Nobody moved for several seconds.
The lake beyond the glass doors was bright with early sunlight, but the house had become strangely dark. Eva stood just inside the entrance, clutching the sleeves of her blue jacket. She looked fourteen, perhaps fifteen, yet there was something much older in the way she watched the adults around her.
Mara closed the door.
“Come inside.”
Eva did not look at Daniel.
She walked past him.
That simple movement told Mara more than an argument would have.
Eva was not afraid of him in the ordinary way.
She was afraid of what he represented.
Lena approached slowly.
“Eva?”
The girl stopped.
Lena's eyes filled again.
“I knew it was you.”
Eva looked at her.
“You shouldn't have.”
“I saw you.”
“Six months ago.”
Lena nodded.
Eva's expression softened for half a second.
Then it disappeared.
“I couldn't stay.”
“Where have you been?”
Eva looked at Mara.
“She knows.”
Mara shook her head.
“No. I know almost nothing.”
Eva gave a small smile.
“That makes two of us.”
Daniel shut the door behind them.
“Who brought you here?”
Eva's shoulders tightened.
Mara stepped between them.
“You'll have your turn.”
Daniel stared at her.
“You are forgetting who owns this house.”
“No.”
Mara's voice remained calm.
“I'm remembering who is fourteen.”
Eva looked at her with something close to gratitude.
Mara led everyone toward the kitchen.
Sophie appeared halfway down the staircase.
She stopped when she saw Eva.
Her face went white.
“Oh my God.”
Eva looked at her.
“Sophie.”
The younger woman began crying.
She crossed the room and stopped just short of embracing her.
“Can I?”
Eva hesitated.
Then she nodded.
Sophie wrapped her arms around her.
Mara looked away.
Some reunions were too private to watch.
When they separated, Sophie wiped her face.
“I thought you were dead.”
“I know.”
“Why didn't you come back?”
Eva looked toward Daniel.
“Because I was told not to.”
“By whom?”
Eva said nothing.
Mara returned to the memory card.
“Eva, before we ask anything else, I need to understand the recording.”
Eva sat.
“You found it?”
“Yes.”
“Then he knows.”
Daniel spoke sharply.
“Who?”
Eva ignored him.
Mara sat opposite her.
“Did you know the card was here?”
“Yes.”
“Who put it here?”
“My mother.”
The answer stunned everyone.
Mara leaned forward.
“Your mother was alive when this was recorded?”
“Yes.”
“But your father said she died three days after the crash.”
Eva looked at Daniel.
“He was lying.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Eva continued.
“My mother didn't die three days later.”
“Where was she?”
“She was taken away.”
“By whom?”
Eva hesitated.
Then she looked at the three sisters.
“Your mother was trying to expose him.”
The sisters stared at Daniel.
Mara's voice softened.
“Expose him for what?”
Eva looked down at her hands.
“The crash wasn't an accident.”
Silence.
Mara had suspected as much.
But suspicion was different from hearing it from the person who had lived through the aftermath.
“What happened?”
Eva breathed slowly.
“My mother found out that someone had been moving money through companies that didn't exist.”
Daniel spoke.
“Eva.”
She flinched.
Mara turned toward him.
“Let her finish.”
Eva continued.
“She found records. Names. Payments. Flight schedules.”
“Whose payments?”
“I don't know.”
“Did your father know?”
“Yes.”
Daniel said nothing.
Eva looked at him.
“He knew.”
Mara watched his face.
“Then why did he help her?”
“He didn't.”
Eva's voice became quieter.
“He helped the people she was trying to expose.”
Lena stood abruptly.
“That isn't possible.”
Eva looked at her.
“You were there.”
Lena shook her head.
“I was fifteen.”
“You remember the night before the crash.”
Lena's face changed.
Mara noticed.
“What do you remember?”
Lena stared at Eva.
“I remember Dad arguing with Mom.”
“About what?”
“I don't know.”
“You do.”
Lena covered her mouth.
“I remember Mom saying she had copied everything.”
Daniel moved toward her.
“Lena.”
She stepped back.
“I remember Mom saying, ‘If something happens to me, they will know where it is.’”
Mara felt the pieces shifting.
“Where what was?”
Lena shook her head.
“I don't know.”
Eva whispered, “The key.”
Everyone looked at her.
“What key?” Mara asked.
Eva pointed toward Mara's hand.
The small metal key marked 417.
“That one.”
Mara stared at it.
“How do you know?”
“My mother gave it to me.”
Daniel stepped forward.
“That's impossible.”
Eva looked at him.
“She gave it to me before we boarded.”
Mara held up the key.
“Why does it have 417?”
“Because that's the flight number.”
“What does it open?”
Eva shook her head.
“I never found out.”
Mara thought of the suitcase.
The notebook.
The memory card.
The inspection mark.
The strange sound on the recording.
She looked toward Daniel.
“Where did you get this key?”
“You know where.”
“No.”
