Chapter 4 - THE CHILD NO ONE REMEMBERED
Nobody spoke for several seconds.
Dominic looked at the photograph again.
Then at Evelyn.
“Your nephew?”
She nodded slowly.
“My sister had a son.”
“You never told me.”
“I didn't remember him.”
Dominic's expression hardened.
“How do you forget your own nephew?”
Evelyn's eyes filled.
“Because Anna made me.”
“What?”
“She told me to forget him.”
Dominic sat down across from her.
“Start from the beginning.”
Evelyn looked exhausted.
“When Anna disappeared, I spent weeks searching for her.”
“You were twenty-two.”
“Yes.”
“Who stopped you?”
“Caldwell's people.”
“Why?”
“They told me Anna had stolen money.”
“She hadn't.”
“I know that now.”
Evelyn touched the necklace.
“But at the time, I believed them.”
Dominic remained silent.
“One night, I found Anna's apartment.”
“What did you find?”
“Blood.”
His jaw tightened.
“Whose?”
“I don't know.”
“Was the boy there?”
“I don't know.”
She closed her eyes.
“I remember hearing a child crying.”
Dominic's eyes sharpened.
“You heard him?”
“Yes.”
“Then what happened?”
“I was hit from behind.”
When she woke, she was in a hospital.
“Someone had changed my records,” she continued.
“They told me Anna never had a child.”
Dominic frowned.
“That's impossible.”
“Not if someone paid enough people.”
She looked at him.
“And after that, I stopped remembering.”
“Because of the injury?”
“No.”
Her voice dropped.
“Because someone convinced me I had imagined him.”
Dominic stood.
“That isn't possible.”
“Neither is finding a photograph of a child you forgot existed.”
She was right.
Marco entered.
“We found something.”
Dominic turned.
“What?”
“The photograph came from an old storage box registered under your father's name.”
Dominic's expression changed.
“Where?”
“An Ashford property.”
“Which one?”
“The old family farmhouse.”
Dominic went still.
He hadn't been there in seventeen years.
His father had forbidden everyone from going near it after his mother's death.
“Why would my father keep Anna's photograph?”
Marco hesitated.
“There's more.”
“Say it.”
“The farmhouse was sold twelve years ago.”
“To whom?”
Marco looked at Evelyn.
“Vincent Caldwell.”
Silence.
Evelyn whispered—
“So that's where she went.”
Dominic looked at her.
“You think Anna was there?”
“I think she was taken there.”
Dominic's phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
Nobody spoke.
Then a child's voice whispered—
“Mr. Ashford?”
Dominic froze.
“Who is this?”
The line went dead.
Marco stared.
“Was that—”
“Yes.”
Dominic immediately turned toward Evelyn.
She had gone completely white.
“That was him.”
“Your nephew?”
She nodded.
“He's alive.”
Dominic grabbed his coat.
“Where are you going?”
“The farmhouse.”
Evelyn stood.
“I'm coming.”
“No.”
“My sister is there.”
“Maybe.”
“If that was him, I need to find him.”
Dominic looked at her injuries.
“You can barely stand.”
“I've spent eleven years believing he was dead.”
Her voice broke.
“You don't get to tell me to stay behind now.”
Dominic held her gaze.
Then nodded.
“Fine.”
Marco frowned.
“Boss—”
“She comes with us.”
The drive took nearly an hour.
The farmhouse stood beyond a line of dead trees.
It looked abandoned.
But Dominic noticed fresh tire tracks.
He raised his gun.
“Stay behind me.”
Evelyn nodded.
They entered through the side door.
The house smelled of dust and wood smoke.
Someone had been living there.
Recently.
A child's shoe sat beneath the stairs.
Evelyn stopped.
“Oh God.”
She picked it up.
It was small.
Blue.
Dominic noticed something inside.
A folded drawing.
A house.
Three stick figures.
A woman.
A little boy.
And a tall man.
The boy had drawn a black circle over the man's face.
At the bottom were four words.
HE SAID DON'T TRUST ASH.
Evelyn began crying.
Dominic stared at the drawing.
“That's not my handwriting.”
“No,” Evelyn whispered.
“Your nephew wrote it?”
She nodded.
Then Marco called from the next room.
“Dominic.”
They followed him.
On the wall was a collection of photographs.
Anna.
Evelyn.
Dominic's father.
Vincent Caldwell.
And one final photograph.
Dominic's mother.
Evelyn stared at it.
“Why is she here?”
Dominic didn't answer.
Then he noticed something strange.
His mother's photograph had been pinned over another image.
He removed it.
Behind it was a photograph of Anna holding the little boy.
On the back, someone had written:
HE IS THE REASON THEY ALL LIED.
Dominic turned it over again.
His mother was standing beside Anna.
And in her hand was the same gold necklace Evelyn wore.
Dominic's voice dropped.
“My mother knew your sister.”
Evelyn shook her head.
“She didn't just know her.”
She pointed at the photograph.
“She was protecting her.”
A floorboard creaked upstairs.
Everyone froze.
Then a child's voice came from the darkness.
“Mom?”
Evelyn stopped breathing.
Dominic looked toward the staircase.
A small boy appeared.
He was perhaps twelve years old.
Thin.
Pale.
Wearing a blue sweater.
Around his wrist was the silver bracelet.
Evelyn covered her mouth.
“Lucas?”
The boy stared at her.
He took one step backward.
Then another.
“I don't know you.”
Evelyn's heart broke.
Dominic stepped forward carefully.
“Lucas.”
The boy looked at him.
His face changed.
“You're Ash.”
Dominic nodded.
The boy whispered—
“My mother told me that if you ever found me, I should ask you one question.”
“What question?”
Lucas reached into his pocket.
He pulled out a small old watch.
Dominic recognized it instantly.
It had belonged to his father.
Lucas held it out.
May you like
Then said—
“She told me to ask why your father wanted me dead.”
