Chương 2
Daniel looked again at the photograph.
The girl beside Michael Reyes had Elena’s eyes.
Not Elena at twenty-nine.
Elena before Daniel knew her.
Claire handed the locket to him.
“He kept her private,” Claire said. “He was weird about family. I thought they weren’t close.”
Richard’s mouth tightened.
“They were extremely close.”
Daniel looked at him.
“How do you know?”
Another silence.
This one was worse.
Claire stepped nearer their father.
“How do you know?”
Richard turned toward the head of security. “Find Anna.”
Claire caught his sleeve.
Richard looked down at her hand as though surprised she had touched him.
“You knew her,” Claire said.
“I knew of her.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
“Claire, not here.”
She laughed once.
The sound came out brittle.
“You opened a bloody note in the middle of your own auction.”
People were watching again.
Richard lowered his voice.
“Michael Reyes worked for the foundation. Naturally, I knew about members of his family.”
“He worked in registrations.”
“Among other responsibilities.”
“He was twenty-six.”
“He was entrusted with sensitive material.”
“And then he died.”
Daniel looked between them.
Michael Reyes had existed in his memory mostly as an awkward shadow at the edge of family life. Michael carrying two coffees into Claire’s apartment. Michael pretending not to understand baseball because it irritated Richard. Michael bringing Daniel a cheap bottle of mezcal from Santa Fe and making him promise not to tell Claire how much of it they drank on a Tuesday night.
Then Michael dead on a wet road outside Beacon.
Daniel had been twenty-three.
He had gone to the funeral because Claire could barely stand and because families did those things.
He remembered a woman in the back pew wearing black.
Dark hair.
Thin shoulders.
He tried to catch the memory and lost it.
“Was Elena at the funeral?”
Claire looked at him.
“I don’t know.”
“You were there.”
“I was drugged half out of my mind on whatever Mom’s doctor gave me. I don’t remember half the people who came.”
Richard said, “She was there.”
Daniel turned slowly.
“You remember her from a funeral ten years ago?”
Richard’s gaze shifted toward the museum doors.
That was when Daniel understood.
His father had not recognized Elena recently.
He had recognized her long ago.
Maybe before the wedding.
Maybe before the engagement.
“Dad.”
Richard said nothing.
“When did you know?”
“Daniel—”
“When?”
Claire whispered, “Oh my God.”
Richard looked at both of them and made a decision.
“Three weeks ago.”
Daniel almost believed him.
Richard had always understood that the most effective lies were not dramatic. They were modest enough to invite acceptance.
Then Claire said, “Bullshit.”
Her voice remained low.
“You knew at Christmas.”
Richard’s head turned.
Claire folded her arms around herself.
“At your house. When Elena came downstairs wearing her hair pulled back, you dropped your glass.”
“I did no such thing.”
“You did. Mom asked if your hand was okay.”
Daniel remembered that.
A whiskey glass breaking in the library.
Richard blaming condensation.
Elena had helped a housekeeper pick up the pieces until Richard ordered her away from them.
He had sounded angry.
At the time Daniel assumed his father was being Richard.
Now the memory rearranged itself.
The auctioneer approached carefully.
“Mr. Vale, we have a situation with the consignment representatives.”
Richard turned with visible irritation.
“Handle it.”
“They’re asking whether the sale is continuing.”
“No.”
The auctioneer seemed relieved.
Richard added, “No one leaves until security has completed a review.”
“Dad,” Daniel said.
Richard ignored him.
Daniel grabbed the locket from Claire and walked toward the staff corridor.
A security officer moved into his path.
Daniel stared at him.
“Touch me and you’ll be explaining it to the museum board tomorrow.”
The man hesitated.
Richard said, “Let him go.”
Daniel entered the corridor.
Behind him, Claire’s heels followed.
“You don’t need to come.”
“Yes, I do.”
“If she lied to me—”
“She lied to both of us.”
Daniel stopped.
Claire stopped too.
He held up the locket.
“You knew Michael. I married her.”
Claire’s face changed.
There it was—the old Vale instinct, inherited from Richard despite everything. Injury becoming competition.
“Congratulations,” she said. “You win.”
Daniel looked away.
“I didn’t mean that.”
“I know.”
They continued.
The service corridor smelled faintly of dust, floor wax, and old stone. Museum employees stood in doorways pretending not to watch. A caterer pushed a cart into an alcove to let them pass.
Daniel called Elena.
The call rang six times.
Voicemail.
He called again.
Claire leaned against the wall.
“I have her number too, you know.”
“Call her.”
“She’s not going to answer me if she won’t answer you.”
“Try.”
Claire did.
No answer.
Daniel opened the Find My app.
Elena’s location was unavailable.
He stared at the screen.
Claire noticed.
“She turned it off.”
“We shared locations.”
“She obviously knows how phones work.”
He looked at her.
“Useful.”
“I’m sorry. I’m trying not to start screaming.”
They reached a stairwell door.
Daniel pushed through.
The old museum stairwell was narrower than the ceremonial staircase in the main hall. Painted pipes ran overhead. Somewhere below, a door slammed.
“Elena?”
No answer.
They went down.
At the lower landing Daniel found an emerald thread snagged on the brass latch of a fire door.
He touched it.
Claire saw.
“She went this way.”
The door opened into a loading passage behind the museum.
Rain hammered the metal awning beyond the security gate.
The exterior gate stood open.
A guard was arguing with a delivery driver.
Daniel ran outside.
Within seconds his tuxedo was soaked through.
Claire came after him, holding the front of her white gown above the water.
“Daniel!”
He turned in circles beneath the rain.
Black cars lined the curb. Guests’ drivers had left engines idling. Red brake lights smeared across the wet pavement.
“Elena!”
Nothing.
Then Claire pointed.
At the far end of the block, a woman in green stepped into a yellow cab.
May you like
Daniel ran.
The cab pulled away.
