Chapter 16 - The Uninvited Guest
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It was a chilly Tuesday evening in late October. The autumn leaves were swirling across the front lawn, and a light, freezing rain was tapping against the windows of our home.
My mother and I had just finished dinner and were sitting in the living room watching a movie, a cozy fire crackling in the hearth.
Suddenly, the soft chiming of the doorbell echoed through the hallway.
I frowned, looking at the clock on the wall. It was nearly eight-thirty. We weren't expecting any deliveries, and Claire was out of town attending a legal conference in Chicago.
"Who could that be at this hour?" my mother asked, looking up from her knitting.
"Probably a door-to-door solicitor or a lost delivery driver," I said, getting up from the couch. "Stay here, Mom. I'll check."
I walked down the hallway, turning on the porch light.
I looked through the small glass peep-hole set into the heavy wooden front door.
Standing on my porch, shivering under the light rain, was a young woman. She looked to be in her late twenties, wearing a thin, soaking-wet trench coat. Her dark hair was plastered against her forehead, her cheeks pale, and her eyes wide with frantic, trembling panic.
She wasn't holding a package. She wasn't holding sales flyers.
She was clutching a wet brown paper folder tightly against her chest, her knuckles raw and blue from the cold.
I unlocked the deadbolt, keeping the heavy brass security chain engaged, and pulled the door open three inches.
"Can I help you?" I asked cautiously, looking through the gap.
The young woman took a sharp, breathless step closer to the door. Her dark eyes locked onto mine, tears mixing with the raindrops running down her face.
"Are you... are you Elena Vance?" she whispered, her voice shaking uncontrollably in the cold night air.
"Yes," I replied, my instincts immediately putting me on high alert. "Who are you?"
The girl swallowed hard, looking over her shoulder at the dark, empty street as if she were terrified someone was following her.
"My name is Jessica," she rasped, her hands shaking as she held up the wet brown folder. "I... I've been searching for you for two weeks."
"Searching for me? Why?"
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Jessica leaned closer to the gap in the door, her trembling voice dropping into a terrifying, desperate whisper that sent a cold spike of ice straight down my spine.
"Because three days ago... I found out I'm engaged to Brandon Morgan."
