens erupted behind us as we raced toward the parking lot.
My phone wouldn't stop ringing.
I answered the first call.
“Mom?””
Her voice came through in ragged bursts.
“Ethan, somebody broke the kitchen window!””
“Where's Nora?””
“Ryan took her upstairs. We're hiding in your bedroom.””
“Stay there. Lock the door. Don't confront anyone.””
I heard footsteps, then Ryan's voice.
“Ethan, I can see a car outside. Black sedan. It's pulling away.””
“Did you see the driver?””
“No.””
“Don't follow it. Get Nora somewhere safe.””
Officer Hayes accelerated through a red light with his siren blaring.
I gripped the dashboard.
For eight years, I'd believed my job was to protect my daughter from the world. I'd taught her to look both ways before crossing the street, to call me if she ever felt unsafe, and to never open the door to strangers.
I'd never imagined I'd need to protect her from the woman I'd planned to marry.
When we reached the house, two patrol cars were already parked outside. Officers moved through the rooms while another examined the shattered kitchen window.
I found Ryan on the upstairs landing.
His shirt was torn at the shoulder.
“Where's Nora?””
He pointed toward the bedroom.
I pushed through the door.
Nora sat on the floor beside my mother, clutching her stuffed rabbit. Her face was wet with tears, and a thin red mark crossed her cheek.
I dropped to my knees.
“Nora!””
She ran into my arms.
“Daddy!””
I held her tightly, checking her face, her arms, her hands.
“Are you hurt?””
She shook her head.
“I'm okay.””
“Who touched you?””
“No one. I fell when Grandma pulled me away from the window.””
My mother began crying.
“I should have stayed downstairs with her.””
“You did exactly what you were supposed to do,” I said.
I kissed Nora's forehead.
“I'm here now.””
She clung to my neck.
“Dad, Vanessa came back.””
My blood turned cold.
“What?””
“She was outside. I saw her through the window.””
Officer Hayes entered the room.
“Nora, sweetheart, can you tell us exactly what happened?””
She nodded shakily.
“I was coloring. Grandma was making tea. Then I heard the glass break.””
“What happened next?””
“I looked up, and Vanessa was outside.””
“Did she come inside?””
Nora shook her head.
“She was standing near the window. She held up her phone and showed me a picture.””
“What picture?””
Nora swallowed.
“It was a picture of me as a baby. She said I belonged to someone else.””
My chest tightened.
“What else did she say?””
Nora looked at me.
“She said if I wanted to stay with you, I had to give her the phone with the video.””
I felt sick.
The wedding recording.
The evidence of her fraud.
“Did you give it to her?””
Nora shook her head.
“No. I told her you said I should never give her anything.””
I held her closer.
“That's right, sweetheart.””
“She got angry. She said you were going to choose your real daughter once you found out the truth.””
Officer Hayes exchanged a glance with his partner.
“Did she say where she was going?””
Nora hesitated.
“She said she was going to find the woman who should have raised me.””
I closed my eyes.
Claire.
Vanessa was going after Claire.
Officer Hayes immediately radioed the information to the officers searching for her.
Then he turned to me.
“Mr. Walker, I need you to understand something. Vanessa may be desperate enough to do something unpredictable. We're going to move you and your family somewhere secure while we locate her.””
I nodded.
“Whatever it takes.””
My mother began gathering Nora's things.
I helped her pack a small bag with clothes, pajamas, and the stuffed rabbit.
As I lifted Nora onto my hip, she wrapped her arms around my neck.
“Dad?””
“Yeah?””
“If I'm not really your daughter, why do you still love me?””
I stopped walking.
The question hurt more than the broken window, more than the fake pregnancy, more than every lie Vanessa had told.
I carried Nora to the bed and sat down with her.
“Look at me, sweetheart.””
She raised her tearful eyes.
“You are my daughter. You have been my daughter every day of your life. I taught you to ride a bicycle.
I held you when you had the flu. I sat beside your bed when you had nightmares. I was there when you lost your first tooth, and I was there when you cried because your best friend moved away.””
She listened without blinking.
“Nothing about the circumstances of your birth changes any of those things. I don't love you because of a certificate. I love you because you're you.””
Her face crumpled.
“Even if I have another family?””
“Even if you have another family.””
“Even if they want me?””
I kissed her forehead.
