Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN IN THE PHOTOGRAPH
Marlo had spent two years trying not to hate Sterling Voss.
It was difficult.
Every time she passed the construction site where her mother's bakery had stood, she remembered Ruth's trembling hands.
Every time she heard the Voss name on television, she remembered the newspaper calling her mother a fraud.
And now a stranger was sitting at her kitchen table, telling her Ruth had been protecting Sterling's sister.
“Start from the beginning,” Marlo said.
Evelyn Shaw looked toward the window.
“Your mother knew a woman named Celeste Voss.”
“Sterling's sister?”
“Yes.”
“What happened to her?”
“Officially, Celeste died in a boating accident eleven years ago.”
Marlo looked at the photograph.
“But she didn't.”
“No.”
“Where is she?”
Evelyn hesitated.
“I don't know anymore.”
Marlo stared.
“You came here with a photograph and a memory card, but you don't know where the woman is?”
“I know where she was.”
“Where?”
Evelyn lowered her voice.
“Inside Voss Tower.”
Marlo almost laughed.
“Sterling's building?”
“Yes.”
“Why would a dead woman be living in her brother's office building?”
“Because someone wanted her close enough to control.”
Marlo looked down at the memory card.
“What is this?”
“Footage your mother asked me to preserve.”
“Of what?”
Evelyn stood.
“Watch it somewhere safe. Not on a device connected to your home network.”
Marlo narrowed her eyes.
“You sound like you're expecting someone to come after me.”
Evelyn looked toward the door.
“They already know you have the photograph.”
Marlo waited until evening before visiting an old photography studio run by her former instructor, Gabriel Reed.
Gabriel had taught her how to develop film when she was seventeen.
He was sixty now, with silver hair, reading glasses, and a habit of speaking to cameras as though they were difficult children.
He examined the memory card.
“Where'd you get this?”
“From someone who knew my mother.”
Gabriel studied her face.
“Is this about Voss?”
Marlo nodded.
He sighed.
“Then we use the offline computer.”
They inserted the card.
A single video appeared.
The timestamp showed a date from eleven years earlier.
The footage opened inside a medical room.
A young woman sat on an examination table.
Her face was covered with pale makeup.
She wore a hospital gown.
A man in a white coat stood beside her.
Marlo leaned forward.
The woman's hands trembled.
The doctor said something.
There was no audio.
Then the woman raised her arms.
Across her skin were irregular dark patches.
Not bruises.
Not ordinary scars.
Something else.
The doctor reached toward her face.
She pulled away.
A second man entered.
Marlo recognized him immediately.
Sterling Voss.
Younger.
Angrier.
He approached the woman.
She turned away.
Then Sterling took her wrist.
The woman flinched.
Marlo felt sick.
The video ended.
Gabriel sat silently.
Finally, he said, “That woman looked terrified.”
Marlo nodded.
“And Sterling was there.”
Gabriel removed the memory card.
“There's another file.”
He opened it.
A photograph appeared.
Celeste stood beside Ruth Kent in the bakery kitchen.
Both women were smiling.
Celeste's face was bare.
The dark patches were visible along her neck and jaw.
Ruth held a tray of pastries.
On the back wall hung a handwritten sign.
EVERYONE IS WELCOME HERE.
Marlo stared.
She remembered that sign.
Her mother had painted it herself.
Gabriel looked at her.
“Your mother knew this woman well.”
Marlo swallowed.
“Yes.”
He leaned back.
“Then the question isn't why Sterling destroyed the bakery.”
Marlo looked up.
“What is it?”
Gabriel's voice was quiet.
“It's what your mother refused to give him.”
Across the city, Sterling stood in his office overlooking the Strip.
His security director, Marcus Hale, waited near the door.
“Did you recover the card?” Sterling asked.
“No.”
Sterling turned.
“Why not?”
“Evelyn Shaw reached the daughter first.”
Sterling's expression hardened.
“Marlo Kent.”
“Yes.”
For a moment, Sterling said nothing.
Then he walked toward a framed photograph on his desk.
It showed him as a teenager beside a little girl.
Both were smiling.
His sister.
Celeste.
He touched the frame.
“Find Marlo,” he said.
Marcus nodded.
“Quietly?”
Sterling looked at him.
“No threats. No violence.”
Marcus hesitated.
“Sir?”
Sterling's voice sharpened.
“I said no threats.”
Marcus lowered his head.
“Yes, sir.”
After he left, Sterling opened a locked drawer.
Inside lay a second photograph.
Celeste and Ruth.
Standing outside the bakery.
On the back, Celeste had written:
SHE WAS THE FIRST PERSON WHO LET ME BE SEEN.
Sterling stared at the words.
May you like
Then whispered:
“Ruth, what did you leave behind?”
