Mara noticed the problem only after her mother reached for the phone.
“Wait,” Evelyn said.
Her voice was so flat that Mara stopped smiling.
Daniel was still holding the phone at arm’s length, grinning at the screen as he tried to fit all three of them into the frame. Mara had pressed against his left shoulder, laughing because he kept complaining that his arm was too short. Evelyn stood on his other side, stiff-backed and unsmiling, looking as though someone had dragged her into a family photograph against her will.
It should have been an ordinary Saturday afternoon.
Instead, Evelyn stared at the screen as if she had just seen someone standing behind her.
“What?” Daniel asked.
Evelyn did not answer.
Mara leaned forward. “Mom?”
Her mother took the phone from Daniel's hand.
For several seconds, she said nothing.
The room seemed suddenly too quiet. The refrigerator hummed from the kitchen. A clock ticked somewhere near the hallway. Outside, a lawn mower moved slowly along the neighboring yard, its engine rising and falling behind the closed windows.
Then Evelyn whispered, “Delete it.”
Daniel gave a confused laugh. “The picture?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Just delete it.”
Mara looked at her mother carefully. Evelyn's fingers had tightened around the phone. The knuckles were pale.
Daniel glanced at Mara.
Mara shrugged.
“Mom, it's only a selfie.”
“I know what it is.”
“Then why do you want me to delete it?”
Evelyn looked down at the screen again.
Daniel's face was bright with an easy smile. Mara was leaning against him, her cheek nearly touching his shoulder. Evelyn stood beside them, her expression severe.
Nothing looked wrong.
Except Daniel's left arm.
Mara frowned.
“What are you looking at?”
Evelyn turned the phone toward her.
“Your brother.”
Mara's smile disappeared.
Daniel laughed nervously. “I am standing right here.”
Evelyn looked at him.
For the first time since she had entered the room that afternoon, her expression changed.
It was not anger.
It was fear.
Mara looked from her mother to Daniel and back again.
“Mom,” she said softly, “what is wrong?”
Evelyn's lips parted.
Then she handed the phone to Mara.
“Look at his hand.”
Mara looked.
Daniel's arm stretched toward the camera. His fingers wrapped naturally around the phone.
But beneath his forearm, near the edge of the picture, the fabric of his gray shirt appeared strangely transparent.
Mara blinked.
The photograph was imperfect, perhaps. The window behind them was bright. The phone camera had struggled with the light.
“That is just the lighting.”
“No,” Evelyn said.
Daniel leaned closer.
For a moment, even he stopped smiling.
His skin in the photograph looked pale, almost colorless, while Mara and Evelyn were fully colored. His shirt was gray, his face almost silver. Yet in the actual room, Daniel's skin was warm and sun-browned, and his shirt was a deep blue.
He touched his own cheek.
“That's weird.”
Evelyn backed away.
Mara noticed.
“Mom?”
Evelyn stared at Daniel.
“You need to leave.”
Daniel frowned. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me.”
Mara stepped between them.
“Mom, stop.”
Evelyn shook her head.
“No. I should have recognized it sooner.”
“Recognized what?”
But Evelyn was no longer listening.
Her eyes remained fixed on Daniel.
“You shouldn't be here.”
Daniel's expression hardened.
“I don't know what you think you're seeing, but I'm your daughter's fiancé.”
Evelyn's face went completely still.
Mara felt the words settle heavily into the room.
Fiancé.
Daniel had proposed three weeks earlier.
Mara had said yes.
Her mother had not.
Not once had Evelyn congratulated them. She had never asked about the ring, never discussed the wedding, never even referred to Daniel as Mara's future husband.
But until that afternoon, she had hidden her objection behind silence.
Now the silence was gone.
Evelyn pointed toward the hallway.
“Go upstairs, Mara.”
“Why?”
“Because I need to speak to Daniel alone.”
Daniel shook his head.
“If you have something to say, say it in front of her.”
Evelyn looked at him for a long moment.
Then she said, “You died six years ago.”
