By the time Arthur and I reached the hospital, the rain had thickened into a gray curtain across the parking lot. I barely remembered leaving the caf\u00e9. I remembered only Arthur's hand gripping the dashboard and the nurse's words repeating in my head.<\/p>\n
Someone had come asking for Clara.<\/p>\n
A man carrying an old photograph of my father.<\/p>\n
The elevator seemed painfully slow. When the doors opened, I stepped into the corridor and immediately saw two police officers near Clara's room. A nurse stood beside them with her arms folded tightly across her chest.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere is my wife?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s inside,\u201d one officer said. \u201cShe\u2019s safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
I pushed toward the door.<\/p>\n
The officer stopped me with one hand.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Vega, give us a moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI need to see her.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou will.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arthur stepped beside me. \u201cWhat happened?\u201d<\/p>\n
The nurse answered before the officer could.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe man left when security approached him. He didn't threaten anyone. He simply asked which room belonged to Clara Vega.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid he give a name?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did he look like?\u201d<\/p>\n
She described a man in his fifties, medium height, dark coat, gray hair at the temples. Nothing about the description seemed familiar.<\/p>\n
Then she added one detail.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had an old scar running from his left ear toward his jaw.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arthur went completely still.<\/p>\n
I turned toward him.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arthur didn't answer immediately.<\/p>\n
Finally, he said, \u201cHis name is Victor Hale.\u201d<\/p>\n
The name meant nothing to me.<\/p>\n
Arthur's face told me it should.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho is he?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA man who worked for your mother.\u201d<\/p>\n
My stomach tightened.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat kind of work?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhatever she needed.\u201d<\/p>\n
The police officer looked at Arthur.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou're saying he was involved in the property transfers?\u201d<\/p>\n
Arthur nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmong other things.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked through the glass window in Clara's door. She was awake, propped against the pillows. Her eyes found mine.<\/p>\n
She looked relieved.<\/p>\n
That hurt.<\/p>\n
After what I had done, she was still relieved to see me.<\/p>\n
I entered.<\/p>\n
Clara looked toward Arthur.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you find him?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cVictor?\u201d<\/p>\n
She nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d Arthur said. \u201cHe left.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clara closed her eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew he would.\u201d<\/p>\n
I pulled the chair beside the bed closer, then stopped myself before sitting too near.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do you know about him?\u201d<\/p>\n
She opened her eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe came to the house once.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThree months ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
My pulse quickened.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore I knew about your pregnancy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy didn't you tell me?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause he didn't come for you.\u201d<\/p>\n
She paused.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe came for your mother.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arthur looked at her sharply.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did he say?\u201d<\/p>\n
Clara hesitated.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe asked whether Beatrice had given me anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnything like what?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA key.\u201d<\/p>\n
I thought of the storage room.<\/p>\n
The passage.<\/p>\n
The black notebook.<\/p>\n
The documents.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
Clara shook her head.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe didn't believe me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat key?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arthur stepped closer.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid he show you the photograph?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhich photograph?\u201d<\/p>\n
She looked at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of you standing beside a woman.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arthur's face drained of color.<\/p>\n
I saw it immediately.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho was the woman?\u201d<\/p>\n
He didn't answer.<\/p>\n
Clara did.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was holding a baby.\u201d<\/p>\n
The room went silent.<\/p>\n
Arthur sat down.<\/p>\n
His hands began to tremble.<\/p>\n
I had never seen my father frightened.<\/p>\n
Not like that.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho was she?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
Arthur looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour aunt Evelyn.\u201d<\/p>\n
The name landed strangely.<\/p>\n
It was familiar only because I had heard my mother mention it once when I was a child.<\/p>\n
Evelyn had supposedly run away.<\/p>\n
Arthur had supposedly been too young to know where she went.<\/p>\n
My mother had always said Evelyn was unstable.<\/p>\n
