PART 4: THE MAN WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD
I stared at the photograph in Alyssa’s trembling hands.
My stepmother stood outside a courthouse beside a handsome young man wearing a dark suit. His arm was wrapped around her waist, and both of them were smiling.
On the back, someone had written a name.
THOMAS ELLIS.
My grandmother made a strange choking sound.
“Thomas Ellis?” she whispered. “That’s impossible.”
Alyssa looked at her. “You know him?”
My grandmother lowered herself into the nearest chair.
“Thomas was Margaret Ellis’s younger brother. Margaret was supposed to marry your father before Vivian came into his life.”
I felt the room spinning.
“Wait. You’re telling me Vivian married the brother of Dad’s former fiancée?”
My grandmother nodded slowly.
“And Thomas disappeared thirty-two years ago. Everyone believed he died in a boating accident.”
Alyssa shook her head.
“He didn’t die.”
We both turned toward her.
“How do you know?” I demanded.
She hesitated, pressing the photograph against her chest.
“Because I met him three months ago.”
The silence was deafening.
My grandmother covered her mouth.
“Where?”
“At a restaurant outside Columbus. Mom told me he was an old family friend. But when she went to the restroom, he grabbed my hand and said something I’ll never forget.”
Alyssa’s voice broke.
“He said, ‘You have your mother’s eyes, but you have my smile.’”
I felt goosebumps rise along my arms.
“Did you ask Vivian about him?”
“Yes. She told me he was mentally unstable and that I should never speak to him again.”
“But you kept the photograph.”
Alyssa nodded.
“I found it hidden inside Mom’s jewelry box. On the back, beneath his name, there was an old address.”
She handed me the picture.
The address was in Cleveland.
And beside it was a date.
Thirty-one years earlier.
My grandmother stared at the photograph for a long moment.
Then she whispered something that made my stomach drop.
“William knew Thomas was alive.”
“What?”
“He called me six weeks ago. He asked whether I remembered the boating accident. I thought he was simply reminiscing, but he kept asking strange questions.”
“What questions?”
“Whether anyone had actually identified the body.”
I looked down at the photograph.
There had never been a body.
Only an abandoned boat found drifting near the shore.
And somehow Vivian had convinced everyone Thomas was dead.
My phone suddenly vibrated.
A message from an unknown number appeared.
This is Evelyn. Don’t go to the address on the photograph. Vivian knows you have it. Meet me tomorrow at 10 a.m. at St. Andrew’s Chapel. Come alone.
I showed the message to my grandmother.
She grabbed my wrist.
“Candace, please be careful.”
But Alyssa had already read the screen.
“I’m coming with you.”
I looked at her.
For eighteen years, this woman had treated me like an unwanted stranger.
Now she wanted to stand beside me.
“Why should I trust you?”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“Because if everything we’re learning is true, then my entire life has been a lie too.”
I wanted to hate her.
Part of me still did.
But the fear in her eyes was real.
“Fine,” I said. “But no more secrets.”
She nodded.
“No more secrets.”
The following morning, we arrived at St. Andrew’s Chapel ten minutes early.
Rain tapped against the stained-glass windows.
The church was nearly empty.
An elderly woman sat in the third pew, wearing a gray coat and holding a brown leather handbag.
When she saw us, she stood immediately.
“Candace?”
I nodded.
“Evelyn Price?”
She looked exhausted.
There were dark circles beneath her eyes, and her hands trembled as she opened her bag.
“Your father wanted you to have these.”
She handed me a thick envelope.
Inside were copies of marriage records, old bank statements, and several handwritten letters.
The first document showed Vivian marrying Thomas Ellis thirty-two years earlier.
The second showed Vivian marrying my father three years later.
But there was something missing.
A divorce decree.
I looked at Evelyn.
“Does this mean Vivian was still married to Thomas when she married Dad?”
“Possibly,” she said. “Your father was trying to verify whether their first marriage had ever legally ended.”
Alyssa sat down heavily.
“Oh my God.”
Evelyn continued.
“William believed Thomas had used his supposed death to disappear after becoming involved in financial fraud. Vivian knew he was alive. And your father suspected they had remained in contact for years.”
“Why would Dad marry someone connected to his former fiancée’s brother?”
Evelyn hesitated.
“Because Vivian wasn’t a stranger to him. She appeared after your mother died, offering comfort when he was vulnerable. She told him Thomas had been killed in the accident.”
My chest tightened.
My mother had died when I was four.
Vivian entered our lives shortly afterward.
And I had spent my entire childhood believing their marriage was a love story that simply didn’t have room for me.
Evelyn reached for another document.
“This is what your father discovered shortly before his death.”
It was a transfer authorization for nearly two million dollars from a private investment account.
The receiving account belonged to a company called Ellis Holdings.
My grandmother’s words echoed in my head.
Thomas Ellis.
“Did Dad know about this transfer?”
“He found the paperwork before the transaction was completed,” Evelyn replied. “He contacted his attorney and began securing his assets.”
I stared at the document.
“So Vivian and Thomas were trying to take his money?”
“That was William’s suspicion.”
Alyssa buried her face in her hands.
“My mother used me.”
Evelyn looked at her gently.
“You may have been part of her plan without knowing it.”
Alyssa began to cry.
All those years she’d called me the outsider.
Now she was discovering that her own mother had hidden the truth about her father while using William’s love to protect the secret.
