Chapter 7 - CORINNE DISAPPEARS
Corinne vanished before police could stop her.
Security footage showed her leaving through a service corridor at 2:14 p.m.
A dark SUV waited behind the hotel.
The license plate had been stolen from another vehicle.
The driver wore a baseball cap and sunglasses.
Detective Pierce believed the driver was male.
Ethan believed it was Derek.
No one could prove it yet.
Police issued alerts.
Grant obtained warrants connected to the financial investigation.
Evelyn Vale disappeared from her residence less than an hour after Corinne left the hotel.
That fact ended any possibility that the events were coincidence.
Ethan wanted Maisie taken somewhere secure.
Pierce agreed.
For three nights, Ethan, Maisie, Rachel, and Leah stayed at a private location arranged with help from Ethan’s company security team.
Ethan did not tell Maisie they were hiding.
He called it a sleepover.
Maisie was too perceptive to believe him.
“Corinne is looking for us.”
She said it while brushing her teeth.
Ethan knelt.
“The police are looking for Corinne.”
“That means she’s looking too.”
Ethan did not lie.
“Maybe.”
Maisie rinsed her mouth.
“Is she mad?”
“Probably.”
“At me?”
“No.”
Maisie looked at him through the mirror.
“She gets mad when people find things.”
The words stayed with Ethan.
“What things did you find before?”
Maisie put down the toothbrush.
“The papers.”
“Anything else?”
Maisie nodded.
“A necklace.”
Ethan frowned.
“What necklace?”
“The green one.”
He had no idea what she meant.
“Where?”
“Corinne’s room.”
“When?”
“She was in the shower.”
“Why were you in her room?”
“My bunny was there.”
“What did the necklace look like?”
Maisie touched her neck.
“Green rock.”
Ethan’s heart stopped.
Mara owned an emerald pendant.
It had been a gift from her grandmother.
After Mara died, Ethan could not find it.
He assumed it had been lost in the crash.
“Did it have little diamonds around it?”
Maisie nodded.
Ethan sat back.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Where did Corinne keep it?”
“In a brown box.”
“Did she see you?”
Maisie looked down.
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“She squeezed my arm.”
Ethan’s eyes moved toward the fading bruise.
There it was.
The incident.
“What did she say?”
“That Mommy gave it to her.”
Ethan knew that was impossible.
Mara adored that necklace.
She once told him she intended to give it to Maisie on her eighteenth birthday.
“Anything else in the box?”
“Pictures.”
“What pictures?”
Maisie shrugged.
“Mommy.”
“With who?”
“Corinne.”
“Anyone else?”
“The red-hat man.”
Derek.
Ethan called Pierce immediately.
A warrant was obtained to search Corinne’s belongings left at the house.
The brown box was not there.
But investigators found something else.
A hidden compartment in Corinne’s closet contained nine passports.
Only one belonged to Corinne.
Three bore Evelyn’s photograph under different names.
Two appeared to depict Natalie Sloan.
One photograph was old.
The other was recent.
Detective Pierce called Ethan.
“I need you to prepare yourself.”
“For what?”
“We may have evidence Natalie was alive within the last five years.”
Ethan went silent.
“Where?”
“We don’t know.”
“Did Corinne know?”
“We’re assuming nothing.”
Ethan laughed bitterly.
“You know she did.”
Pierce ignored that.
“One passport was issued under the name Natalie Hart.”
“Hart.”
“Evelyn’s current surname.”
Ethan rubbed his forehead.
“What kind of people am I dealing with?”
“We’re trying to answer that.”
The old missing-person investigation was reopened.
Natalie had vanished at age twenty-one.
Police originally believed she left voluntarily after an argument with Derek.
Her bank account remained untouched.
Her social-security number showed no ordinary employment history afterward.
But now investigators discovered something hidden beneath aliases.
A woman resembling Natalie had used a passport to enter Canada six years after the disappearance.
Then again three years later.
The second passport photo showed a thin woman with shorter hair.
Ethan looked at the image.
“Is it definitely her?”
Pierce shook his head.
“Facial comparison suggests a strong possibility.”
“Why would she stay gone?”
“We don’t know.”
“What does she have to do with Mara?”
“That’s what we’re trying to determine.”
The answer came from an unexpected source.
Samuel Price.
Mara’s former attorney.
He had retired the year after her death and moved to Arizona.
When Detective Grant located him, Price demanded to speak with Ethan.
The call came that evening.
“Mr. Bennett.”
“Samuel.”
“I owe you an apology.”
Ethan closed his eyes.
“You tried to send me the documents.”
“I did.”
“Corinne intercepted them.”
“I know that now.”