His expression tightened.
“You gave it to me.”
Daniel shook his head.
“I found it among your mother's things.”
“Then why give it to me?”
“Because I wanted to know whether you recognized it.”
Mara stared at him.
“You've been testing me since I arrived.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I needed someone outside this family.”
Eva spoke quietly.
“You needed someone who wasn't afraid of you.”
Daniel looked at her.
Something passed between them.
Regret.
Not anger.
Mara saw it.
“You knew Eva was alive.”
Daniel didn't answer.
“How long?”
“Three months.”
Claire looked at him.
“Three months?”
“I found her through an investigator.”
“You never told us.”
“I wanted to protect you.”
Claire laughed bitterly.
“You always use that word.”
Daniel looked at his daughters.
“I made mistakes.”
Mara stepped closer.
“That's not the same as answering the question.”
Daniel finally sat.
“I knew my wife had evidence.”
“What evidence?”
“Financial records. Communications. Names.”
“Of whom?”
“People connected to the company that owned the aircraft.”
Mara's mind returned to the recording.
“So the crash was connected to the investigation.”
“I don't know.”
“You just said—”
“I said I knew people involved with the company.”
Eva interrupted.
“My mother knew.”
Everyone looked at her.
“She told me that if the plane landed, she would give the records to someone.”
“Who?”
“She said his name was Mara.”
Mara froze.
“My name?”
Eva nodded.
“She told me there was a flight attendant who would understand.”
Mara's skin prickled.
“Why me?”
“I don't know.”
“But you were seven.”
“I remember her telling me.”
Mara thought back to Flight 417.
She remembered the little girl.
The crying.
The seat belt.
The scar.
But there was something else.
A sentence.
Something Eva had said.
At the time, Mara had assumed it was a child's fear.
She suddenly remembered.
My mother said you would come back.
Mara's breath caught.
“I heard that before.”
Eva looked at her.
“I know.”
Mara stared.
“You remember me?”
“Yes.”
“From the flight?”
Eva nodded.
“I remembered your wings.”
Mara touched the gold insignia on her uniform.
Eva's eyes moved to it.
“My mother said the woman with the gold wings was the only person she trusted.”
Mara looked at Daniel.
“You knew this?”
“Yes.”
“Then why bring me here?”
“Because I needed you to finish what she started.”
Mara felt anger rise.
“You don't get to decide that.”
“No.”
Daniel's voice was tired.
“But I can give you the truth.”
He reached into the desk drawer beside him.
This time he removed a small metal box.
He placed it on the kitchen table.
The box had no lock.
Only a narrow slot.
Mara looked at the key.
Daniel nodded.
“Open it.”
Mara inserted the key.
The lid clicked.
Inside was a second memory card and a folded document.
She opened the document.
At the top was a flight number.
417.
Below it were five names.
Daniel Harrow.
Claire Harrow.
Lena Harrow.
Sophie Harrow.
Eva Harrow.
Mara looked closer.
Then she noticed the fifth name had been crossed out.
Eva.
Underneath it, written in a different hand, was another name.
Mara Voss.
Her stomach tightened.
“What is this?”
Daniel did not answer.
Eva did.
“It means my mother knew you would be involved.”
Mara unfolded the second page.
There was a statement dated seven years earlier.
At the bottom was a signature.
Mara recognized it immediately.
Her own signature.
She stared at the page.
“I never signed this.”
Daniel whispered, “I know.”
Mara looked up.
“Then someone forged my name.”
Daniel nodded.
“And they used it to authorize the evacuation order that sent Eva back onto the aircraft.”
The room went silent.
Mara's fingers went numb.
She remembered the evacuation.
She remembered giving instructions.
She remembered believing she was following the captain's command.
But if her signature had been forged, then the decision that separated Eva from her mother had been manipulated.
Someone had used Mara's identity.
And whoever had done it had known exactly how the evacuation would unfold.
Mara looked toward the lake.
The morning flight was less than two hours away.
She closed the document.
“We're not flying.”
Daniel looked at her.
“We have to.”
“No.”
“If we don't, whoever sent Eva here will know we found the evidence.”
Mara understood.
The aircraft was not the destination.
It was bait.
Eva looked at her.
“Then what do we do?”
Mara picked up the second memory card.
“We find out who forged my name.”
Daniel's face hardened.
“And if that person is waiting at the airport?”
Mara looked at the clock.
“Then we don't give them the chance to disappear.”
She turned toward the window.
Across the lake, a small white boat had stopped near the dock.
A figure stood inside it.
Watching the house.
Mara knew immediately that the family was no longer alone.
She reached for her phone.
Then the lights in the house went out.
Click Here to continue read next: PART5: When the House Went Dark, Mara Discovered the Stranger Outside Was Not Watching the Family but Waiting for Her Decision
The Argument in the Lakeside House Began With One Question Nobody Expected the Flight Attendant to Answer
Part 4 of 16
