The address was tucked into the hills near Oxford—an aging cottage surrounded by lavender and silence. Clara Mercer answered the door with tired eyes and a voice like broken glass.
"You're not a reporter, are you?"
"No," Emma said. "I'm Emma. My mother… was once engaged to your brother."
Clara stiffened. "Then you'd better come in."
⸻
Inside Clara's Cottage
The home smelled of old books and rain. Photos lined the mantel—none recent. All of Daniel.
Clara poured two cups of tea and said, "Daniel was my older brother. Protective. Brilliant. Too kind. Too trusting."
Emma held out the only photo she had of Grace and Daniel—smiling at a university fundraiser in 1993.
"That's the girl," Clara said. "Grace Clarke. Studied biochemistry. Pretty. Sharp. And… not right."
Emma listened as Clara spoke slowly, piecing together the kind of woman Grace had been long before Emma was born.
⸻
Clara's Story
"Daniel met Grace his final year at Oxford. She was magnetic—walked into a room and made people rearrange themselves around her. But she always had secrets. He thought it was trauma. He thought he could heal her."
"They were engaged. Quietly. She didn't want anyone to know."
"Then, one night, he told me he was thinking of ending things. Said she had lied about something big—money, her family, I don't know. He looked scared."
"The next morning, he went out for a walk by the quarry. And never came back."
Emma whispered, "He drowned?"
Clara nodded. "The police said it was an accident. No signs of struggle. But he was a strong swimmer. There was no reason for him to be there that day."
Emma leaned forward. "Did they investigate Grace?"
"She left the day of his funeral. Didn't even attend. We tried contacting her after. Letters came back unopened."
Emma felt her pulse thudding. "Do you think she killed him?"
Clara didn't answer at first.
Then she said: "I think my brother found something out. And I think the girl he loved wasn't who she said she was."
⸻
The Missing Journal
Clara handed Emma a sealed envelope. "I was going to burn it. But something told me to keep it."
Inside was a page torn from Daniel's journal—his last entry.
"She lied again. I checked the bank account—someone wired money under my name. She's using me. I can't marry someone who disappears for days and won't say where she's been."
"If something happens to me, tell Clara to find the girl with the burned photo in her purse."
Emma looked up. "What does that mean?"
Clara shook her head. "He never explained. But I searched her dorm after he died. There was a wallet-size photo of a girl—burned halfway through. No name. Just the edges of a school uniform."
Grace had secrets inside secrets.
⸻
Back at Caroline's Office
Emma laid out the journal page, the photo of Daniel and Grace, and Clara's written testimony.
Caroline frowned. "This is huge. If we connect this to Grace's fraud case, it changes everything."
"She's done this before," Emma said. "She gets close. She manipulates. She takes what she wants. And when they push back…"
"They disappear," Caroline finished.
⸻
Final Scene – A Call from Grace
That night, as Emma sat in her car outside her flat, her phone rang.
Private Number.
She answered.
Grace's voice:
"You're digging in places that should stay buried."
Emma didn't flinch. "Did you kill him?"
"Don't be dramatic. Some people can't handle rejection."
"You destroyed Michael. You lied to me. And now I know Daniel wasn't the first person you broke—and he won't be the last if I don't stop you."
A pause.
Then Grace said coldly,
"Be careful, Emma. You don't know what you're walking into."
The call ended.
Emma stared at the dark screen.
She knew one thing now with certainty:
Her mother wasn't just a liar.
She was dangerous.