But I still had one question.
“What happened the night Dad died?”
Evelyn’s expression changed.
She glanced toward the chapel entrance.
“Your father called me that evening. He said Vivian had been asking unusually detailed questions about his new will.”
“What did you tell him?”
“I told him not to drink or take anything he hadn’t personally checked, and to call his doctor immediately if he felt unwell.”
My hands began shaking.
“Did he?”
“I don’t know. He stopped answering his phone.”
She opened her handbag again.
“There’s something else.”
She removed a small digital recorder.
“Your father gave me this two days before he died. He said it contained a conversation he wanted preserved.”
I stared at the recorder.
“Have you listened to it?”
Evelyn nodded.
“And you need to hear it.”
She pressed play.
At first, there was only static.
Then my father’s voice filled the quiet chapel.
“Vivian, I know Thomas is alive.”
A woman’s voice answered sharply.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I have the marriage certificate. I have the bank records. And I’ve spoken to Margaret.”
There was a loud scraping sound.
Then Vivian’s voice returned.
“You should have left the past alone, William.”
My father sounded exhausted.
“Was any of it real? Did you ever love me?”
A long silence followed.
Then she said something so cold that Alyssa began sobbing.
“I loved the life you gave me. Don’t confuse that with loving you.”
My stomach twisted.
The recording continued.
My father spoke again.
“I’m changing everything. Candace will receive what I should have given her years ago. And I’m making sure Alyssa is taken care of, but you won’t control another dollar.”
Vivian laughed bitterly.
“You think you can simply throw me away?”
“I think I’ve made enough mistakes.”
Then another voice entered the conversation.
A man’s voice.
“William, there’s no need to make this difficult.”
I grabbed Evelyn’s arm.
“Who is that?”
She looked at me.
“Thomas Ellis.”
On the recording, my father shouted.
“You have no right to be in my house!”
Thomas answered calmly.
“We’ve been part of the same family longer than you realize.”
The recording ended with the sound of something breaking.
Then silence.
I stared at the recorder.
Thomas had been inside my father’s house just two days before his death.
And Vivian had known.
“We need to give this to the detectives,” I said.
Evelyn nodded.
“I’ve kept the original recording safe. They need to hear everything.”
Before we could stand, the chapel doors opened.
A tall man wearing a dark overcoat stepped inside.
He stopped when he saw us.
Alyssa’s face turned white.
“Candace,” she whispered, gripping my arm.
I looked at her.
“What?”
“That’s him.”
The man slowly removed his hat.
He had silver hair, tired blue eyes, and a thin scar above his left eyebrow.
He looked exactly like the younger man in the photograph.
Thomas Ellis.
The man who was supposed to have died thirty-two years ago.
Evelyn stood so quickly that her handbag fell to the floor.
“You shouldn’t be here,” she said.
Thomas ignored her.
He looked directly at Alyssa.
“Hello, sweetheart.”
Alyssa recoiled.
“Don’t call me that.”
His expression softened.
“I know this is difficult.”
I stepped between them.
“What do you want?”
Thomas looked at me for a long moment.
Then he said something completely unexpected.
“I came because William asked me to.”
I almost laughed.
“My father is dead.”
“I know.”
“Then why should I believe a word you say?”
He reached inside his coat.
Alyssa gasped.
But he only removed a sealed envelope.
“Because your father left me something that will explain why I disappeared.”
He placed the envelope on the pew.
On the front was my father’s signature.
And beneath it were three words.
FOR BOTH DAUGHTERS.
I stared at the envelope.
Thomas took a step backward.
“William knew the truth about Vivian for years. But there’s something neither of you understands.”
“What?” I demanded.
He looked at Alyssa, then at me.
“The night your father died, Vivian wasn’t the only person in that bedroom.”
My heart began pounding.
“Who else was there?”
Thomas swallowed.
“Someone who had more to lose than Vivian if William told the truth.”
Alyssa’s voice trembled.
“Who?”
Thomas looked toward the entrance.
And suddenly, his face changed.
Pure terror.
“She’s here.”
We turned.
A woman stood in the doorway wearing a long black coat.
Her silver hair was pinned neatly behind her head.
My grandmother, who had quietly entered the chapel behind Thomas, let out a startled cry.
“Margaret?”
The woman stepped into the light.
Margaret Ellis.
My father’s former fiancée.
The woman who had appeared beside him in the hospital photograph.
She looked directly at me.
“Candace, I’m sorry your father couldn’t tell you himself.”
My mouth went dry.
“Tell me what?”
Margaret’s eyes filled with tears.
“Your father didn’t ask Thomas to meet you. I did. Because the person responsible for his death is about to inherit something nobody knows exists.”
Thomas suddenly shouted, “Margaret, stop!”
But she ignored him.
She reached into her handbag and pulled out a photograph taken only hours before my father’s death.
It showed Vivian standing outside the family home.
Beside her was another woman.
A woman I recognized immediately.
I looked up in horror.
Because standing next to Vivian in that photograph was someone who had been present at every family gathering, every argument, and even the reading of the will.
Someone who had quietly encouraged me to keep asking questions.
Someone I had trusted without hesitation.
My grandmother.
And when I looked toward the back of the chapel, the place where she’d been standing moments earlier was empty.
TO BE CONTINUED IN LAST PART…
