Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN ELENA NEVER TOLD HIM ABOUT
The photograph changed Naomi’s story before she said another word.
Damon stared at it.
Elena and Naomi were not casual acquaintances.
They were holding each other like family.
“What was she to you?”
Naomi’s voice came out almost inaudible.
“My sister.”
Damon looked up sharply.
“Elena didn’t have a sister.”
“That’s what her father told everyone.”
Naomi sat down because her knees seemed unable to hold her.
Zuri climbed into her lap.
Damon remained standing.
He needed the height.
Needed something solid.
“My mother met Julian Vale before he married Elena’s mother,” Naomi said. “I was born from that relationship. He paid support through attorneys and made my mother sign confidentiality agreements.”
Damon remembered Julian Vale.
Cold.
Elegant.
Obsessed with reputation.
It was completely believable.
“Elena found me when she was thirty,” Naomi continued. “She discovered the payments while helping her father organize estate records.”
“And she never told me?”
“She wanted to.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“She was afraid.”
“Of me?”
“No.”
Naomi’s eyes hardened.
“Of someone inside your family.”
That stopped him.
Zuri began humming.
Four notes.
Soft.
Simple.
Damon’s chest tightened.
Elena used to hum those same notes while cooking.
While reading.
While half asleep beside him.
“Where did Zuri learn that?”
Naomi unlocked the cracked phone.
“There are thirty-seven recordings.”
She pressed play.
Static filled the room.
Then Elena’s voice.
Not the polished voice from charity events.
Not the bright voice Damon remembered at dinners.
This Elena sounded exhausted.
“Hi, little star,” the recording began. “If your mama is playing this, you’re probably refusing to sleep again.”
Zuri smiled.
“Lady.”
Damon could not move.
Elena continued singing quietly.
The lullaby ended.
Then came laughter.
“Naomi, if she gets Damon’s stubbornness somehow, I’m blaming you.”
Damon looked at Naomi.
“What does that mean?”
“Nothing biological.”
She answered quickly.
Too quickly.
He noticed.
Naomi continued.
“Elena recorded these while I was pregnant because my husband had died two months earlier. She knew I was scared Zuri would grow up without enough people telling her she was loved.”
Damon lowered himself into the chair across from her.
“What happened to your husband?”
Naomi looked away.
“Car accident.”
Something about the answer felt rehearsed.
“What was his name?”
“Marcus Carter.”
Damon froze again.
Marcus Carter.
He knew that name.
Three years earlier, Marcus had worked for Ashford Holdings.
Internal audit.
Damon remembered hearing about an employee killed in a highway collision.
He had sent flowers.
He had signed a condolence card.
He had never met the widow.
“Marcus worked for me.”
“He worked for your company.”
“That’s what I said.”
“No.”
Naomi met his eyes.
“There’s a difference.”
Damon felt the room narrow.
“Why did Elena know him?”
“Because Marcus found something.”
“What?”
Naomi held the cracked phone tighter.
“He found missing money.”
“How much?”
“I never knew.”
“What did Elena have to do with it?”
“She believed the missing money connected to something happening to her.”
Damon’s blood went cold.
“Elena died from a cardiac event.”
“That’s what you were told.”
Naomi stood.
Zuri immediately wrapped both arms around her leg.
Damon rose too.
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying Elena didn’t hide that ring because she couldn’t bear to wear it.”
Naomi looked at the open compartment in the wall.
“She hid it because there was something underneath it.”
Damon turned.
He reached back into the compartment.
His fingers touched metal.
He pulled out a tiny silver flash drive taped beneath the shelf.
May you like
Naomi whispered:
“That’s what I came here to find.”
