Chapter 3

Chapter Three: The Passenger

Nora remained perfectly still as the memory faded.

The room slowly came back into focus. Her father's desk was in front of her, the old shelves were against the wall, and Daniel was still holding her arm as though he was afraid she might collapse.

Lucas had not moved.

He was watching her with an expression she could not read.

Nora pulled her arm away from Daniel.

“Do not touch me,” she said.

Daniel released her immediately.

Nora looked from him to Lucas.

“There was someone else in the car,” she said. “I saw them.”

Daniel's face had lost what little color remained in it.

“You were remembering something,” he said carefully. “It does not mean you saw everything correctly.”

“I know what I saw.”

“Nora, you were injured.”

“I know.”

“Your memory is not reliable yet.”

She looked at him.

“Then why are you frightened?”

Daniel had no answer.

Nora turned toward Lucas.

“You knew.”

Lucas remained silent.

“You knew there was someone else in the car.”

“I suspected,” Lucas said.

“Do not do that.”

“Do what?”

“Give me half an answer.”

Lucas looked at her.

“I did not know who was in the car.”

“But you knew someone was there.”

“Yes.”

“How?”

“Your father told me.”

Nora's heart began beating faster.

“When?”

“The night he died.”

She stared at him.

“You were there.”

“Yes.”

“You saw him.”

“I saw the car.”

“You saw my father.”

“Yes.”

“You saw the passenger.”

Lucas looked away.

“I saw someone get out.”

Nora stepped closer.

“Who?”

“I could not see their face.”

“Why not?”

“It was raining heavily. The car was parked under a tree, and the person was wearing a hood.”

Nora tried to picture it.

Rain.

A dark road.

Her father's car.

A stranger stepping out.

She closed her eyes.

Nothing came.

When she opened them again, Lucas was still watching her.

“Why did my father have you there?” Nora asked.

“He asked me to meet him.”

“For what?”

Lucas hesitated.

“Your father had discovered something.”

“What?”

“I do not know.”

Nora stared at him.

“You expect me to believe that?”

“I am telling you the truth.”

“Then why did he call you?”

“Because he trusted me.”

Nora laughed without humor.

“My father trusted you, yet you have spent the last three weeks refusing to tell me anything.”

Lucas's expression tightened.

“You asked me not to.”

“You keep saying that.”

“Because it is true.”

“I do not remember saying it.”

“I know.”

“Then maybe I was wrong.”

Lucas looked at her for several seconds.

“Maybe.”

The answer surprised her.

She had expected him to defend the promise.

Instead, he seemed almost relieved that she had challenged it.

Nora studied him.

“Why did I ask you to keep this from me?”

Lucas did not answer.

“Lucas.”

He looked at her.

“You were afraid.”

“Of what?”

“Of what the truth would do to you.”

Nora's voice softened despite herself.

“Did you think I would break?”

Lucas looked down.

“I thought you might blame yourself.”

“For my father's death?”

“For everything.”

The words made her uncomfortable.

“What does that mean?”

Lucas took a slow breath.

“I think you should rest.”

Nora's frustration returned immediately.

“No.”

“Nora.”

“No. I have rested for three weeks. I have spent the last few hours being told that I lost an entire year, that I apparently loved you, that my father may not have died the way I thought he did, and that there is a photograph somewhere that everyone is terrified I will see.”

She pointed toward the door.

“I am not going back to that hospital bed and waiting for everyone else to decide what I am allowed to know.”

Lucas remained silent.

Daniel spoke instead.

“You need to understand that some things are dangerous.”

Nora turned toward him.

“You knew Dad was investigating something.”

“Yes.”

“You knew Lucas was involved.”

“Yes.”

“You knew about the office.”

“Yes.”

“You knew about the photograph.”

Daniel lowered his eyes.

“Yes.”

“And you still stood there and told me you knew nothing.”

Daniel looked at her.

“I was trying to protect you.”

“You keep using that word.”

“What word?”

“Protect.”

Nora's voice trembled.

“Everybody is protecting me from something, but nobody seems interested in telling me what that something is.”

Daniel stepped closer.

“Because the truth nearly destroyed this family once.”

Nora stared at him.

“What truth?”

Daniel shook his head.

“I cannot tell you.”

“Then I will find it myself.”

She turned toward the desk.

Daniel sighed.

“Nora.”

She ignored him.

She began opening the drawers again.

There had to be something.

A document.

A letter.

Anything that could explain why her father had kept the photograph and why Lucas had been there the night he died.

Lucas watched her search.

After several minutes, Nora pulled open the bottom drawer again.

The wooden box was still there.

She lifted it and examined the inside.

There was nothing else.

She turned it over.

A small metal plate had been fixed to the underside.

Nora ran her finger over it.

There was a number engraved into the metal.

17.

“What is seventeen?” she asked.

Daniel frowned.

“I do not know.”

Lucas stepped closer.

“Give it to me.”

Nora looked at him.

“Why?”

“Because that number means something.”

“What?”

Lucas held out his hand.

“Please.”

Nora did not give him the box.

Instead, she asked, “What is seventeen?”

Lucas hesitated.

“Your father had a storage unit.”

Daniel looked at him sharply.

“You knew about that?”

“Yes.”

“Where?”

Lucas looked at Nora.

“Northbridge.”

Nora repeated the name quietly.

“Northbridge.”

Something stirred in her mind.

A building.

A long corridor.

