Chapter 2 - The Letter Rebecca Hid.
Daniel did not take the paper.
He stared at it as if Elise had pulled a live wire from her pocket.
"Where did you get that?"
"From Rebecca."
"That is not an answer."
"It is the only honest one."
The twins watched them from their cribs, quiet now but alert to every change in their voices.
Daniel stepped closer.
"My wife died eight months ago."
"I know."
"So explain why my employee is standing in my nursery at two in the morning claiming she has a secret letter from her."
Elise flinched at the word employee, but she did not lower her hand.
"Rebecca gave it to me three weeks before the accident."
Daniel finally took the folded page.
His fingers tightened around it.
The envelope had no stamp.
Across the front, in Rebecca's unmistakable slanted handwriting, were four words.
For when he disappears.
Daniel's throat went dry.
"What does that mean?"
"I never opened it."
He looked at Elise sharply.
"You expect me to believe that?"
"I expect you to decide for yourself."
Daniel turned the envelope over.
The flap was sealed.
No tear marks.
No obvious tampering.
He slid one finger beneath it.
Then stopped.
Fear embarrassed him more than anger ever had.
"What did she tell you?"
Elise glanced at the twins.
"She said grief would make you confuse control with care."
Daniel gave a short, humorless laugh.
"You knew my wife for six months."
"I knew her during the six months she was most afraid."
That sentence struck him harder than the door had struck the wall.
"Afraid of what?"
Elise did not answer immediately.
Daniel's voice sharpened.
"Of me?"
"No."
"Then say it."
"Of what would happen to this family if she was not here to keep everyone honest."
Daniel looked toward the hallway.
His mother, Evelyn Carter, had said almost the same thing after the funeral, but in the opposite direction.
Evelyn had insisted Rebecca had spoiled the twins, overruled schedules, trusted staff too easily, and allowed emotion to run the house.
Daniel had listened because listening required less energy than arguing.
Elise nodded toward the envelope.
"Read it."
Daniel tore it open.
The first line made his knees feel weak.
Danny, if Elise is giving you this, then you have started living like a locked door.
He sat on the edge of the rocking chair without meaning to.
The next lines were worse.
Rebecca wrote that Daniel's instinct after loss would be to remove risk from everything.
She wrote that he would build schedules because schedules could not die unexpectedly.
She wrote that he might start treating the girls like fragile possessions instead of growing children.
Then she wrote Elise's name.
Trust her when she tells you the girls need noise.
Trust her when she tells you they need mess.
Trust her when she tells you they need you, even when you are sure they are safer without the broken parts of you.
Daniel stopped reading.
His vision blurred.
He folded the page once, too sharply.
"This proves nothing."
Elise's face softened.
"It was not meant to prove anything."
"Then why hide it?"
"Because Rebecca knew you would dismiss it if you read it too soon."
"You and my wife decided when I was allowed to grieve correctly?"
"No."
Elise's restraint finally cracked.
"Your wife was trying to make sure grief did not raise your daughters."
Daniel stood.
The rocking chair slid backward.
Maisie startled.
Elise immediately lowered her voice.
Daniel stared at her.
"Tomorrow morning, you are gone."
Elise nodded once.
"If that is what you want."
"It is."
She reached for the headphones.
Then Daniel noticed something written on the bottom of the letter.
A second note.
Smaller.
Almost squeezed into the margin.
If Evelyn tells him Elise is dangerous, show him the recording.
Daniel's breath stopped.
He looked up.
"What recording?"
Elise's face went pale.
Before she could answer, a voice came from the nursery doorway.
"My goodness."
Evelyn Carter stood in the hall wearing a silk robe and an expression of perfect calm.
Her eyes moved from Daniel to the letter.
Then to Elise.
"So Rebecca really did leave you something."
Elise's entire body stiffened.
Daniel slowly turned toward his mother.
"You knew about this?"
Evelyn smiled without warmth.
"I knew Rebecca was planning something."
May you like
Then she looked directly at Elise.
"I simply hoped you had been smart enough to destroy it."