“Did Mara tell you about Natalie?”
A pause.
“Yes.”
Ethan sat upright.
“What did she say?”
“She believed Natalie was alive.”
“Why?”
“Because Natalie contacted her.”
Ethan froze.
“When?”
“About three weeks before Mara died.”
“How?”
“Email.”
“What did she say?”
Price hesitated.
“She warned Mara to stay away from Corinne.”
Ethan’s skin prickled.
“Do you still have the email?”
“I have a printed copy.”
“Why wasn’t it in the packet?”
“Mara asked me to keep it separate.”
“Why?”
“Because Natalie claimed Corinne monitored Mara’s accounts.”
Ethan gripped the phone.
“Read it.”
Price rustled papers.
Then he began.
Mara.
You probably thought I was dead.
Corinne prefers it that way.
Do not trust her.
Do not trust Evelyn.
Derek is scared of them, but fear makes him dangerous.
If Corinne is close to your daughter, remove her.
If she has access to your money, change everything.
Do not confront her until you have proof.
I tried once.
That is why I disappeared.
Ethan’s breathing slowed.
“What else?”
Price continued.
Corinne has spent years taking pieces of other people’s lives.
When she cannot own the person, she destroys the relationship around them.
You were the first person who ever walked away from her and rebuilt successfully.
She has never forgiven you.
Ethan frowned.
“Walked away?”
“What does that mean?”
Price paused.
“I asked Mara.”
“And?”
“She said she didn’t understand either.”
Ethan looked toward Leah.
She was sitting across the room.
“Who was Natalie talking about?”
“I don’t know.”
Price resumed.
There is one thing Corinne wants more than money.
She wants proof she can become you.
If she has returned, she is not there because she misses you.
She is there because she wants what survived without her.
The email ended.
Ethan felt physically cold.
Corinne had not merely wanted Ethan.
She wanted Mara’s place.
Her marriage.
Her daughter.
Her home.
Her life.
And after Mara died, Corinne obtained all of them.
Price cleared his throat.
“There’s more.”
“What?”
“Natalie included a phone number.”
“Did Mara call?”
“Yes.”
“Did she speak to Natalie?”
“I believe so.”
“Did Mara tell you what was said?”
Price’s voice dropped.
“She said Natalie knew something about Ethan.”
Ethan froze.
“About me?”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“She never told me.”
Ethan’s mind raced.
He had never met Natalie Sloan.
At least he did not remember meeting her.
Then Price said something stranger.
“Mara asked me to investigate your college years.”
Ethan frowned.
“Why?”
“She wanted to know whether you ever met Corinne before you met Mara.”
“I didn’t.”
“Are you certain?”
“Yes.”
A memory flickered.
A university fundraiser.
He had been twenty-three.
Mara was there.
They had not started dating yet.
There had been another woman.
Dark hair.
Green dress.
He could not remember her face.
His stomach tightened.
“What year did Natalie disappear?”
Price told him.
Ethan closed his eyes.
That was the same year.
He stood.
“Rachel.”
She looked up.
“Do you remember the Dunbar Foundation gala after I graduated?”
Rachel frowned.
“Barely.”
“Was Mara there?”
“Yes.”
“Corinne?”
Rachel thought.
“I don’t know.”
“What about Natalie?”
“No idea.”
Ethan called Pierce.
Within hours, police obtained archived photographs from the foundation.
The images were old.
Thousands of guests.
Ethan appeared in several.
Mara appeared in two.
Then Pierce found the photograph that changed everything again.
Ethan stood near a banquet table.
Mara was beside him.
A young woman stood on his other side.
Natalie Sloan.
And several feet behind them stood Corinne.
Watching.
The photograph had been taken eleven months before Natalie disappeared.
Ethan stared.
“I don’t remember her.”
Pierce pointed toward Natalie.
“She appears to know you.”
“How?”
“We found another photograph.”
In the second image, Natalie was speaking to Ethan.
She held his arm.
Mara was laughing beside them.
Corinne remained in the background.
Ethan felt a memory trying to surface.
A girl named Nat.
A conversation about internship applications.
A joke about Mara being impossible to beat at trivia.
Nothing more.
Then he remembered something else.
Corinne had once told him, shortly after they began dating after Mara’s death, that she had seen him years earlier at a foundation event.
At the time, it sounded romantic.
I noticed you before you ever noticed me.
Now the sentence felt different.
She had not discovered Ethan after Mara died.
She had watched him twelve years earlier.
Before Natalie vanished.
Before Ethan married Mara.
Before Maisie was born.
Corinne’s obsession had not begun with Mara’s death.
May you like
It had begun before Ethan even knew her name.
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