WHAT WAS UNDER HER SWIMSUIT?
PART 2
Nathan didn’t answer me.
He simply stared at Eleanor.
His face had gone completely white.
“What is that?” I demanded again.
Eleanor pulled the towel tightly around herself.
“Amelia, please. Not here.”
“Not here?”
I looked around the backyard.
Forty-seven people had gone silent.
The music was still playing softly, but nobody was listening anymore.
Sophie was clinging to my leg, trembling.
“Daddy’s there,” she whispered again.
Nathan finally moved.
He walked toward Eleanor slowly.
“What did you do?” he asked.
Eleanor shook her head.
“I didn’t do anything.”
“Then explain it.”
She looked at me.
Then at Nathan.
Then toward the gate.
And suddenly I understood something.
She wasn’t embarrassed.
She was afraid.
I stepped closer.
“Eleanor, show me.”
“No.”
“Show me.”
Her hands began shaking.
Nathan reached for her arm.
“Eleanor, we need to know.”
She pulled away.
Then Sophie suddenly screamed.
“Mommy! The door!”
Everyone turned toward the house.
The back door was open.
I knew I had locked it before the party.
Nathan immediately rushed inside.
I followed him.
The hallway was empty.
But the door to his home office was wide open.
Nathan stopped.
He had always kept that room locked.
Always.
I walked past him and entered.
The first thing I noticed was the desk.
Several drawers were open.
Papers were scattered across the floor.
Then I saw the wall.
Photographs.
Dozens of them.
Photographs of Eleanor.
Photographs of my father.
Photographs of Nathan.
And photographs of Sophie.
My stomach turned.
“Why are there pictures of my daughter in here?”
Nathan didn’t answer.
I picked up one of the photographs.
It showed Sophie sleeping in her bedroom.
Another showed her playing in the backyard.
Another had been taken outside the Harborlight Community Arts Center.
Someone had been watching my child.
For how long?
I turned toward Nathan.
“Who took these?”
He looked terrified.
“I don’t know.”
“You’re lying.”
“I swear I’m not.”
Then Eleanor appeared in the doorway.
She was still wrapped in her towel.
She looked at the photographs.
And began crying.
“Amelia… your father didn’t die the way you were told.”
I froze.
“My father?”
Eleanor nodded.
“William is alive.”
The room seemed to tilt.
“That’s impossible.”
“He’s been alive for almost three years.”
I stared at her.
Nathan suddenly whispered,
“Eleanor, stop.”
She looked at him.
“No. It’s gone too far.”
“What is going on?” I shouted.
Eleanor slowly pulled the towel away from her side.
The strange mark Sophie had pointed at was still visible beneath the swimsuit.
It wasn’t a tattoo.
It wasn’t an injury.
It was a surgical scar.
A long, carefully healed incision running beneath her ribs.
I stared at it.
“What happened to you?”
Eleanor wiped away her tears.
“Your father put that there.”
My heart stopped.
Nathan backed toward the desk.
“Amelia, listen to me.”
I turned toward him.
“How long have you known?”
He said nothing.
“How long?”
“Almost two years.”
My knees weakened.
“You knew?”
Nathan closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
“And you never told me?”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“Protect me from what?”
Before he could answer, a phone began ringing.
Everyone froze.
The sound was coming from inside the desk drawer.
Nathan immediately rushed toward it.
I got there first.
I pulled the drawer open.
Inside was an old black phone.
The screen showed one incoming call.
No name.
Just one word.
DAD.
I stared at Nathan.
Then I answered.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Finally, a man’s voice came through the speaker.
“Amelia?”
I couldn’t breathe.
I knew that voice.
It was impossible.
But I knew it.
“Dad?”
A long silence followed.
Then William whispered,
“I’m sorry.”
I sank into the chair.
“Where are you?”
“Somewhere you can’t find me.”
“Why?”
“Because the people around you aren’t who you think they are.”
My eyes moved toward Nathan.
Then Eleanor.
William continued.
“Your husband didn’t marry you by accident.”
Nathan’s face collapsed.
“What does that mean?”
William’s voice became barely audible.
“It means Sophie was never the reason they were watching your family.”
I looked at my daughter.
“Then what were they looking for?”
William took a shaky breath.
“They were looking for something your mother left behind.”
I felt cold spread through my entire body.
“My mother?”
“Yes.”
“What did she leave?”
Another silence.
Then my father said the words that changed everything.
“She left you a key.”
The call suddenly disconnected.
I stared at the phone.
Nathan whispered,
“Amelia…”
I turned toward him.
“Where is the key?”
He didn’t answer.
Eleanor did.
“It’s been inside this house the entire time.”
Then Sophie pointed toward the hallway.
At an old wooden cabinet my grandmother had given me years ago.
“Mommy,” she whispered.
“Daddy’s key is in there.”
I slowly walked toward the cabinet.
And when I opened the bottom drawer…
I found a small envelope with my name written across it.
In my mother’s handwriting.
I hadn’t seen that handwriting since I was four years old.
And beneath my name were six words:
“OPEN THIS ONLY IF HE RETURNS.”
I looked at Nathan.
His expression told me one terrifying thing.
He knew exactly who “he” was.
And suddenly, the nightmare wasn’t about Eleanor at all.
It was about the secret my mother had taken to her grave…