Nora did not sleep that night.
Neither did Julian.
They sat at opposite ends of the living room while rain tapped against the windows. The city outside continued moving, indifferent to the fact that their lives had tilted in a single afternoon.
At three in the morning, Nora finally asked, “When did your father die?”
“Twenty years ago.”
“And Elise?”
“Twenty-two years ago.”
“You were what?”
“Sixteen.”
Nora stared at him.
“You were sixteen when your sister disappeared.”
“Yes.”
“And your father told you she was dead?”
“He told everyone.”
“Did you believe him?”
Julian looked down.
“I wanted to.”
“That isn't an answer.”
“No.”
He rubbed his hands together.
“I didn't believe him.”
Nora waited.
“Then why did you stay quiet?”
Julian's eyes lifted.
“Because I was sixteen, and my father was the kind of man people obeyed before they even understood why.”
He explained slowly.
His father, Adrian Vale, had owned a successful construction company. The family had lived comfortably, but Adrian's temper had been unpredictable. Elise had been the only person who openly challenged him.
She questioned his business deals.
She questioned his friends.
She questioned money that disappeared from company accounts.
Then, one summer night, Elise vanished.
The family story was simple.
She had left after an argument.
Three days later, Adrian told everyone she had died in a car accident outside the city.
There was no body.
No funeral.
No police investigation that Julian ever saw.
Nora frowned.
“That makes no sense.”
“I know.”
“Your mother believed it?”
“My mother stopped asking questions.”
“Why?”
Julian looked toward the window.
“Because she was afraid.”
The next morning, Julian took Nora to the house where he had grown up.
It stood on a quiet street lined with older buildings.
His mother no longer lived there.
The property had been empty since Adrian's death.
Julian unlocked the door.
Dust covered the hallway.
Nora followed him inside.
“You've been here recently?”
“Once.”
“When?”
“After Elise contacted me.”
He walked directly to the study.
The room smelled of old paper.
A desk stood beneath the window.
Julian opened the bottom drawer.
Inside were folders.
He pulled one out.
“This is what Elise asked me to find.”
Nora looked at the label.
Vale Construction—1998.
She opened it.
Invoices.
Bank statements.
Contracts.
Names.
Several payments had been made to companies that did not appear to exist.
Nora looked at Julian.
“This is fraud.”
“Probably.”
“Probably?”
“I don't know how much of it was illegal.”
She turned another page.
A handwritten note appeared in the margin.
Ask E before signing.
The handwriting was unfamiliar.
“Who's E?”
“Elise.”
Nora continued.
One document contained a signature from Adrian.
Another contained a second signature.
Julian's face went pale.
“That isn't my father's signature.”
“Whose is it?”
“I don't know.”
They found a photograph inside the folder.
It showed Adrian standing outside the construction office.
Elise was beside him.
A third person stood near the doorway.
Julian stared.
“That's Marcus.”
“Who?”
“My father's accountant.”
“What happened to him?”
“He disappeared after my father died.”
Nora looked at the photograph again.
“Maybe he knows what happened.”
Julian nodded.
A floorboard creaked upstairs.
They both froze.
“Someone's here,” Nora whispered.
Julian raised a finger.
They waited.
Another sound.
Then footsteps.
Julian took Nora's hand.
They moved toward the hallway.
A shadow passed beneath the upstairs door.
Julian whispered, “Stay behind me.”
The door opened.
Nobody was there.
A window stood open at the end of the hall.
Rain had blown across the floor.
Nora walked toward it.
There was something caught in the frame.
A small photograph.
She removed it.
It showed Elise.
On the back was a date.
Two weeks earlier.
Julian stared.
“She was here.”
Nora looked at him.
“Recently.”
He nodded.
“Then why did she leave?”
A sound came from downstairs.
The front door slammed.
Julian ran down.
Nora followed.
Nobody was there.
But on the floor sat an envelope.
Julian picked it up.
His name was written across the front.
Inside was a key.
And a handwritten address.
Nora recognized the street.
“That's near Mercer.”
Julian looked at her.
“The photograph.”
They returned to the place where they had taken the selfie.
The woman had stood near a particular building.
Julian compared the address.
“It is the same block.”
They found the building after searching for nearly an hour.
It was an old apartment complex.
The manager recognized Elise's name.
“She rented here under another name.”
“When?”
“Until three days ago.”
Julian looked stunned.
“Did she leave anything?”
The manager hesitated.
“She asked me to give this to you.”
He handed Julian a small envelope.
Nora watched Julian open it.
Inside was a photograph.
It showed Nora and Julian.
Taken from across the street.
Nora's face went cold.
The picture had been taken the previous week.
They were walking together.
Julian was holding coffee.
Nora was laughing.
Someone had been watching them.
On the back was a message.
She knows more than you think.
Nora looked at Julian.
“Who does that mean?”
“I don't know.”
“Me?”
“I don't know.”
She stepped away.
“You keep saying that.”
“Because I don't have the answers.”
“You had enough answers to hide your sister from me.”
“I didn't hide her.”
“You hid everything.”
Julian lowered his head.
“You're right.”
The admission disarmed her.
He continued.
“I was afraid.”
“Of what?”
“That if I told you, you'd become part of it.”
Nora looked at the photograph.
“I already am.”
They returned to the apartment.
Julian searched the documents again.
Nora studied the photograph.
Then she noticed something.
The picture of them had been taken from the same angle as the photograph she had taken that day.
The person watching them had been standing behind the same tree.
She zoomed in.
A reflection appeared in a parked car.
A face.
Nora froze.
She knew that face.
“Julian.”
He looked up.
“That's Marcus.”
The missing accountant.
Julian took the phone.
Marcus was older now.
But unmistakable.
“He's alive.”
Nora nodded.
“And he's been following us.”
Julian stood.
“Then we find him.”
Before they could leave, someone knocked.
Three slow knocks.
Neither moved.
Another three.
Julian approached the door.
“Who is it?”
A woman's voice answered.
“Julian.”
He froze.
Nora recognized the voice from nowhere.
Yet somehow it sounded familiar.
Julian opened the door.
Elise stood in the hallway.
Older than the photographs.
Tired.
Rainwater darkened her coat.
She looked at Nora.
Then at her brother.
“You shouldn't have found Marcus.”
Julian stared.
“Where have you been?”
Elise's eyes filled.
“Running.”
“From whom?”
She stepped inside.
“From the man who killed our father.”
Nora closed the door behind her.
Elise looked at her.
“And now he's looking for you too.”
Click Here to continue read next: PART3: Elise Revealed the Reason She Had Stayed Hidden for Twenty Years, but Her Story Forced Nora to Question Which Family Member Had Actually Betrayed Them
The Photograph Was Supposed to Be a Simple Memory, Until Nora Noticed the Stranger Behind Them and Realized Julian Had Been Hiding Something
Part 2 of 16
