Chapter 2 - The Woman Daniel Almost Recognized
The wedding never started.
Daniel carried Sophie into the private family lounge at the opposite end of the hallway while his older brother, Eric, told the coordinator to send the guests home.
No announcement beyond “family emergency” was made.
Daniel did not care about the catering bill, the flowers, or the two hundred people waiting downstairs.
He cared that Sophie stopped crying only when he sat with her against his chest.
Amanda remained in the bridal suite.
Her mother knocked twice on the lounge door.
Daniel refused to open it.
When Sophie finally fell asleep against him, he examined the pendant again.
It was old.
Not antique, but older than Amanda’s engagement jewelry. The oval silver case had been polished so many times that the edges had softened.
Inside was the same photograph.
The woman appeared to be in her early twenties.
Daniel kept staring at her eyes.
He knew them.
Or thought he did.
Eric noticed.
“You recognize her?”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel turned the pendant over.
There was a tiny engraving on the back.
L.M. — 2009
Eric leaned closer.
“Who’s L.M.?”
Daniel’s throat tightened.
His late wife’s name had been Laura Mitchell before they married.
But Laura had been thirty-two when she died.
The woman in the pendant looked barely twenty.
Daniel had not known Laura then.
He had met her when they were twenty-seven.
He immediately opened his phone.
Most of his old photographs of Laura were from their marriage.
Dark hair cut shorter.
Different makeup.
A different shape to her face after pregnancy.
Still—
the resemblance was there.
Eric saw it too.
“Daniel.”
“No.”
Daniel said it too quickly.
Eric did not argue.
Daniel called Laura’s older sister, Rachel.
He did not explain the wedding.
He simply photographed the pendant and sent her the image.
Rachel called less than a minute later.
“Where did you get that?”
Daniel stood.
“Rachel. Who is she?”
There was a long pause.
“That’s Laura.”
Daniel looked through the glass door toward the hallway leading back to the bridal suite.
Amanda had told him repeatedly that she had never met Laura.
She had said it the first time Daniel apologized for talking too much about his late wife.
She had said it when Sophie called Amanda “Mama” by accident and Daniel spent half the night feeling guilty.
She had said it three months earlier when they discussed whether Laura’s photograph should remain in Sophie’s nursery after the wedding.
Daniel looked back at the pendant.
“Amanda had this.”
Rachel stopped speaking.
Daniel heard her inhale.
May you like
Then she asked a question that frightened him more than her silence.
“How much has Amanda told you about college?”