Arthur looked at Clara.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou found her?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI found records.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the house.\u201d<\/p>\n
My heart began beating harder.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat records?\u201d<\/p>\n
Clara glanced toward the police officers outside.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arthur understood.<\/p>\n
We waited until the officers finished asking questions. They took photographs of the corridor and collected security footage.<\/p>\n
Before they left, one officer gave me a card.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf that man returns, call us immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n
I promised I would.<\/p>\n
Then I returned to Clara.<\/p>\n
She was holding a folded piece of paper.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat's that?\u201d<\/p>\n
She handed it to me.<\/p>\n
It was a photocopy of a property record.<\/p>\n
At the bottom was my mother's handwriting.<\/p>\n
The note read:<\/p>\n
Ask Arthur what happened to Evelyn.<\/p>\n
I looked at my father.<\/p>\n
He closed his eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn't know she was alive.\u201d<\/p>\n
My fingers tightened around the paper.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou knew she might be?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew she disappeared.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat's not what I asked.\u201d<\/p>\n
He looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI suspected your mother knew more than she admitted.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clara reached beneath her pillow and removed another envelope.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was hidden inside your father's old photograph.\u201d<\/p>\n
I opened it.<\/p>\n
Inside was a single page.<\/p>\n
The handwriting belonged to a woman.<\/p>\n
The first line read:<\/p>\n
Arthur, if you ever see this, do not trust Beatrice with the children.<\/p>\n
I read it twice.<\/p>\n
Children.<\/p>\n
Not child.<\/p>\n
Children.<\/p>\n
I looked at Clara.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat children?\u201d<\/p>\n
She shook her head.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arthur took the letter from me.<\/p>\n
His face changed as he read.<\/p>\n
Then he whispered a name.<\/p>\n
\u201cElla.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho is Ella?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy niece.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEvelyn's daughter?\u201d<\/p>\n
He nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was another child.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clara sat up slightly.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnother?\u201d<\/p>\n
Arthur looked at her.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvelyn had twins.\u201d<\/p>\n
The room seemed to contract around us.<\/p>\n
I thought about the documents.<\/p>\n
The missing records.<\/p>\n
The property transfers.<\/p>\n
The warning on the letter.<\/p>\n
The photograph of Evelyn holding a baby.<\/p>\n
There had been more than one child.<\/p>\n
Arthur folded the letter.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere did you find this?\u201d<\/p>\n
Clara pointed toward the hallway.<\/p>\n
\u201cInside the photograph frame.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy would your mother keep it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause she didn't know I had seen it.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at my father.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou said Evelyn disappeared.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe did.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd her children?\u201d<\/p>\n
Arthur swallowed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't know.\u201d<\/p>\n
The police officer's card felt heavy in my pocket.<\/p>\n
I looked at Clara.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to leave this hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n
She shook her head.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cClara\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the safest place right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arthur nodded reluctantly.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe may be right.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then the lights flickered.<\/p>\n
Once.<\/p>\n
Twice.<\/p>\n
The corridor went dark.<\/p>\n
Someone screamed farther down the hall.<\/p>\n
Emergency lights came on.<\/p>\n
And from outside Clara's room came the sound of hurried footsteps.<\/p>\n
Arthur stood.<\/p>\n
\u201cStay here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The door opened.<\/p>\n
A security guard rushed in.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Vega?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou need to come with me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
The guard's face was pale.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe found your mother's car in the staff parking area.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stared at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mother isn't here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The guard shook his head.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe isn't in the car.\u201d<\/p>\n
He held up a small plastic evidence bag.<\/p>\n
Inside was a photograph.<\/p>\n
It showed my father.<\/p>\n
Arthur took one look at it.<\/p>\n
Then whispered, \u201cShe's found us.\u201d<\/p>\n
By the time Arthur and I reached the hospital, the rain had thickened into a gray curtain across the parking lot. I barely remembered leaving the caf\u00e9. I remembered only … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16005,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insightdrama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16011"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16055,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16011\/revisions\/16055"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}