Chapter 2 - THE SECOND WOMAN
Ethan forgot how to breathe.
“What other woman?”
Sophie looked toward the hallway.
Vanessa sat down slowly on the edge of the bed.
“Sophie.”
The girl turned away from her.
Ethan crouched.
“Tell me.”
Sophie whispered, “She came with Dr. Beck.”
“What did she look like?”
“Brown hair.”
“That could be anyone.”
“She wore Mom’s necklace.”
Ethan froze.
Claire’s necklace.
A small gold compass on a thin chain.
He had placed it around her neck the morning of their fifth anniversary.
She wore it when she died.
At least, that was what the coroner’s property list said.
It was never returned.
Ethan had assumed it was lost in the ocean.
“What necklace?”
Sophie touched her own throat.
“The little round one.”
Ethan closed his eyes.
Vanessa began crying quietly.
He turned.
“You know.”
Vanessa said nothing.
“Who is the second woman?”
“I don’t know.”
“That is a lie.”
“I don’t know who came today.”
“But you know who could have Claire’s necklace.”
Vanessa looked at Sophie.
Ethan moved between them.
“Look at me.”
She did.
“Who?”
Vanessa whispered, “Lauren.”
“Your sister?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
“My mother.”
Ethan stared.
Vanessa had told him her mother died of cancer when Vanessa was nineteen.
Another lie.
He laughed bitterly.
“Is anyone in your family actually dead?”
Vanessa flinched.
“My mother is.”
“You just said—”
“She died six years ago.”
“Then why bring her up?”
“Because she had Claire’s necklace.”
Ethan stared.
Sophie’s eyes widened too.
Vanessa continued.
“My mother and Claire were close.”
“How close?”
“Like family.”
“You said Claire grew up with Lauren.”
“She did. My mother raised Lauren and me after Claire’s mother disappeared.”
Ethan felt dizzy from the web.
“Claire’s mother disappeared?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“When Claire was twelve.”
“She told me her mother died.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“Claire told everyone that eventually.”
“Why?”
Vanessa shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
Ethan looked at the torn photograph.
“What is this house?”
“Pacific Crest?”
“Yes.”
“My mother lived there for years.”
“You just told me it belonged to Claire.”
“It did later.”
“That is not an explanation.”
Vanessa took a breath.
“My mother held the property in trust for Claire.”
Ethan stared.
“Why?”
“Because Claire’s mother left it to her.”
The room felt smaller.
Everything Claire had told Ethan about her childhood had apparently been edited.
Her mother.
Her home.
Her name.
Maybe even the people she loved.
Sophie touched Ethan’s arm.
“Dad.”
He turned.
“She opened the safe with a finger.”
“What?”
“The second woman.”
Sophie lifted her own hand.
“She had something over her finger.”
Ethan’s pulse changed.
“A glove?”
“No. Like clear tape.”
Vanessa whispered, “Fingerprint mold.”
Ethan stared.
“How do you know that?”
“Because Lauren used one once when we were teenagers.”
He almost laughed.
“Of course she did.”
“No, not like this. Our mother had a locked medicine cabinet.”
“Wonderful family story.”
Vanessa closed her eyes.
“You have every right to be angry.”
“That is not enough anymore.”
He called security again.
“Check the office safe. Don’t touch contents until you photograph everything. Also pull camera footage from inside the west hallway.”
The security chief answered, “Already doing it.”
“Any beach access?”
A pause.
“One entry at 2:58.”
“Who?”
“Camera obscured.”
“Obscured how?”
“Lens was sprayed.”
Ethan looked at Vanessa.
“Professional?”
“Could be.”
He ended the call.
Sophie sat on her bed.
Ethan looked at her arm again.
The marks.
He needed the truth from her before adults contaminated it.
“Sophie, I need you to tell me exactly what happened today.”
She nodded.
“Start when you got home.”
“Mrs. Kim dropped me at three.”
The housekeeper.
“She left?”
“She went grocery shopping.”
“Vanessa?”
“Here.”
Vanessa nodded.
“Then?”
“Vanessa said I could do homework upstairs.”
Sophie looked down.
“Then Dr. Beck came.”
“Through the beach door?”
“Yes.”
“Did Vanessa know she was coming?”
Sophie looked at her.
“Yes.”
Vanessa whispered, “I did.”
Ethan’s jaw tightened.
“Continue.”
“Dr. Beck asked me to show her Mom’s old things.”
“Why?”
“She said sometimes memories make nightmares worse.”
Ethan looked at Vanessa.