A metal door.

A number.

Seventeen.

She pressed her fingers against her temple.

Lucas noticed.

“What is it?”

“I have been there.”

Daniel's face changed.

“No.”

Nora looked at him.

“I remember a hallway.”

“You do not.”

“I do.”

“You have never been to Northbridge.”

Nora stared at her brother.

“How do you know?”

Daniel did not answer.

Lucas stepped toward her.

“You went there with me.”

Nora looked at him.

“When?”

“Last November.”

The memory came in fragments.

Cold air.

A metal staircase.

Lucas holding a flashlight.

Her own voice saying something she could not quite hear.

She closed her eyes.

Then another image appeared.

A locked door.

Her hand on the handle.

Lucas standing behind her.

And a sentence.

If this is what I think it is, my father did not die because of an accident.

Nora opened her eyes.

“My father did not die because of an accident,” she whispered.

Lucas said nothing.

Daniel looked away.

Nora turned toward him.

“You knew.”

Daniel's voice was barely audible.

“I suspected.”

“You knew enough to lie to me.”

“I knew enough to be afraid.”

Nora shook her head.

“You should have told me.”

“I tried.”

“When?”

“Before your accident.”

Nora stopped.

“You tried to tell me?”

Daniel nodded.

“What did you say?”

“I told you to leave it alone.”

“That is not telling me anything.”

“You were already investigating.”

“With Lucas?”

“Yes.”

“Why did you want me to stop?”

Daniel looked at her.

“Because the people you were investigating knew about you.”

Nora's stomach tightened.

“What did they know?”

Daniel hesitated.

“They knew you had found something.”

“What had I found?”

“I do not know.”

Nora turned toward Lucas.

“Do you?”

Lucas's silence was answer enough.

“You know,” Nora said.

“Yes.”

“What did I find?”

Lucas looked at the photograph in her hand.

“Your father's records.”

“What was in them?”

“Payments.”

“To whom?”

“Several companies.”

“Were they legitimate?”

“No.”

Nora felt a chill.

“Money laundering?”

“Something like that.”

“Then why did my father do it?”

“He did not.”

Nora looked at him.

“What?”

“Your father did not make those payments.”

“Then who did?”

“That was what you and I were trying to discover.”

Nora's mind raced.

She had spent years believing her father was an honest businessman who had died tragically.

Now she was learning that he had kept secret financial records, investigated illegal payments, and trusted Lucas with something important enough to risk his life over.

“Did my father know he was in danger?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“Did he know who was behind it?”

“I think he did.”

“Who?”

Lucas looked at her.

“He never told me.”

“Why?”

“Because he wanted to tell you first.”

Nora's breath caught.

“Me?”

“Yes.”

“When?”

“The night he died.”

Nora stared at him.

Her father had wanted to tell her something.

Something important enough that he had called Lucas.

Something connected to the person in the car.

She suddenly felt desperate to see the missing photograph.

“Where is it?” she asked.

Lucas did not answer.

“The second photograph,” Nora said. “Where is it?”

“Nora.”

“Where is it?”

“I told you I cannot give it to you.”

“Then tell me where it is.”

Lucas looked at Daniel.

Daniel shook his head.

“Do not,” Daniel said.

Nora turned toward him.

“Do not what?”

Daniel looked at Lucas.

“Tell her.”

Lucas's expression hardened.

“She deserves to know.”

“She is not ready.”

“That is her decision.”

Daniel stepped toward him.

“You promised.”

Lucas's eyes narrowed.

“I promised Nora.”

“And she is asking you to break it.”

“No,” Lucas replied. “She is asking me to stop lying to her.”

The room became silent.

Nora looked at Lucas.

“Where is the photograph?”

Lucas reached into his pocket.

He took out his phone.

He opened something.

Then he turned the screen toward her.

Nora stared at the photograph.

It was dark and grainy, clearly taken at night.

Her father's car stood on the side of a deserted road.

The driver's door was open.

Rain blurred much of the image.

A figure stood beside the passenger door.

Nora leaned closer.

“Who is that?”

Lucas zoomed in.

The figure's face remained hidden beneath the hood.

Nora stared at the image.

Then she noticed something.

A hand.

The person's right hand was visible.

There was a ring on one finger.

A small silver ring with a dark stone.

Nora's breathing stopped.

She knew that ring.

She had seen it before.

Recently.

Not in a photograph.

In real life.

Nora looked at Daniel.

Then at Lucas.

“I know that ring.”

Lucas's expression changed.

“Where?”

Nora could not answer immediately.

She searched her memory.

A woman's hand.

A hospital room.

Someone holding a bouquet.

Her mother's fingers wrapped around a small silver ring.

Nora's face went pale.

“My mother.”

Daniel immediately shook his head.

“No.”

Nora turned toward him.

“She wears that ring.”

“That does not mean it was hers.”

“It is hers.”

Lucas stared at the photograph.

Then he looked at Nora.

“We need to talk to your mother.”

Nora nodded slowly.

“Yes.”

But before they could leave the office, Daniel's phone rang.

He answered.

“Hello?”

He listened.

His expression changed.

“What happened?”

He listened again.

Then he looked at Nora.

His voice became unsteady.

“Someone broke into the house.”

Nora's heart dropped.

“Who?”

Daniel lowered the phone.

“They were looking for something.”

“What?”

Daniel stared at the wooden box in Nora's hands.

“The photograph.”