Chapter 2 — The Woman in Emerald
Chapter 2 — The Woman in Emerald
Daniel did not sit down.
He stood beside my hospital bed with the envelope in his hand and looked at me as though he were trying to decide which truth would hurt me less.
There wasn't one.
Not anymore.
"Tell me," I said.
He looked at the locked door.
Then at the window.
Then back at me.
"Victoria isn't the person you think she is."
I almost laughed.
"She pushed me down a staircase."
"I know."
"She tried to kill my baby."
"I know."
"Then what could possibly be worse?"
Daniel's jaw tightened.
"She wasn't acting alone."
The room seemed to shrink around me.
"Who was helping her?"
He didn't answer.
I looked at the envelope.
"Is it in there?"
"Yes."
"Then give it to me."
He hesitated.
"Daniel."
Finally, he handed it over.
The envelope was thick.
Too thick for one document.
My fingers trembled as I opened it.
Inside were photographs.
Bank statements.
Copies of legal documents.
And one photograph that made my blood run cold.
Victoria stood beside a man I recognized immediately.
My father.
Except the photograph was dated twenty-five years ago.
My father had supposedly been living overseas at that time.
And according to everything I had ever been told...
he had never met Victoria.
I looked at Daniel.
"Why do you have this?"
"Because I found it three weeks ago."
"Three weeks?"
He nodded.
"Before the fall."
"And you didn't tell me?"
"I was trying to understand it."
I threw the photograph onto the bed.
"You had three weeks."
"I know."
"You knew someone was threatening me."
"I suspected."
"You knew my mother-in-law was involved."
"I suspected."
"You knew there was something wrong with my pregnancy."
He looked away.
"Yes."
My voice became quiet.
"And you said nothing."
Daniel closed his eyes.
"I was afraid."
"Of what?"
"Of losing you."
I stared at him.
"You almost lost me anyway."
He had no answer.
I looked through the photographs again.
The first showed Victoria in front of a hotel I didn't recognize.
The second showed her entering a private clinic.
The third showed her meeting a man whose face had been deliberately blurred.
The fourth showed her holding a baby.
A newborn.
I looked closer.
The photograph was old.
The baby had a hospital bracelet.
I could barely read the name.
D. Hale.
Daniel saw it.
"That's my brother."
I looked at him.
"You had a brother?"
He swallowed.
"Had."
"What happened?"
"He died."
"When?"
"Three days after he was born."
I looked at the photograph again.
"Are you sure?"
Daniel frowned.
"Of course."
"Then why is this hospital bracelet dated twelve days after his supposed death?"
He froze.
I felt something shift inside me.
A story that had been buried for decades was beginning to surface.
A nurse entered.
"Mrs. Thorne?"
"Yes?"
"Your doctor wants another ultrasound."
I nodded.
Daniel stepped forward.
"I'll come."
The nurse looked at him.
Then at me.
"Only the patient is allowed."
Daniel seemed surprised.
I wasn't.
"That's fine," I said.
He looked at me.
"Emily."
"I'll be okay."
He nodded reluctantly.
As the nurse wheeled me away, I glanced back.
Daniel remained standing beside the bed.
He looked frightened.
For the first time, I wondered whether he was afraid for me...
or afraid of what I might discover.
The ultrasound room was dark.
The technician applied the gel.
The screen illuminated.
My daughter's heartbeat filled the room.
Fast.
Beautiful.
Alive.
The technician smiled.
"She's strong."
I let out a breath.
"Can you tell me if everything is normal?"
"So far."
"So far?"
She looked at the screen.
"There's something unusual."
My stomach tightened.
"What?"
She adjusted the monitor.
"There seems to be an additional vascular connection."
"What does that mean?"
"I don't know yet."
She printed several images.
Then stopped.
"Has anyone told you about a previous procedure?"
"No."
"Because the pattern looks like something was done before."
I stared at her.
"Before she was born?"
The technician nodded.
"That's impossible."
"I agree."
She looked uncomfortable.
"I'll have the doctor review it."
I grabbed her wrist.
"Don't tell anyone yet."
She hesitated.
"Why?"
"Because I don't know who I can trust."
When I returned to my room, Daniel was gone.
On the bed was another envelope.
No name.
No handwriting.
I opened it.
Inside was a single page.
YOU ARE ASKING THE WRONG QUESTION.
Below it:
DON'T ASK WHO WANTS THE BABY.
Then:
ASK WHO NEEDED HER TO BE BORN.
I stared at the message.
Someone was watching me.
Someone knew exactly what I had been told.
Someone knew about the ultrasound.
I turned toward the hallway.
A nurse passed.
Then another.
A doctor walked by.
Anyone could have left it.
I looked at the hospital security camera mounted above the door.
The small green light was off.
My blood ran cold.
The camera wasn't recording.
