“Dad, who is Anna?”
Daniel stopped adjusting his tie.
“Anna who?”
“The lady working downstairs.”
“I don't know the staff, buddy.”
“She knew Mom.”
Daniel turned.
“What?”
Ethan told him about the pendant.
The phrase.
The hallway conversation.
Daniel listened carefully, but grief had taught him caution. For months after Claire died, Ethan had believed he saw her in grocery stores, airports and passing cars.
“Maybe she worked an event here before.”
“She said Mom was her family.”
That changed Daniel's expression.
“Exactly what did she say?”
Before Ethan could answer, Margaret entered.
“The guests are arriving.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Do you know someone downstairs named Anna?”
Margaret barely hesitated.
“No.”
Ethan stared at her.
“You talked to her.”
Margaret's face hardened.
“Ethan.”
“You told her to leave.”
Daniel looked between them.
“Mom?”
Margaret sighed.
“She was someone Claire knew years ago. That's all.”
“How?”
“I don't remember.”
Ethan said, “You're lying.”
“Enough.”
Daniel had rarely heard his mother speak to Ethan that sharply.
Margaret immediately softened.
“I'm sorry. Tonight is difficult for everyone.”
She left.
Daniel watched the door close.
Then he looked at Ethan.
“What did the necklace look like?”
Ethan described it.
Daniel went still.
Claire's pendant had disappeared after her death.
That night, while guests gathered downstairs, Daniel entered the small storage room containing Claire's belongings.
He found the jewelry box.
The indentation where the pendant had once rested was empty.
Daniel searched through photographs.
Claire at college.
Claire on their first vacation.
Claire holding newborn Ethan.
Then he noticed something strange.
Several photographs had rough edges, as though someone had been cut out.
He found one picture Margaret had apparently missed.
Claire was twenty-two, laughing on a beach.
Beside her stood another young woman.
The photograph had been folded almost perfectly between them.
Daniel unfolded it.
On the back, Claire had written:
“Anna & me. Sisters always.”
Daniel stared at the word.
Sisters.
Claire had told him she was an only child.
His phone buzzed.
Rebecca.
“Daniel, you need to come downstairs.”
“What happened?”
“It's Ethan.”
Daniel ran.
By the time he reached the ballroom doors, nearly every guest had turned toward the center of the room.
Ethan was running through them.
Straight toward Anna.