Chapter 2 - THE SECRET IN THE KITCHEN
“She said that?”
Ethan's voice was barely above a whisper.
Sofia nodded.
“She said your wife was very pretty.”
Ethan stared at the photograph.
Rachel was smiling in it.
She was standing on a beach with wind blowing through her hair, one hand shielding her eyes from the sun and the other resting over the small curve of her pregnant stomach.
It was one of Ethan's favorite photographs.
He had taken it himself.
He had not looked at it in months.
“Where is your mother?” he asked.
Sofia pointed toward the hallway.
“She went downstairs.”
“To the laundry room?”
“No.”
Sofia thought for a moment.
“She said she forgot something in the car.”
Ethan frowned.
Maria had always been careful.
She would never leave Sofia alone in the kitchen.
He looked at the little girl again.
“You shouldn't be standing on that.”
Sofia looked down at the wooden stool.
“Mommy said I could use it.”
“Your mother said you could use the stool?”
“To reach the counter.”
Ethan closed his eyes briefly.
“Get down.”
Sofia obeyed immediately.
She climbed down, but the moment her feet touched the floor, she looked at him expectantly.
“What?”
“Are you mad?”
Ethan looked at the destroyed kitchen.
Normally, he would have been furious.
The housekeeper had strict instructions about the kitchen. Ethan disliked disorder because it reminded him of everything he could no longer control.
But Sofia was staring at him with enormous brown eyes.
He couldn't bring himself to be angry.
“No.”
Her face brightened.
“Really?”
“Really.”
She smiled.
“Good.”
Ethan pointed toward the photograph.
“Why did you bring that here?”
Sofia looked at Rachel.
“Because she needs to see the cake.”
Ethan swallowed.
“She can't see it.”
“Yes, she can.”
“She isn't here.”
Sofia looked confused.
“She is.”
Ethan's heart stopped.
“What?”
Sofia pointed at the photograph.
“She's here.”
Ethan crouched until he was at eye level with her.
“Rachel isn't here anymore.”
Sofia studied his face.
“My mommy says people don't disappear when they go to heaven.”
Ethan didn't know what to say.
He stood.
“Where did you learn that?”
“Mommy.”
“And what else did she tell you?”
Sofia smiled.
“That you don't like birthdays.”
Ethan went completely still.
“How does she know that?”
Sofia shrugged.
“You told her.”
“I never told your mother that.”
Sofia looked puzzled.
“Yes, you did.”
“When?”
She pointed toward the hallway.
“Before.”
Ethan felt a strange chill.
He had barely spoken to Maria outside of practical household matters.
He had never discussed Rachel with her.
Certainly not birthdays.
He looked at the bowl.
“What exactly were you making?”
“A chocolate cake.”
“Why?”
Sofia's expression became serious.
“Because Mommy said today is important.”
Ethan's blood ran cold.
“What is today?”
Sofia counted on her fingers.
“October twelve.”
Ethan stared at her.
It was Rachel's birthday.
The first one after her death, Ethan had stayed in the cemetery until midnight.
The second, he had flown to Chicago.
The third, he had buried himself in work.
No one in the house knew he still remembered the date.
No one except him.
“How did you know?”
Sofia shrugged again.
“Mommy told me.”
Ethan stared at the little girl.
“Why would your mother know Rachel's birthday?”
Sofia looked toward the doorway.
Then her smile disappeared.
“Because Mommy knew her.”
Ethan felt something inside him shift.
“Knew her how?”
Sofia didn't answer.
Instead, she looked at the cake.
“I need more chocolate.”
Ethan didn't move.
“Sofia.”
She looked up.
“Did your mother know Rachel?”
The little girl nodded.
“Yes.”
“How?”
Sofia's small mouth opened.
Then footsteps sounded in the hallway.
Maria appeared carrying a canvas grocery bag.
The instant she saw Ethan standing beside the kitchen island, she froze.
Her eyes moved from him to Sofia.
Then to Rachel's photograph.
The color drained from her face.
“Mr. Cole.”
Ethan turned.
“Maria.”
She swallowed.
“I can explain.”
“I hope so.”
Maria set the grocery bag down.
“Sofia.”
The little girl ran toward her mother.
Maria immediately pulled her close.
“What did you tell him?”
Sofia looked confused.
“The truth.”
Maria closed her eyes.
Ethan heard the words.
“The truth about what?”
Maria looked at him.
“I never wanted you to find out this way.”
“Find out what?”
Maria said nothing.
Ethan's voice hardened.
“Did you know my wife?”
Maria looked at Rachel's photograph.
“Yes.”
“When?”
