Chapter 6 - The Key
My apartment looked normal from the street.
That frightened me.
Luka sent two security professionals inside first.
Five minutes later, one returned.
“Someone has been here.”
My chest tightened.
“What happened?”
“Nothing obvious from outside.”
“But the bedroom and office were searched.”
I looked at Luka.
“Ryan has a key.”
We entered.
Drawers were open.
My jewelry box had been emptied onto the bed.
Nothing valuable appeared missing.
Whoever had done it wasn’t looking for money.
They were looking for information.
The nursery was worse.
Grace’s tiny clothes had been pulled from drawers.
Books were scattered across the floor.
Even the mattress had been cut open.
I stood in the doorway, furious.
Luka touched my shoulder.
I pulled away automatically.
“I’m fine.”
He nodded.
He didn’t touch me again.
The blue coat was in the hall closet.
At least it should have been.
I pushed jackets aside.
Nothing.
“It’s gone.”
Then I remembered.
I had stopped wearing it because one sleeve tore.
I had placed it in a storage box beneath the guest bed.
I hurried toward the room.
The box had been opened.
The coat was still there.
I grabbed it.
My fingers searched the left pocket.
Nothing.
My heart sank.
Then I felt the lining.
Something hard was sewn between the layers.
Luka handed me a small knife.
I carefully opened the seam.
A brass key dropped into my palm.
A number was stamped across it.
317.
Naomi recognized it immediately.
“Safe-deposit box.”
Thirty minutes later, we stood inside a private bank that remained open late for high-net-worth clients.
Luka apparently knew people everywhere.
Box 317 contained no money.
No jewelry.
Just a folder.
A flash drive.
A photograph.
And a letter addressed to me.
I opened the letter first.
Claire,
If you are reading this, Ryan has already made his choice.
My vision blurred.
I kept reading.
He did not meet you by accident.
He knew exactly whose daughter you were before your first date.
I lowered the paper.
“No.”
Luka’s expression told me he had expected something like this.
I forced myself to continue.
Ryan approached me six months before he approached you.
He wanted access to the Hale files.
When I refused, he found another way.
He found you.
My hands began shaking.
The man I had loved for seven years.
The man I married.
The man whose child I believed I had carried.
He had chosen me before I ever knew his name.
I reached for the photograph.
It showed Ryan standing beside Dr. Calvin Hale.
Vanessa was there too.
The date printed in the corner was eight years earlier.
One year before Ryan claimed he had met Vanessa.
Two years before he met me.
May you like
On the back, my father had written one sentence.
THE AFFAIR WAS NEVER THE FIRST LIE.