“They can want to know you. They can love you. But nobody gets to erase the life we've shared.””
She threw her arms around me.
“I don't want to lose you.””
“You won't.””
I held her until she stopped shaking.
Then my phone rang.
Officer Hayes answered his own phone first, listened for several seconds, and turned toward me.
“We found Claire.””
“Where?””
“At an apartment on the west side. She wasn't there when officers arrived, but her landlord says she left in a hurry about twenty minutes ago.””
“Vanessa?””
“No sign of her.””
I looked at the photograph Evelyn had given us.
The address was familiar.
Claire's apartment was near the old shopping district where Rebecca and I had spent our first anniversary.
I remembered Rebecca telling me that her niece had moved away after a family argument. I'd assumed they'd lost contact.
Now I wondered how much Rebecca had known.
“Did Claire leave anything behind?”” I asked.
Officer Hayes nodded.
“A laptop, several documents, and a photograph of Vanessa with Daniel Mercer. The photograph was taken last week.””
My stomach tightened.
“They've been working together recently?””
“That's what it looks like.””
He handed me a printed copy of the photograph.
Vanessa stood beside Daniel outside a storage facility. Both were smiling.
On the back, someone had written a date.
Tomorrow.
“What happens tomorrow?”” I asked.
Officer Hayes looked at the date.
“We don't know yet.””
I studied Daniel's face.
He looked older than he had in the wedding video, with deeper lines around his eyes and gray spreading through his beard.
But there was something else in the photograph.
A third person stood behind them, partially obscured by a parked vehicle.
A woman wearing a dark coat.
I enlarged the image on my phone.
The woman's face was turned toward the camera.
I recognized her immediately.
It was Rebecca.
Not a photograph of Rebecca.
Not a look-alike.
My dead wife.
The woman I'd buried five years earlier was standing beside Daniel Mercer in a photograph taken last week.
I couldn't breathe.
Officer Hayes took the phone from me and stared at the image.
“Ethan,” he said carefully, “are you certain that's your wife?””
I nodded.
I knew the shape of her face, the small scar near her hairline, and the way she tilted her head when she was listening.
It was Rebecca.
Alive.
My mother covered her mouth.
Nora stared at the photograph.
“Dad,” she whispered.
I turned toward her.
“Sweetheart?””
She pointed at Rebecca's face.
“I've seen her before.””
My heart stopped.
“Where?””
Nora looked frightened.
“In Vanessa's room. There was a picture of her on the wall.””
“When?””
“Last month. Vanessa said she was the woman who gave birth to me.””
I felt the floor disappear beneath me.
Rebecca had been declared dead.
I'd identified her body.
I'd attended her funeral.
I'd spent five years visiting her grave, telling her about Nora's school projects and the funny things she'd said.
And now my eight-year-old daughter was telling me she'd seen her mother in Vanessa's bedroom.
Officer Hayes called for an immediate review of the photograph and the original death investigation.
I couldn't hear the details.
All I could think about was the last time I'd seen Rebecca alive.
The hospital room.
Her pale face.
Her fingers slipping from mine.
The doctor telling me there was nothing more they could do.
I'd believed him.
I'd believed the death certificate.
I'd believed the funeral home.
I'd believed every person who told me she was gone.
What if they'd all been wrong?
My phone vibrated again.
A message from an unknown number.
*If you want to see Rebecca alive, come to the storage facility tomorrow at midnight. Bring the original birth certificate. No police.*
A second message arrived.
*And Ethan? Bring Nora.*
I looked at Officer Hayes.
He read the messages and immediately shook his head.
“No. Absolutely not.””
I stared at the photograph of my wife.
The woman I'd mourned for five years.
The woman who might still be alive.
And then I looked at Nora, my daughter, who had already endured more fear than any child should ever have to experience.
I knew what Vanessa wanted.
She wanted to force me to choose between the woman I had loved and the child I had raised.
But she had made one mistake.
She believed my love was something she could use against me.
She was about to discover that it was the one thing she could never control.
I handed Officer Hayes my phone.
“Find Rebecca,” I said.
He nodded.
“And find Vanessa.””
Then I took Nora's hand.
“Because nobody is taking my daughter anywhere.””
May you like
Outside, the last light of the evening disappeared behind the trees.
And somewhere in Columbus, a woman I'd buried five years earlier was waiting for me to come find her.
