Chapter 2 - The Photograph That Was Never Supposed to Exist
Daniel did not sleep that night.
Neither did Emma.
By midnight, they were sitting in the living room of Daniel's apartment with his father's letter between them and an old photograph lying faceup on the coffee table.
Neither of them touched it.
The photograph showed Emma at sixteen.
She was standing outside a private school in a burgundy coat, smiling at someone outside the frame.
Behind her, half-hidden beneath a tree, stood Richard Rowan.
Daniel had spent most of his life believing his uncle was simply a difficult man who had died bitter and alone.
Now he realized his father had been afraid of him.
There was a difference.
Emma wrapped both hands around a mug of tea.
“I don't remember him.”
“You said that.”
“I know.”
“I wasn't criticizing.”
“I wasn't defending myself.”
Daniel leaned back.
Silence stretched.
Finally Emma said, “You must hate me.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Why would I hate you?”
“Because my existence seems to have ruined your family.”
“No.”
She stared at him.
“Your family was already ruined.”
That almost made her smile.
Almost.
Daniel stood and walked toward the window.
“Your mother knew my father?”
“Yes.”
“They worked together?”
“She worked for him.”
Daniel rubbed his jaw.
“My father never talked about her.”
“He talked about her to my mother.”
“You've never met her?”
Emma shook her head.
“My adoptive parents told me she abandoned me.”
Daniel turned.
“Did you believe them?”
“For most of my life.”
“Do you still?”
Emma looked down.
“No.”
Daniel noticed the envelope beside her.
“There has to be more.”
“There is.”
She pulled out another photograph.
Daniel stared.
It showed his father holding a newborn baby.
A tiny hospital blanket wrapped around her.
The baby had a white ribbon tied around one wrist.
Daniel looked closer.
On the back was written:
Emma Bell. February 11.
He looked at Emma.
“That's you.”
“Yes.”
“My father held you.”
“Yes.”
“Did he know where you were?”
“He found out when I was nineteen.”
Daniel frowned.
“But the letter says—”
“I was moved after the first adoption.”
“What?”
Emma's voice broke.
“There were two adoption records.”
Daniel sat back down.
Her story came slowly.
After Clara disappeared, Emma had been placed with a family named Bell.
They loved her.
They adopted her.
Then when Emma was four, social services received an anonymous report claiming the adoption was fraudulent.
The Bell family fought it.
The records disappeared.
They eventually won custody again.
Emma grew up believing the entire mess had been a bureaucratic mistake.
But after her adoptive father died, she found hidden documents inside his workshop.
Clara had not abandoned her.
Clara had paid him to protect her daughter.
Daniel frowned.
“Paid him?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Emma handed him a receipt.
Daniel read the amount.
“That's a lot of money.”
“She had sold nearly everything she owned before she disappeared.”
“Who received it?”
“My adoptive father.”
Daniel stared at the document.
Then another thought struck him.
“Why would your mother trust him?”
“She didn't.”
Emma opened the final page.
“She trusted my father.”
Daniel looked up.
“Your biological father?”
Emma nodded.
“His name was Michael Bell.”
Daniel's face changed.
“Bell?”
“Yes.”
“Your father had the same last name?”
“My mother changed my surname after he died.”
Daniel read the document again.
Michael Bell.
He knew that name.
It was in the old financial files from Rowan Development.
Not as an employee.
As an investigator.
Daniel suddenly remembered another document from his father's workshop.
A report about missing funds.
A report signed by Michael Bell.
“Your father was investigating Richard.”
Emma nodded.
“So this wasn't just about your mother.”
“No.”
“It was about both of them.”
“Yes.”
Daniel stood.
He walked to the bookshelf and pulled out a box he had not opened in years.
His father's old papers.
He emptied it onto the floor.
Receipts.
Invoices.
A broken watch.
Several photographs.
Then he found it.
A blue ledger.
Daniel remembered it immediately.
His father had once told him never to open it.
Now the lock was already broken.
He opened it.
Most pages were numbers.
On page forty-three was a list of initials.
R.R.
M.B.
C.B.
A.B.
And then one name written in full.
Vivian Rowan.
Emma leaned over his shoulder.
“What's A.B.?”
Daniel stared.
“Andrew Bell.”
“Who is Andrew Bell?”
Daniel turned.
“Your adoptive father?”
She nodded.
Daniel's voice became quiet.
“My father knew him.”
Before either of them could say more, someone knocked on the apartment door.
Three times.
Daniel froze.
Emma stood.
Another knock.
Daniel looked through the peephole.
Nobody.
He opened the door halfway.
An envelope lay on the floor.
No name.
Inside was a photograph of Daniel and Emma sitting in the café.
Taken that afternoon.
On the back were four words.
Stop digging, Daniel.
Emma went pale.
Daniel's anger turned cold.
“This isn't over.”
“No,” Emma said.
“It just started.”
The next morning Vivian arrived at Daniel's apartment with Reed Carson and a woman Daniel had never met.
The woman was in her early forties, sharply dressed, carrying a folder.
“Marianne Holt,” she said. “Private investigator.”
Daniel stepped aside.
“Come in.”
Marianne placed the folder on the table.
“We found the person who took the photograph.”
Daniel's body went rigid.
“Who?”
“A surveillance firm.”
“Name?”
“Rowan Strategic.”
Daniel stared.
His own family's security company.
Vivian's face tightened.
“I shut them down six years ago.”
Marianne shook her head.
“Someone restarted operations under another corporate entity.”
Daniel looked at his mother.
“Who?”
Vivian did not answer.
Reed did.
“Your cousin Nathan.”
Daniel felt the room go silent.
Nathan Rowan had been the golden child of the Rowan family.
Successful.
Polished.
Popular.
He had inherited almost everything after Richard's death.
Daniel hadn't seen him in years.
“Why would Nathan watch Emma?”
Marianne opened another file.
“Because he is the person currently receiving money from the account Richard left behind.”
Emma stepped back.
“What account?”
May you like
Marianne looked at her.
“The one your mother spent thirty years trying to destroy.”