Nobody moved.
Mara stared at her mother.
Daniel slowly lowered his hand.
The clock in the hallway continued ticking.
One.
Two.
Three.
Mara gave a short, disbelieving laugh.
“Mom.”
Evelyn's eyes filled with tears.
“I know how that sounds.”
Daniel's face had lost its irritation.
“What did you just say?”
Evelyn swallowed.
“I said you died six years ago.”
Mara shook her head.
“This isn't funny.”
“I am not joking.”
“You've met him.”
“Yes.”
“You've had dinner with him.”
“Yes.”
“You've spoken to him.”
“Yes.”
“Then how could he be dead?”
Evelyn looked at Daniel.
“Because I buried him.”
Daniel went pale.
Mara's first instinct was to grab his hand.
His fingers were cold.
Not cool from the room.
Cold.
She pulled away.
Daniel noticed.
“Mara?”
She could not answer.
Evelyn walked to the bookshelf and pulled down a small wooden box.
Her hands trembled as she opened it.
Inside was an old photograph.
She held it out.
Mara took it.
The picture showed two young men standing beside a river.
One was unmistakably Daniel.
The other was a man Mara had never seen.
Daniel stared at the photograph.
“That isn't me.”
Evelyn's voice broke.
“Yes, it is.”
“No.”
“You were twenty-four.”
Daniel looked closer.
The young man in the photograph had the same eyes.
The same crooked smile.
The same small scar near his eyebrow.
Even the same habit of standing with one shoulder slightly lower than the other.
Mara felt something cold move through her chest.
“Who is the other man?” she whispered.
Evelyn looked at the photograph.
“His name was Adrian.”
Daniel shook his head.
“I don't know anyone named Adrian.”
“You did.”
“I didn't.”
Evelyn looked toward the window.
“That's what scares me.”
Mara turned the photograph over.
There was writing on the back.
Six years earlier, in Evelyn's handwriting, were four words.
Daniel and Adrian. Last summer.
Below them was a date.
Mara knew the date.
Everyone in their family knew it.
It was the date Daniel had supposedly left town after an argument with Evelyn.
The date he later claimed he could not remember.
Mara looked up.
“You told me Daniel left because you two fought.”
Evelyn closed her eyes.
“That is what I wanted you to believe.”
Daniel took one step toward her.
“What happened to me?”
Evelyn did not answer.
He asked again.
“What happened six years ago?”
She looked directly at him.
“You came home that night bleeding.”
Mara's breath caught.
“You said you didn't know where you'd been.”
Daniel stared at her.
“And the next morning,” Evelyn continued, “the police found a body beside the river.”
Mara gripped the photograph.
“Whose body?”
Evelyn looked at Daniel.
“Adrian's.”
Silence filled the room.
Daniel slowly sat down.
Mara watched him press both hands against his temples.
“I don't remember.”
Evelyn nodded.
“I know.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because when you woke up, you were different.”
Daniel looked up.
“How?”
Evelyn's voice became barely audible.
“You didn't remember your name.”
Mara stared at him.
Daniel stared back.
And then, for the first time, Mara noticed something she had never questioned before.
Daniel always wore a watch.
Every day.
Every night.
Even while sleeping.
He had once told her it belonged to his father.
But now, looking at the photograph, Mara saw that the young Daniel in it wore the same watch.
She reached toward his wrist.
Daniel pulled back instinctively.
“What?”
Mara looked at the watch.
There was a tiny engraving underneath the strap.
She had never seen it before.
Two initials.
D.A.
Daniel looked down.
His face changed.
Evelyn whispered, “That's the first clue.”
Mara looked at her.
“The first?”
Evelyn closed the wooden box.
“There are more.”
Click Here to continue read next: PART2: Evelyn Finally Revealed Why She Had Feared Daniel for Years, but One Missing Memory Changed the Meaning of Everything
The Smile in the Photograph Made Her Mother Stop Breathing Before Anyone Could Explain Why
Part 1 of 16
