Chapter 5 - The Postcards Claire Couldn’t Throw Away
Claire arrived the next morning carrying a shoebox.
Daniel knew the answer before she opened it.
Postcards.
Eleven of them.
Different cities.
Burlington.
Albany.
Pittsburgh.
Columbus.
Chicago.
Portland.
The earliest was dated two years and eight months earlier.
Three months after Emma disappeared.
Daniel picked it up.
The handwriting was unmistakable.
Claire—
I’m alive.
I’m not ready.
Please don’t tell Daniel where I am.
I know what that makes me.
Please kiss Lily for me.
—E
Daniel sat very still.
“You knew she was alive.”
“Yes.”
“For almost three years.”
“Yes.”
He picked up another.
A year later.
I started treatment again.
Still not ready.
Tell me if Lily is safe.
Daniel looked at Claire.
“You answered?”
“Sometimes.”
“How?”
“Email at first. Then through a P.O. box.”
“You told her about Lily?”
“Basic things.”
“Pictures?”
“No.”
“School?”
“No.”
“Her health?”
“Yes.”
Daniel stood.
“You let my wife monitor our daughter from a distance while I thought she had vanished.”
Claire’s eyes filled.
“I was trying to keep a line open.”
“You kept me out of it.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because every time Emma disappeared again, I thought telling you would tear everything open for nothing.”
Daniel stared at her.
Claire continued.
“She would write twice. Then nothing for six months. Then another city.”
“So you decided for me.”
“Yes.”
“For Lily.”
“Yes.”
“For Emma.”
Claire lowered her eyes.
“Yes.”
Daniel hated the answer because Claire finally sounded honest.
He pulled out the newest postcard.
Portland.
Eleven months earlier.
This one was longer.
I’ve been stable eighteen months.
Same apartment.
Same job.
Same therapist.
I want to know what I would have to do to see Lily safely.
Daniel stopped reading.
He looked at Claire.
“You’ve known for eleven months that she wanted to come back.”
Claire’s face crumpled.
“I knew she wanted to discuss coming back.”
“What’s the difference?”
“I didn’t know whether she could actually do it.”
“So you did what?”
Claire whispered:
“I told her to wait.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Vanessa’s line from the terrace returned.
Ask Claire the real reason your wife disappeared.
Claire had helped Emma disappear.
But the uglier truth was newer.
She had also helped keep Emma away after Emma began asking how to return.
Daniel looked at the postcards.
Then asked the question that changed everything again.
“How did Vanessa know these existed?”
May you like
Claire slowly looked toward the shoebox.
One postcard was missing.
