Chapter 3 - The Man Outside the Window
Glass burst across the kitchen tile.
Lily screamed.
I pulled both children down behind the island.
Vanessa dropped to the floor.
A small metal object rolled through the broken window and stopped beneath the table.
Not a bullet.
A phone.
Its screen was already playing a video.
Claire filled the frame.
Alive.
She looked thinner than I remembered. A bruise darkened one temple. Her hair had been cut short.
“If Daniel sees this,” she said, “Vanessa failed.”
Vanessa made a sound behind me.
I turned.
She was crying.
Claire continued.
“And if Vanessa failed, Marcus is probably already trying to run.”
I picked up the phone.
The recording date was twelve months ago.
One month after the date on Claire’s death certificate.
My entire understanding of the last thirteen months shifted again.
Claire had been alive after her legal death.
Maybe she was still alive now.
On-screen, Claire leaned closer to the camera.
“Daniel, you’re going to want answers. Don’t ask for answers. Ask who benefits from the question.”
The video cut off.
A car engine roared outside.
I ran to the window.
A dark sedan accelerated away from the curb.
No plates.
Vanessa stood slowly.
“You need to listen to Marcus.”
I faced her.
“You knew Claire was alive after the date on this certificate.”
“Yes.”
The word hit harder than another lie would have.
“You let me think she abandoned us.”
“She made me.”
I laughed once.
“Claire made you terrorize my children too?”
Vanessa looked at the cane on the floor and closed her eyes.
“No.”
“At least one honest answer.”
Noah tugged my sleeve.
“Dad.”
He was staring at the phone Claire’s video had arrived on.
A new file had opened by itself.
It was a photograph.
My office.
Taken from inside the room less than ten minutes earlier.
In the picture, Vanessa was standing beside my desk.
But there was someone behind her.
A woman in a gray coat.
Only half her face was visible.
It looked exactly like Claire.
Vanessa stared at the screen.
“That’s impossible.”
I looked at her.
“You were in the office ten minutes ago.”
“Yes.”
“Who was behind you?”
“No one.”
The phone buzzed.
One line appeared beneath the picture.
SHE’S NOT THE ONE YOU SHOULD BE AFRAID OF.
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