Chapter 2: The Date That Vanished
“Daniel, behind me.””
Stallone’s voice was quiet.
Daniel obeyed instantly.
Vanessa didn’t.
She stared at the stranger as though she recognized him.
The man wore a dark jacket and gloves. His face was partly hidden beneath a cap.
One hand remained inside his coat.
Stallone folded the document once and slipped it into his pocket.
The stranger’s eyes followed the movement.
“Give me the paper,” he said.
Daniel gripped his father’s coat.
Vanessa whispered, “You weren’t supposed to come inside.””
Stallone turned toward her.
That sentence changed everything.
“You know him?””
Vanessa realized what she had said.
“No.””
The stranger looked at her.
“Stop talking.””
Stallone immediately guided Daniel behind a heavy marble column.
“Stay there.””
“Dad—”
“Daniel. Stay.””
The stranger advanced.
Stallone positioned himself between the man and his son.
“You came into my home for a photograph?””
“Not the photograph.””
“The document.””
Vanessa moved toward the corridor.
The stranger snapped, “Nobody leaves.””
She froze.
That was when Stallone understood something Vanessa apparently hadn’t.
The man wasn’t there to protect her.
He was there to erase whatever remained.
Including witnesses.
Stallone glanced toward the security panel.
A red light blinked.
Disabled.
“You shut down my security?”” he asked Vanessa.
“I didn’t know this would happen.””
“What did you think would happen?””
“I was told someone would collect something.””
Daniel’s frightened voice came from behind the column.
“My picture?””
Vanessa closed her eyes.
Stallone looked at her.
“You knew something was hidden inside that frame.””
“No.””
“Then why destroy it tonight?””
“I didn’t!””
Daniel stepped partly into view.
“You kept asking where I put it.””
“Daniel, please.””
“You searched my room yesterday.””
Stallone’s gaze hardened.
Vanessa whispered, “You don’t understand.””
“Then explain.””
The stranger pulled his hand from his coat.
Stallone moved immediately.
He knocked the man’s arm away before Daniel could see what he was holding. The stranger stumbled against the stone pedestal.
The object skidded across the floor.
One of Stallone’s returning bodyguards rushed through the entrance.
“Sir!””
“Get Daniel out.””
The stranger tried to recover, but the bodyguard intercepted him. Seconds later, another security officer entered and helped restrain the intruder.
Daniel ran to his father.
Stallone wrapped an arm around him.
“It’s okay.””
Vanessa began moving backward.
The bodyguard pointed toward her.
“Stay where you are, ma’am.””
Her face collapsed.
“This is insane.””
Stallone looked at the stranger.
“Who sent you?””
The man said nothing.
Sirens sounded beyond the gates.
Vanessa’s head snapped toward the windows.
“You called the police?””
Stallone stared at her.
“I called my security team twenty minutes before I arrived.””
“Why?””
“Because you canceled every guard assigned to this house.””
Vanessa had no answer.
Within minutes, investigators filled the foyer.
Daniel sat wrapped in a blanket on the sofa while a paramedic cleaned the small cut on his hand.
Stallone remained nearby.
An investigator named Harris examined the broken frame.
“There’s something else here.””
Stallone approached.
Harris lifted a thin strip of cardboard from the backing.
Beneath it was a narrow transparent sleeve.
Inside was a tiny brass key.
Vanessa suddenly stood.
“I need a lawyer.””
Harris looked at her.
“Nobody said you were under arrest.””
“I still want one.””
Stallone studied her.
“Vanessa, what does the key open?””
“I don’t know.””
Daniel spoke from the sofa.
“She does.””
Everyone turned.
Daniel swallowed.
“I saw one like it.””
“Where?”” Harris asked.
“In Vanessa’s office.””
Vanessa stared at him.
“You have never been inside my office.””
“Yes, I have.””
“When?””
“Last Christmas.””
Daniel looked at his father.
“There’s a metal box under her desk. The lock looks like that.””
Harris sent two officers upstairs.
They returned twelve minutes later carrying a gray steel case.
Vanessa said nothing.
Harris inserted the brass key.
Click.
Inside were old financial records, photographs, a sealed envelope, and a thick file bound with red string.
Across the front were the initials *S.S.*
Stallone opened the handwritten document from the frame again.
Now he read beyond the first paragraph.
It described the day the photograph had been taken.
A private family gathering.
A missing hospital record.
A woman paid to disappear.
And one sentence underlined twice:
*If they discover there were two children, they will erase the second one completely.*
Stallone stared at the words.
“Two children?””
Daniel looked up.
Vanessa’s face had become colorless.
Harris opened the red-string file.
Inside was a birth certificate.
Then another.
He placed them side by side.
Daniel’s name appeared on the first.
The second belonged to a child Stallone had never heard of.
A girl.
Born eighteen months before Daniel.
Stallone stared at the father’s name.
His own.
“No.””
His voice cracked.
“That’s not possible.””
Vanessa suddenly whispered, “Sylvester…”
He turned.
For the first time that night, she looked genuinely terrified.
“Who is she?””
Vanessa shook her head.
“Please.””
“Who is my daughter?””
Harris continued searching the case.
At the bottom he found a photograph of a little girl standing outside a red-brick school.
On the back was a handwritten name.
*Sophie.*
Stallone held the picture with trembling fingers.
“How old is this?””
Harris examined the date.
“About eight years.””
Stallone looked at Vanessa.
“Where is she now?””
Vanessa said nothing.
“Where is my daughter?””
Daniel rose from the sofa and walked toward his father.
Then one investigator opened the sealed envelope.
A recent photograph slipped onto the table.
Not eight years old.
Taken three weeks ago.
Sophie was older now.
Alive.
Standing beside a train station.
Harris studied the writing beneath it.
“There’s an address.””
Stallone reached for the photograph.
But Vanessa finally spoke.
“Going there won’t bring her back.””
Stallone slowly turned.
“What does that mean?””
Vanessa’s lips trembled.
“Because Sophie isn’t the child you need to find first.””
Harris stopped opening the file.
Daniel stared at her.
Stallone’s voice dropped.
“What are you talking about?””
Vanessa looked at the two birth certificates.
Then at the remaining sealed documents.
“There weren’t two children, Sylvester.””
May you like
She swallowed.
“There were three.””
