Chapter 14 - THE MOTHER WHO MAY HAVE SURVIVED|
Dominic stared at the photograph on his phone.
The woman beside Rose had Emily's face, her dark hair, and the small crescent-shaped scar near her eyebrow. She wore a gray coat and stood outside a train station, holding Rose's hand.
The date printed on the photograph was recent.
Too recent.
“Is it real?” Dominic asked.
Marcus replied, “We're checking the image metadata and the original paper. It could be a sophisticated forgery.”
Dominic looked at Dr. Bennett.
“Could Emily have survived the accident?”
The doctor swallowed.
“I examined the records. The body was identified through dental records, but the original report was incomplete. I always suspected something had been altered.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because I had no proof. And because the people involved had made it clear that speaking would put my family in danger.”
Dominic turned away.
For two years, he had visited Emily's grave. He had spoken to the stone when he couldn't sleep. He had told her about Rose's first day at school, her fear of thunderstorms, and the way she insisted on calling him Uncle Dominic even though he was her father.
He had mourned a woman who might still be alive.
“Find the original accident report,” he told Marcus. “Every photograph. Every medical record. Every witness statement.”
Marcus answered, “Already working on it.”
Dominic returned to the mansion and sat with Rose while she ate breakfast.
She studied him over her cereal bowl.
“You look like you saw a ghost.”
He almost smiled.
“Maybe I did.”
“Was it Mommy?”
Dominic's hand stopped.
“Why would you ask that?”
“Because I saw her.”
He stared at his daughter.
“When?”
Rose looked down at her spoon.
“Before I came to live here full-time. Sometimes I saw a lady outside the school. She looked like Mommy.”
Dominic struggled to keep his voice steady.
“Did she speak to you?”
“Once. She said I was getting big.”
“Did you tell anyone?”
Rose shook her head.
“Serena said I had dreams because I missed Mommy.”
Dominic felt anger rise, but he forced it down.
“Did the lady give you anything?”
Rose reached into the pocket of her cardigan and pulled out a tiny silver locket.
Dominic recognized it immediately.
Emily had worn that locket on their wedding day. It had vanished after the accident.
He opened it.
Inside was a photograph of Emily holding a newborn baby.
On the reverse was a message.
Find me where the trains remember.
Dominic called Marcus.
“Search every train station connected to Emily's travel records.”
Within an hour, they had a lead. A station attendant remembered a woman who visited an abandoned platform outside the city. She never boarded a train. She simply stood beneath the clock and watched the tracks.
Dominic went there that evening with Marcus and a small security team.
The platform was empty except for a bench, a broken vending machine, and a clock that had stopped at 8:17.
Dominic walked toward the far end.
“Emily?”
His voice echoed into the darkness.
Nothing.
Then a woman stepped from behind a concrete pillar.
She looked older. Thinner. Her face was marked by a pale scar along the jaw.
But her eyes were the same.
Dominic stopped breathing.
“Emily?”
She stared at him with tears filling her eyes.
For one terrible second, he thought she would run.
Instead, she whispered, “You shouldn't have come.”
Dominic took a step forward.
“You're alive.”
“I know what you think I did.”
“You let me bury you.”
“I didn't have a choice.”
“You let me raise our daughter believing her mother was dead!”
Emily flinched.
“I was trying to keep her alive.”
Dominic's voice broke.
“By abandoning her?”
Emily covered her mouth.
Before either could speak again, a red laser dot appeared on the wall beside her shoulder.
Marcus shouted, “DOWN!”
A gunshot shattered the silence.
May you like
Emily collapsed.
And Dominic, who had spent two years believing he had lost the woman he loved, watched her fall into his arms for the second time.
