“A photograph of what?” I asked.
“Of you and your father. From years ago. Maybe at some charity event.”
I gripped the edge of the pergola bench.
I had been so careful. No social media under my legal name. No public family events after college. No obvious connections.
But careful did not mean invisible.
“My father’s company hosts dozens of charity events,” I said. “There are photos everywhere.”
“Cynthia had one printed,” Brenda said. “Daniel saw it on her kitchen table. She told him she was trying to confirm whether the girl in the picture was Elias’s fiancée.”
Rebecca’s expression had gone still in the way that meant she was assembling a timeline.
“Why would Daniel tell you this?”
Brenda looked away. “Because he’s the father of my baby. And because he disappeared three weeks ago.”
A chill moved through me.
“Disappeared?” I repeated.
“He stopped answering calls. His apartment was cleared out. HR said he resigned, but Daniel wouldn’t leave like that. Not without telling me. Not when…” She placed one hand over her stomach. “Not when he knew.”