At 10:40 a.m., Marcus Reed returned.
He entered alone.
"Where's Daniel?"
"Meeting his attorney."
Marcus nodded.
"I need to show you something."
He placed a tablet on the bed.
It showed the ballroom recording.
But this time, the video had been enhanced.
The audio was clearer.
Victoria's voice:
"You don't know what you're carrying."
My voice:
"My baby."
Victoria:
"That isn't what I mean."
I leaned closer.
Victoria continued:
"Your child has something that belongs to us."
I paused the recording.
"What does that mean?"
Marcus shook his head.
"We don't know."
"Who is 'us'?"
"That's what I'm investigating."
He played the next section.
Victoria stepped closer to me.
Her voice dropped.
"If you give birth, everything changes."
My voice trembled.
"Why?"
Victoria replied:
"Because then the trust becomes active."
The video stopped.
I looked at Marcus.
"The trust?"
He nodded.
"Daniel's family has a private trust."
"I know."
"No."
His expression was serious.
"You don't know what kind."
Marcus opened another file.
The Thorne Family Trust.
Established forty-seven years ago.
Assets estimated at several billion dollars.
I stared.
"Why are you showing me this?"
"Because you're named in it."
My heart stopped.
"What?"
He scrolled.
There was my name.
EMILY THORNE — BENEFICIARY, CONDITIONAL.
Underneath:
CHILD OF EMILY THORNE — PRIMARY SUCCESSOR.
I looked at Marcus.
"Why didn't Daniel tell me?"
"He may not have known."
"His family has billions and my baby inherits it?"
"Not exactly."
He scrolled again.
There was another clause.
Inheritance activates only upon verification of maternal lineage.
I stared at the words.
"What does maternal lineage mean?"
Marcus looked at me.
"Your mother's bloodline."
"My mother?"
"Yes."
I shook my head.
"My mother has nothing to do with the Thorne family."
Marcus didn't answer.
I felt cold.
"Does she?"
That afternoon, I called my mother.
She answered on the fourth ring.
"Emily?"
"Mom."
"Are you okay?"
I looked at the hospital monitor.
"Someone pushed me down a staircase last night."
Silence.
Then:
"Is the baby okay?"
"Yes."
My mother exhaled.
"Thank God."
"Mom."
"What?"
"Do you know Victoria Hale?"
Silence.
Longer this time.
"Who?"
"Victoria Hale."
My mother's breathing changed.
"Why are you asking?"
"So you do know her."
"I knew her years ago."
"How?"
"Emily, this isn't something we should discuss over the phone."
"Then come to the hospital."
Another silence.
"I can't."
"Why?"
"Because if Victoria knows you're asking questions..."
"She already tried to kill me."
My mother's voice broke.
"Then you need to leave."
"Leave where?"
"Anywhere."
"Mom."
"Listen to me."
Her voice became urgent.
"Do not let Daniel take you anywhere."
I froze.
"Why?"
"Because you don't know which side he's on."
The line went dead.
I stared at my phone.
Then slowly lowered it.
Daniel had just become the one person I was most afraid to trust.
At six that evening, Victoria appeared on television.
Not as a suspect.
As a victim.
She was standing outside the hotel beside her attorney.
Her arm was wrapped in a sling.
Her eyes were red.
"My family is devastated," she told reporters.
"I loved Emily as a daughter."
I nearly threw the remote across the room.
Then she continued.
"I believe the fall was a tragic accident."
A reporter asked:
"Did you push her?"
Victoria shook her head.
"No."
"Did you argue?"
"I was trying to warn her."
"About what?"
Victoria looked directly into the cameras.
Then she said:
"About the people around her."
My stomach dropped.
The reporter asked:
"Who?"
Victoria hesitated.
"My son."
The room seemed to stop.
She continued:
"Daniel has been hiding things from his wife."
I stared at the television.
Victoria was changing the story.
She wasn't denying the attack anymore.
She was redirecting suspicion toward Daniel.
And it was working.
Within minutes, social media exploded.
DID DANIEL THORNE SET UP HIS OWN WIFE?
WHAT IS THE SECRET BEHIND THE THORNE HEIR?
MOTHER-IN-LAW ACCUSES SON OF DECEPTION.
I turned off the television.
Someone knocked.
Daniel entered.
His face was exhausted.
"You saw it."
"Yes."
"She's lying."
"About which part?"
He stopped.
I looked at him.
"That's the problem, Daniel."
He closed the door.
"I need to tell you everything."
"Then start."
He sat down.
"When I was twenty-two, my father told me something."
"What?"
"That our family had a secret."
"What secret?"
"Someone had been born who was never supposed to exist."
I stared.
"Who?"
Daniel looked at my stomach.
"Your daughter."
I couldn't speak.
He continued.
"My father said the child would change the ownership of the family company."
"Why?"
