Chapter 3 - THE WOMAN WHO VANISHED BEFORE SUNRISE
Elena left the mansion at 3:40 a.m.
Not through the front entrance.
Through the old service passage beneath the eastern wing.
She'd discovered it years earlier while renovating the house.
Dominic had forgotten it existed.
Elena hadn't.
A dark sedan waited beyond the rear gate.
The driver stepped out.
“Mrs. Romano?”
She nodded.
“Are you alone?”
“Yes.”
He opened the door.
She climbed inside.
The car moved through the sleeping city.
Snow drifted across the streets.
Christmas lights glowed in apartment windows.
Somewhere, families were waking early to open presents.
Elena stared at the brown folder in her lap.
Three months earlier, she'd received an anonymous letter.
Your daughter did not die.
At first, she'd thought it was a cruel joke.
Then came a photograph.
A little girl.
Dark hair.
Gray eyes.
A familiar dimple beside her mouth.
Elena's dimple.
The photograph was dated two years earlier.
The child would now be eleven.
Elena had spent three months investigating quietly.
She'd discovered records.
Names.
Payments.
And one terrible possibility.
Someone in Dominic's family had stolen her daughter.
May you like
Now she was going to find her.
Even if it destroyed everything.
