Chapter 6 - The Birthday Guest Who Left Early.
Mark held the photograph by its edges as if it could burn him.
"Who is he?"
Elise Ward leaned closer.
"I do not know."
Daniel looked at the date on the back.
"You were born the following spring."
"I can do the math."
Mark's voice came out harsher than he intended.
Jessica moved beside him.
"Thomas wrote that he forgave something."
Mark shook his head.
"That could mean anything."
Sarah wished she could give him that possibility, but the messages on Margaret's tablet had already made coincidence difficult to believe.
The old paternity sample belonged to Mark.
Thomas had hidden a photograph connected to the months before Mark's birth.
And Margaret had spent half a year trying to convince everyone that Lily did not belong in the Hale family.
Sarah suddenly understood the shape of the fear behind Margaret's cruelty.
If anyone demanded a full genetic review, questions would not stop with Lily.
Daniel seemed to reach the same conclusion.
"She was afraid that proving Lily was mine would make us look more closely at everyone."
Mark stood up.
"Do not turn me into part of her motive until we know what happened."
"I'm not."
"You just did."
Daniel took a breath.
"You are my brother regardless of what a test says."
Mark looked away.
"That is easy for you to say tonight."
The words hung between them.
Sarah stepped in before the argument could become another gift to Margaret.
"We know one thing for certain."
Everyone looked at her.
"Margaret used a sample she said belonged to Daniel, and now we have messages indicating it belonged to Mark."
She pointed toward Thomas's letters.
"The rest is still a question."
Elise nodded.
"And questions require records."
Jessica looked toward the empty cabinet.
"Which Margaret removed."
A floorboard creaked in the hallway.
Daniel turned immediately.
No one was there.
Then Sarah heard the faint sound of a door closing downstairs.
Mark moved first this time.
They crossed the foyer and reached the side entrance just as a car pulled away from the service drive.
Sarah caught only the taillights.
Jessica pointed at the console table.
"Was that there before?"
A white envelope rested beside the keys bowl.
Daniel picked it up.
There was no name on the front.
Inside was a single printed photograph from the birthday party.
It had been taken less than two hours earlier.
Lily was visible outside through the glass.
Margaret stood inside with a woman in a navy coat.
Elise.
But what mattered was the third person reflected in the window.
A gray-haired man stood near the kitchen door, watching them.
Elise inhaled sharply.
"That is Raymond Pike."
"The records contractor?" Sarah asked.
"Yes."
Mark looked toward the road.
"So he was at the party."
Elise nodded.
"And if he was the one who just left this house, he wanted us to see that photograph."
Daniel turned the picture over.
A phone number had been written on the back.
Under it were four words.
Ask about the warehouse.
Daniel called.
The line rang six times.
A man finally answered.
"You found the picture."
"Raymond?"
"Do not use my name again."
Daniel put the call on speaker.
Sarah stepped closer.
"What warehouse?"
The man breathed heavily into the phone.
"Your mother paid me to remove records from the foundation archive."
Mark's face tightened.
"What records?"
"Specimen logs, trust correspondence, anything linking the family studies to her private requests."
"Did you destroy them?"
There was a long silence.
"No."
Elise closed her eyes in relief.
"Where are they?"
Raymond gave an address at an industrial park forty minutes away.
Then his voice changed.
"You need to get there before midnight."
"Why?" Daniel asked.
"Because Margaret already knows I kept copies."
Sarah looked at the clock in the foyer.
It was 10:47.
Raymond added one final sentence before disconnecting.
May you like
"And she is not the only person looking for them."
The Child Outside the Glass | Page