"Because of the trust."
"Again with the trust."
"It's not just money."
"Then what is it?"
He leaned forward.
"The trust was created after a family dispute."
"Between whom?"
"My father and his sister."
"Who?"
"Victoria's mother."
I frowned.
"Wait."
Daniel nodded.
"Victoria isn't simply my mother's friend."
"What is she?"
"My father's sister."
I stared at him.
"Your aunt."
"Yes."
"Then why did you call her Victoria Hale?"
"Because she changed her name."
"Why?"
"To hide from the family."
I remembered the photograph.
My father beside her.
Everything suddenly made sense.
"Your father knew her."
"Yes."
"And my father?"
Daniel hesitated.
"They knew each other too."
I felt dizzy.
"How?"
"I don't know."
"You showed me the photograph."
"I know."
"Then why did you say you didn't know?"
"Because my father made me promise never to investigate."
I stared at him.
"Why?"
"Because the last person who investigated disappeared."
"Who?"
Daniel's voice became barely audible.
"My older brother."
I looked at the photograph again.
The baby.
The hospital bracelet.
The impossible date.
"Your brother didn't die."
Daniel looked at me.
"What?"
"The baby in the photograph."
I pointed.
"That's him."
Daniel shook his head.
"No."
"Look at the bracelet."
He took the photograph.
His face changed.
The date.
The hospital.
The initials.
He whispered:
"That's the night he disappeared."
The room fell silent.
Marcus entered at that exact moment.
He stopped when he saw our faces.
"What happened?"
Daniel handed him the photograph.
Marcus studied it.
Then looked at us.
"I know this hospital."
"What?"
Marcus pointed to the corner.
"That clinic closed twenty years ago."
Daniel frowned.
"Why?"
"A fire."
I looked at him.
"How many people died?"
"Officially?"
He hesitated.
"Seven."
"And unofficially?"
Marcus looked at me.
"Nobody knows."
My heart began pounding.
"Find the records."
"We're already trying."
"Now."
Marcus nodded.
Then his phone rang.
He answered.
His expression changed.
"Where?"
He listened.
Then looked at Daniel.
"Victoria was seen entering a private airfield."
Daniel stood.
"She's leaving the country."
Marcus shook his head.
"No."
"What?"
"She's not leaving."
He turned toward me.
"She's going somewhere."
"Where?"
Marcus held up his phone.
A flight plan appeared.
Destination:
HALE ESTATE.
I recognized the name.
It was the same name printed on the back of the old photograph.
The place where Victoria had been photographed with my father.
The place where Daniel's brother had supposedly died.
And the place my mother had warned me never to visit.
That night, despite the doctor's orders, I left the hospital.
Daniel tried to stop me.
"You need to rest."
"I need answers."
"You could put yourself in danger."
"I was already pushed down a staircase."
He looked away.
I grabbed his arm.
"Are you coming?"
He stared at me.
Then nodded.
"Yes."
Marcus drove.
The road to Hale Estate stretched into the countryside.
No streetlights.
No houses.
Just darkness.
I sat in the back seat, one hand resting over my stomach.
My daughter moved.
A tiny kick.
I smiled despite everything.
"I'm here."
Daniel looked at me through the mirror.
"Who are you talking to?"
"My baby."
He smiled faintly.
Then the smile disappeared.
Because something moved across the road.
Marcus slammed on the brakes.
A black SUV appeared from the trees.
It blocked the road.
Three men stepped out.
Marcus reached for his weapon.
"Stay inside."
Daniel looked at him.
"Who are they?"
Marcus didn't answer.
The men approached.
One raised a flashlight.
Then another vehicle appeared behind us.
We were trapped.
I looked at Daniel.
"Tell me you know these people."
He shook his head.
"I don't."
The driver's window shattered.
Marcus ducked.
Daniel pulled me toward the floor.
Gunshots echoed through the forest.
Someone shouted.
Then the headlights of the second vehicle turned on.
A woman stepped out.
Emerald dress.
Victoria.
She looked directly at me.
And instead of running...
she smiled.
Then she raised one hand.
The gunmen stopped firing.
Victoria walked toward our vehicle.
Daniel stared at her.
"What do you want?"
She looked past him.
Straight at me.
"I want you to finally hear the truth."
She leaned toward the broken window.
"Emily, your baby was never the reason they wanted you dead."
I stared at her.
"Then what was?"
Victoria's smile disappeared.
"Because you're the only person alive who can prove who the baby's father really is."
I froze.
Daniel turned toward me.
"What?"
Victoria stepped back.
"Ask your husband."
Then she walked away.
Daniel's face had gone completely white.
And for the first time since I had met him, I saw something in his eyes that terrified me more than the fall.
Not fear.
Recognition.
May you like
He knew exactly what Victoria meant.
And he had been hiding it from me all along.
