Acting Normal
Chapter 04 - Acting Normal
Harrison drove home with his hands gripping the wheel tighter than necessary, rehearsing the specific, careful performance he needed to give the moment he walked through his own front door.
Meredith met him in the kitchen, exactly where he'd expected her, a glass of wine already poured, her expression carrying none of the tension he'd half expected to find waiting for him.
"How's Chloe feeling," she asked. "You said she wasn't well."
"Just a stomach bug," Harrison said, keeping his voice light, ordinary. "Carla's going to keep her a few days so she can rest without worrying about school."
"That's probably wise," Meredith said, sipping her wine, entirely unbothered.
Harrison studied her carefully, searching for any crack in her composure, any sign that she understood exactly what her stepdaughter had found hidden in that jewelry box.
He found nothing. Her calm was either genuine, meaning she had no idea Chloe had discovered the locket at all, or it was considerably more practiced and complete than he'd ever given her credit for.
"I'm going to work late tonight," he said. "Catching up on some things."
"Of course," Meredith said. "I'll save you a plate."
He retreated to his study, locked the door quietly, and called the investigator Carla had recommended, a careful, methodical woman named Priya Anand who listened to his account without interruption before offering her assessment.
"I'll need considerable time to trace her background properly," Priya said. "Given how carefully she seems to have constructed her current identity, this may take longer than a typical background check would require."
"I don't have much time," Harrison said. "My daughter is frightened in her own house. I need answers as quickly as you can possibly get them."
"I understand the urgency," Priya said. "I'll start tonight. In the meantime, I want you to be extremely careful about what you say or do around her. If she's hiding something this significant, and if she suspects you're beginning to investigate, she may become considerably more dangerous than the calm woman you've been living with for the past year."
May you like
Harrison sat with that warning long after the call ended, staring at the locket on his desk, at the photograph of two young women who had once, apparently, been close enough friends to stand arm in arm, laughing, entirely unaware of everything that would eventually separate them.
He thought of Elise's occasional, vague mentions of an old friend, the strange tone she'd always used, and wondered, for the first time, whether that tone had actually been fondness at all, or something closer to fear.
