Chapter 4 - The Woman Who Was Supposed to Be Dead
Arthur couldn’t move.
Victoria looked at her father in horror.
“Dad.”
Charles ignored her.
Arthur stepped down from the porch.
“What did you just say?”
Charles opened the SUV door.
“Twenty-four hours.”
Arthur grabbed the door before he could close it.
“Where is Elena?”
Charles smiled.
“Give me the files.”
Arthur’s voice dropped.
“Where is she?”
Charles looked at Arthur’s hand.
“You’re making a mistake.”
Arthur slammed the door shut again.
“WHERE IS ELENA?”
Two security men moved forward.
Arthur didn’t look at them.
Daniel came outside.
“Charles.”
Charles glanced toward him.
Daniel held up his phone.
“This conversation is being recorded.”
Charles’s expression changed slightly.
Daniel continued.
“You just implied knowledge that Elena Carter may still be alive.”
Charles smiled.
“Did I?”
“Yes.”
“Then perhaps you misunderstood me.”
Arthur wanted to drag the answer out of him.
Instead, Daniel touched his shoulder.
Charles entered the SUV.
Victoria followed.
Before she closed the door, she looked at Arthur.
For one second, her arrogance vanished.
She mouthed two words.
DON’T TRUST.
Then the vehicle drove away.
Arthur stared after it.
Daniel noticed.
“What did she say?”
Arthur turned.
“Nothing.”
He lied instinctively.
He didn’t know why.
Back inside, Maya stood by the staircase.
She had heard everything.
“My mom is alive?”
Arthur walked toward her.
“I don’t know.”
“He said she is.”
“He wanted a reaction.”
“But what if it’s true?”
Arthur couldn’t answer.
Maya’s breathing became uneven.
“I saw her body.”
Arthur froze.
“What?”
“At the funeral home.”
She wiped her eyes.
“I touched her hand.”
Arthur remembered the closed-casket funeral.
He had been told the children had viewed Elena privately.
Maya shook her head.
“She was cold.”
Daniel spoke carefully.
“Did you see her face?”
Maya stopped.
Arthur felt the room change.
“Maya?”
She looked confused.
“No.”
“Why?”
“There was a bandage.”
Arthur’s stomach tightened.
“The accident.”
Maya nodded.
“They said her face was injured.”
Daniel and Arthur exchanged a look.
The official report said Elena had died after losing control of her vehicle.
Her car burned.
Identification had supposedly been confirmed through dental records.
Daniel pulled out his phone.
“I’m getting the death certificate.”
Arthur looked at him.
“And the autopsy.”
“There wasn’t one.”
Arthur turned.
“What?”
Daniel stared at the records on his phone.
“Elena was cremated within forty-eight hours.”
“Who authorized it?”
Daniel scrolled.
Then stopped.
His expression changed.
“Michael Carter.”
Arthur felt cold.
“That’s impossible.”
Michael had disappeared years earlier.
Daniel turned the screen around.
A signature appeared at the bottom.
MICHAEL CARTER.
Maya whispered.
“Dad?”
Arthur looked at her.
She meant Michael.
For the first time, Arthur realized another terrifying possibility.
Michael Carter might not have disappeared at all.
He might have been part of it.
Daniel spent the next six hours pulling records.
At 4:18 p.m., he found something.
“Michael Carter never existed.”
Arthur stared at him.
“What?”
“No birth certificate matching his identity.”
Daniel turned the laptop.
“No Social Security history before twenty-two years ago.”
“No school records.”
“No tax records before he met Elena.”
Arthur sat down.
“He was manufactured.”
“Yes.”
“By who?”
Daniel opened another document.
A corporate employment record.
Michael Carter had worked for a security company.
Whitmore Strategic Protection.
Owned by Charles Whitmore.
Arthur felt his blood turn cold.
Michael had not been Elena’s husband.
He had been Charles’s employee.
Then Maya screamed upstairs.
Arthur ran.
He reached Elena’s old bedroom.
The window was open.
Curtains moved in the wind.
Ethan stood beside the bed.
Terrified.
“Maya?”
Ethan pointed toward the bathroom.
Arthur rushed inside.
Maya was unharmed.
She was staring at the mirror.
Written across the glass in red lipstick were six words.
RETURN THE FILES OR LOSE THEM AGAIN.
May you like
Someone had entered Arthur’s house.
While they were inside.