“A long time ago.”
“How?”
Maria's eyes filled with tears.
“Rachel was my friend.”
Ethan felt as if someone had struck him.
“My wife never mentioned you.”
“I know.”
“Then how were you friends?”
Maria hesitated.
“She didn't know my last name.”
Ethan stared.
“What does that mean?”
Maria took a slow breath.
“Rachel met me at the hospital.”
Ethan's expression changed.
“What hospital?”
Maria looked down.
“The hospital where she died.”
Silence filled the kitchen.
Ethan's mind immediately returned to that night.
Rain.
Flashing ambulance lights.
The smell of antiseptic.
A doctor walking toward him.
A nurse asking him to sit.
He had spent years trying not to remember.
Now Maria was telling him she had been there.
“What were you doing at the hospital?”
Maria held Sofia tighter.
“I was visiting my sister.”
Ethan's eyes narrowed.
“What sister?”
“She was a nurse.”
“Was?”
“She died.”
Ethan stared at her.
“When?”
“Three years ago.”
The room became painfully quiet.
Sofia tugged on her mother's sleeve.
“Mommy.”
Maria looked down.
“Not now, sweetheart.”
“But you promised.”
“Promised what?”
Ethan's voice was sharp.
Maria looked at him.
“I promised Sofia I would tell you when the time was right.”
“The time for what?”
Maria's eyes filled with tears.
“The truth about what happened that night.”
Ethan stopped breathing.
“What truth?”
Maria looked toward Rachel's photograph.
“Rachel wasn't alone when she died.”
Ethan's heart slammed against his ribs.
“I was there.”
“Yes.”
“You don't understand.”
“I do.”
“No one was with her.”
Maria shook her head.
“She wasn't alone in the ambulance.”
Ethan stared.
“What are you saying?”
Maria looked at Sofia.
Then back at Ethan.
“Your wife spoke to me before they took her into surgery.”
Ethan's face went pale.
“She couldn't have.”
“She did.”
“What did she say?”
Maria hesitated.
Then whispered,
“She asked me to find you.”
Ethan took a step backward.
“Why?”
Maria shook her head.
“I don't know.”
“Then why didn't you?”
“I tried.”
“You tried?”
“I went to the waiting room.”
“When?”
“That night.”
“I was there.”
“I know.”
“Then why didn't I see you?”
Maria looked away.
“Because someone told security not to let me in.”
Ethan stared at her.
“Who?”
Maria's lips trembled.
“I don't know.”
“You don't know?”
“I was scared.”
“Maria, who told you?”
She whispered a name.
“Dr. Nathan Bell.”
Ethan's eyes narrowed.
He knew the name.
Nathan Bell had been the emergency physician who treated Rachel.
He had signed the first medical report.
He had also been the doctor who told Ethan there was nothing they could have done.
Ethan suddenly felt cold.
“What did Rachel tell you?”
Maria looked at Sofia.
Then at Ethan.
“She said someone had been following her.”
Ethan's expression changed.
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
“Did she say why?”
Maria shook her head.
“She said she was afraid.”
Rachel had never told him that.
Not once.
She had never said she felt watched.
Never said she feared someone.
Never said anything unusual.
Ethan suddenly remembered something.
The week before Rachel died, she had asked him a strange question.
“What would you do if someone you trusted betrayed you?”
He had been reviewing a contract and barely looked up.
“Depends who.”
She had smiled.
“I hope you'll always tell me the truth.”
He had promised.
Now, three years later, he wondered what truth she had been waiting for.
Maria moved toward the counter.
“There is something I need to give you.”
She opened the canvas bag.
Inside was a small wooden box.
Ethan recognized it immediately.
It had belonged to Rachel.
He had seen it on her nightstand.
After her death, it disappeared.
His voice became barely audible.
“Where did you get that?”
Maria placed the box on the counter.
“Rachel gave it to me.”
Ethan stared.
“When?”
“The night she died.”
His hands trembled.
He opened the box.
Inside was a folded piece of paper.
His name was written across it.
ETHAN.
He unfolded it.
The handwriting was Rachel's.
His eyes filled with tears before he could read the first sentence.
My love,
If you are reading this, something happened that I was afraid might happen.
Ethan's hands began shaking.
He read the next line.
Please don't trust the person who tells you the accident was random.
He stopped.
Maria covered her mouth.
Sofia quietly held her mother's hand.
Ethan looked up.
“What accident?”
Maria whispered,
“The accident that killed Rachel.”
Ethan looked back at the letter.
May you like
And for the first time in three years, he realized something terrifying.
Maybe Rachel's death had never been an accident at all.