She said nothing.
Sophie continued.
“I said no.”
“Good.”
“She asked about the box in your closet.”
Ethan frowned.
“What box?”
“The one with Mom’s letters.”
He stared.
Vanessa looked surprised.
Sophie shrugged.
“I saw it once.”
Ethan had never shown her.
But children noticed more than adults believed.
“Then the second woman came.”
“What did Dr. Beck call her?”
Sophie thought.
“She didn’t.”
“Nothing?”
“She said, ‘You shouldn’t be here.’”
Ethan felt cold.
So Lauren had not expected the second woman.
“What did the woman say?”
Sophie’s eyes filled.
“She said, ‘Neither should you.’”
Vanessa stared.
Ethan leaned closer.
“Then what?”
“She went downstairs.”
“To my office?”
Sophie nodded.
“Dr. Beck got mad.”
“At you?”
“At the woman.”
“Did they argue?”
“Yes.”
“About what?”
Sophie looked confused.
“A name.”
“What name?”
“Rachel.”
Vanessa’s face changed.
Ethan saw.
“Who is Rachel?”
Vanessa stood.
“I need water.”
“No.”
She stopped.
“Who is Rachel?”
Vanessa whispered, “Claire’s mother.”
Ethan stared.
Claire’s missing mother.
Rachel West.
Another piece.
“What did they say?”
Sophie tried to remember.
“The second woman said Rachel was right.”
“About what?”
“I don’t know.”
“Anything else?”
“She said, ‘He was never supposed to find the blue key.’”
Ethan’s pulse accelerated.
“Who is he?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did they say my name?”
“No.”
Sophie wiped her eyes.
“Then Dr. Beck asked me if Mom ever gave me a box.”
“Did she?”
Sophie shook her head.
“Then she grabbed me.”
Ethan’s anger returned.
“She grabbed your arm.”
“Yes.”
“What exactly happened?”
“I tried to go downstairs.”
“Why?”
“To call you.”
“And?”
“She said I had to stay until the other woman left.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“She held you.”
Sophie nodded.
“I pulled away.”
The bruises made sense now.
Not an attack designed to injure.
Still unacceptable.
Vanessa whispered, “Lauren said she would never hurt her.”
Ethan looked at her.
“She left marks.”
“I know.”
“And you invited her in.”
“I know.”
“Stop saying you know.”
Vanessa flinched.
Sophie continued.
“I ran to my room. I locked the door.”
“The scratch?”
“They tried to open it.”
“They?”
“Dr. Beck.”
“Not the other woman?”
“No. She was downstairs.”
Ethan stared at Vanessa.
“Where were you?”
Vanessa whispered, “In the kitchen.”
“You knew my daughter locked herself away from your sister.”
“I thought Sophie was overwhelmed.”
“You thought?”
“I told Lauren to leave her alone.”
“Did you go upstairs?”
“Yes.”
“Did Sophie open the door?”
“No.”
“Then I came home.”
Sophie nodded.
Ethan stood.
The timeline fit too neatly to dismiss.
Vanessa had let her sister into the house.
Lauren pressured Sophie for information about Claire.
A second unknown woman arrived.
That woman entered Ethan’s office and opened his safe using a copied fingerprint.
And all of them seemed interested in a blue key that supposedly opened nothing.
He looked at the photograph again.
723 Pacific Crest Road.
“Get your shoes.”
Sophie looked up.
“Why?”
“We’re leaving.”
Vanessa stood.
“Ethan, don’t go there.”
He looked at her.
That was the wrong thing to say.
“You know what’s there.”
“I know what used to be there.”
“What?”
“Records.”
“What records?”
“Claire’s.”
“About what?”
Vanessa’s eyes filled.
“Your family.”
Silence.
Ethan felt cold.
“My family.”
“Yes.”
“What about it?”
“I don’t know all of it.”
“Then tell me what you do know.”
Vanessa looked at Sophie.
Ethan said, “She has heard enough secrets for one day.”
“No.”
Vanessa shook her head.
“She should hear this.”
Ethan frowned.
Vanessa’s voice softened.
“Claire did not move to Malibu by accident.”
Ethan stared.
“What?”
“She came because of you.”
He laughed once.
“We met at a charity dinner.”
“She arranged to be there.”
“Why?”
Vanessa swallowed.
“Because she was investigating your father.”
Ethan’s face hardened.
“My father died before I met Claire.”
“I know.”
“So what was she investigating?”
“His foundation.”
Ethan almost smiled from disbelief.
