Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN WHO NEVER LEFT
The hospital smelled like antiseptic and cold coffee.
My father arrived before the doctors finished the first examination.
He walked into the room carrying a worn brown file.
I recognized it immediately.
“You brought it.”
He nodded.
“I promised myself I would never open this again.”
“What happened to Ryan's first wife?”
Dad sat beside my bed.
“Her name was Lauren.”
The name felt strangely familiar.
“Where is she?”
“Alive.”
My heart stopped.
Dad opened the file.
Inside were photographs.
A woman with a bruised cheek.
A swollen wrist.
A hospital bracelet.
A handwritten statement.
I stared at the pages.
“Why did nobody tell me?”
“Because Ryan's family buried the story.”
He turned another page.
“Lauren was pregnant when she left.”
My stomach tightened.
“What?”
Dad nodded.
“She was carrying Ryan's child.”
I looked at him.
“Where is the baby?”
Dad hesitated.
“That is the part I've never been able to prove.”
A knock came at the door.
My attorney, Rebecca Sloan, entered carrying a tablet.
She looked at my father.
“Did you tell her?”
“Not yet.”
Rebecca closed the door.
“Claire, we have a bigger problem.”
She showed me a bank statement.
Several large payments had been made from Ryan's personal account over the previous year.
The recipients were unfamiliar.
Then she showed me another document.
One of the payments went to a private investigator.
“Why was Ryan investigating Lauren?”
“Maybe he was trying to find her,” I whispered.
Rebecca shook her head.
“No.”
She zoomed in on the transaction.
“He was paying someone to make sure she stayed silent.”
A chill moved through me.
Then another notification appeared on Rebecca's tablet.
A message had arrived from an unknown number.
Stop looking for Lauren.
My father stood.
“Show me the number.”
Rebecca did.
Dad's expression changed.
“You know it?”
He nodded slowly.
“It belonged to a man who worked for Diane's family twenty years ago.”
“Who?”
Dad looked at me.
“Her brother.”
I stared at the screen.
Ryan's family had spent years telling everyone that Lauren abandoned him.
But she hadn't disappeared.
May you like
She had been silenced.
And now, after all these years, someone was trying to silence me too.
