Chương 5
Claire noticed the envelope in his hand.
Her expression changed before she could hide it.
Daniel saw that.
"You know something about this."
She looked away.
"No."
The answer came too fast.
Daniel almost believed it because he was used to people lying gently.
Claire sighed.
"I know someone came here."
"Who?"
"I don't know."
"That's not an answer."
"No, it isn't."
She shifted the grocery bag and looked toward the stairs.
"Can I come in?"
Daniel hesitated.
A month earlier, he would have said no.
He would have apologized and closed the door.
But the handwriting on the letter had already broken one of his oldest habits.
He stepped aside.
Claire entered and placed the groceries on the counter.
She pulled out a carton of milk, a box of cereal, and a small bag of oranges.
Daniel watched her arrange them.
It was such a normal thing that it almost made him angry.
"Why are you acting like this is normal?" he asked.
"I'm not."
"You walked into my apartment and started putting groceries away."
Claire looked at the cereal box.
"I didn't know what else to do."
That answer was so honest that Daniel had no response.
She sat down at the table.
"I saw the person."
Daniel remained standing.
"Who?"
"I don't know his name."
"What did he look like?"
"Older than you."
"That's not useful."
"He had a scar on his chin."
Daniel froze.
It was a small detail.
Almost meaningless.
But Emily had once told him about a man with a scar on his chin.
Not a friend.
Not someone she trusted.
Someone she was afraid of.
Daniel reached for the letter again.
"Why didn't you tell me this before?"
Claire looked at him.
"Because I wasn't sure I wanted to be involved."
The honesty hurt more than an excuse would have.
"What changed?"
She rubbed her thumb against a small tear in the grocery bag.
"When I saw that letter on your table, I realized I already was."
Daniel finally sat down.
The room became quiet except for the refrigerator humming behind them.
Claire watched him carefully.
"You need to read the whole thing."
"I know."
"Then why haven't you?"
Daniel looked at the folded paper.
Because if the letter was real, then the last eleven years were built on a lie.
And if it was not real, then he had just opened a door he might never be able to close.
He unfolded the page.
The next paragraph began with a sentence that made him forget how to breathe.
I did not leave because I wanted to disappear.
I left because someone made sure I could not come home.
Daniel read the words twice.
Then a third time.
Claire leaned forward.
"What does it say?"
He looked up at her.
For the first time since she entered, he saw fear on her face.
Not curiosity.
Not concern.
Fear.
And that frightened him more than the letter.
"Emily wasn't running from her life," Daniel said quietly.
"She was running from someone."
Daniel did not like the way the words sounded when they left his mouth.
They made the apartment feel smaller.
Claire looked down at the letter, but she did not reach for it.
"Tell me everything you know," Daniel said.
She shook her head.
"I don't know everything."
"Then tell me what you know."
Claire pressed her lips together and stared at the table.
For a moment, she looked less like a neighbor and more like someone standing outside a room she had been afraid to enter.
"I saw him three weeks ago," she said.
Daniel waited.
"Not here."
"Where?"
"Outside the old train station."
Daniel's expression changed.
The old train station had been closed for years, but people still passed through the area because the city had never finished deciding what to do with the property.
Emily used to take the train from there when she visited him during college.
It was the place where she had once shown up without calling, carrying a backpack and crying so hard she could barely speak.
Daniel had spent the entire night making tea she never drank because he did not know how else to help her.
"Why were you there?" he asked.
Claire looked annoyed by the question.
"Because people go places, Daniel."
"I didn't mean—"
"I know what you meant."
Her voice softened slightly.
"I was meeting someone."
"Who?"
She looked at the letter.
"Someone who knew Emily."
The answer landed between them.
Daniel leaned back.
"Who?"
Claire did not respond immediately.
That silence told him enough to know the name would matter.
"Thomas Vale."
Daniel searched the name in his mind.
Nothing came.
"Should I know him?"
"No."
Claire rubbed her forehead.
"That's what makes it worse."
"What does that mean?"
"It means Emily knew people you never knew existed."
Daniel looked away.
The sentence hurt because it sounded like an accusation, even though Claire had not intended it that way.
For years, he had told himself Emily pushed everyone away.
He had never considered that maybe he was the one who had only been allowed to see the parts of her life that she could explain.
"What did Thomas tell you?"
Claire looked toward the dark window.
"He asked if I had ever seen you receive anything from Emily."
Daniel's fingers tightened around the paper.
"Why would he ask you that?"
"Because he knew I lived across the hall."
"That doesn't answer my question."
"No."
Claire looked back at him.
"It doesn't."
The honesty frustrated him.
He wanted certainty.
He wanted someone to hand him a complete story with clear villains and clear victims.
Instead, he had a dead sister's handwriting and a neighbor who admitted she was scared.
"What else?" he asked.
Claire took a breath.
"He said Emily had been trying to send something back to you."
"The letter."
"I think so."
"You think?"
"Daniel, I never saw the letter."
"But you saw him."
May you like
"Yes."
"And you didn't think to tell me?"