The Cole Family Foundation funded scholarships, ocean conservation, and domestic violence programs.
It had existed for decades.
“What about it?”
“Money disappeared through shell nonprofits.”
“That’s impossible.”
“It happened.”
“You know this how?”
“My mother helped Claire trace it.”
Ethan looked at the photograph.
Claire beside a woman outside the house.
Maybe Vanessa’s mother.
“Why didn’t she tell me?”
“Because she found something worse.”
“What?”
Vanessa looked down.
“I don’t know.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because Claire stopped trusting us.”
“Why?”
“She thought someone close to my family was leaking information.”
“Lauren?”
Vanessa shook her head.
“My mother.”
Ethan stared.
“The dead one.”
“Yes.”
He almost said something cruel.
Stopped.
Vanessa continued.
“Claire believed my mother took money from your father’s foundation.”
“Did she?”
“I don’t know.”
The front gate intercom buzzed.
Security.
Ethan answered from his phone.
“Mr. Cole, we checked the safe.”
“And?”
“The blue key is gone.”
Ethan expected anger.
Instead, he felt certainty.
Someone had entered his house to take it.
“Anything else?”
“Yes.”
A pause.
“There’s an envelope in the safe that wasn’t there on last month’s inventory.”
Ethan frowned.
“What envelope?”
“Addressed to you.”
His pulse changed.
“Handwriting?”
Another pause.
“Looks like Mrs. Cole’s.”
Claire.
Dead four years.
Ethan stared at Vanessa.
“Bring it upstairs.”
Minutes later, the security chief entered Sophie’s room with a sealed evidence sleeve.
Inside was a yellow envelope.
ETHAN.
Claire’s handwriting.
Ethan recognized the way she crossed the T.
His hands began to shake.
“When was this put in the safe?”
“We don’t know.”
“Cameras?”
“Office camera was disabled today.”
Of course.
Ethan opened the envelope carefully.
One page.
Claire’s handwriting.
Ethan,
If you’re reading this, someone found the key.
Do not go to Pacific Crest alone.
Do not trust anyone who tells you Rachel is dead.
And whatever happens, do not let Sophie go near the basement.
Ethan stopped.
Sophie whispered, “What basement?”
Vanessa covered her mouth.
Ethan looked at her.
“You know.”
She shook her head.
“I know there’s a basement.”
“What is in it?”
“I don’t know.”
Ethan folded the letter.
Then his phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
A woman spoke.
Older.
Calm.
“Ethan Cole?”
“Yes.”
“You have Claire’s photograph.”
He felt cold.
“Who is this?”
The woman ignored the question.
“Your daughter is in danger.”
“Who are you?”
“Go to Pacific Crest.”
Vanessa whispered, “Don’t.”
The woman heard.
“Vanessa is with you.”
Ethan looked around instinctively.
“How do you know that?”
“Because she was always going to be.”
“What does that mean?”
The woman’s voice softened.
“Ask Vanessa why she applied for the foundation job two years before she met you.”
Ethan stared at his fiancée.
Vanessa went white.
The woman continued.
“And ask her why Claire wrote my name on the back of the photograph.”
“Rachel?”
Silence.
Then the woman said, “Claire was my daughter.”
Ethan stopped breathing.
Rachel West.
Claire’s mother.
Supposedly dead.
Supposedly missing.
Alive.
The call ended.
Ethan stared at the phone.
Vanessa whispered, “Oh God.”
Sophie looked between them.
Ethan picked up the photograph again.
The torn half.
The address.
Claire.
The other woman.
And now one certainty.
Someone had lied about Claire’s mother for nearly twenty years.
Maybe Claire.
Maybe Vanessa.
Maybe everyone.
Ethan looked at Sophie.
“We’re not going anywhere tonight.”
Vanessa exhaled.
Relief.
Too much relief.
Ethan noticed.
“Security stays with Sophie.”
Vanessa’s face fell.
He continued.
“I’m going to Pacific Crest.”
“No.”
“You don’t get a vote.”
“Claire told you not to go alone.”
“I won’t.”
He looked at the security chief.
“You’re coming.”
Vanessa stepped forward.
“Ethan, if Rachel is there—”
He turned.
“What?”
“She hates your family.”
“Apparently half the state does.”
“This is different.”
“How?”
Vanessa’s eyes filled.
“Because she believes your father killed Claire.”
Ethan went still.
“My father died before Claire did.”
Vanessa whispered, “Not your father.”
May you like
Ethan stared.
“Your brother.”
