The Little Daughter of the Cleaner Was Found in My Daughter’s Office, but Her Answer Drained the Color from Damian’s Face

Damian Cole’s office was where the cleaner’s three-year-old daughter was found, holding a letter from my dead wife. The girl was sitting in my armchair and drawing something with a small, shiny pen on the edge of an old sheet of paper. When she heard the sound of my footsteps in the room, she neither became frightened nor ran away.

“What are you doing in my armchair?” I asked, although my voice had become so faint that I barely recognized it myself.

The girl raised her head. She had honey-colored eyes, and ink was smeared on the fingers of her right hand.

“I am finishing the letter,” she replied.

“Whose letter?”

She looked at the old sheet, as if she did not want to give the answer.

“The lady dressed in blue.”

The air suddenly froze.

For three years, no one had mentioned this name. Neither my employees, nor my friends, nor journalists. The woman in blue was Elena—my wife, who had left home on the day of the accident in a light-blue coat and never returned home.

That morning our little daughter Grace had been with her.

I lost them both.

“Who told you this?” I asked the girl.

“Mother told it to me as a fairy tale. But this is not a fairy tale. She is still waiting.”

Footsteps sounded behind the door. The young cleaner, Louise Fields, rushed into the room, and there was no blood left in her face.

“Oh God, Mr. Cole, forgive me. I looked away for one minute. I did not know how she got in…”

She reached toward the child, but the girl pressed the old sheet to her chest.

“Mom, don’t make me finish it?”

Louise froze in place.

I turned toward her.

“Who told your daughter about the woman in blue?”

“I don’t know, sir. I… it was just a fairy tale.”

“Did she say anything about my office?”

“No.”

Fear could be seen in her eyes. But beneath the fear, something heavier was hidden—guilt.

For three years I had kept this room like a museum. No one was allowed to touch the left shelf, where Elena’s favorite book with the green cover stood. On the desk, the small brass clock still ran two minutes fast. Elena used to say that being late was stealing someone else’s time.

No one knew that the letter was hidden in that book.

No one except Elena.

And now this unknown child was sitting in my armchair, touching her handwriting and speaking as if she herself had been there that morning.

“She found the letter in the book,” Louise said and took the girl by the hand. “Please don’t call the police. I need this job. The babysitter called me in the morning, water had spilled in the kitchen, and I had no other choice.”

“That is the least of the problems now.”

The girl looked at me again.

“Did you tell Mother that Father came back?”

Louise’s face changed completely.

“Nora, be quiet!”

That name opened something in my heart. Elena had called our unborn child exactly that—Nora, while we were deciding on a birth name. But Grace’s birth certificate had a different name written on it.

“How old is your daughter?” I asked Louise.

“Three.”

“Exactly three?”

“Three years and two months.”

My fingers clutched the leather of the armchair. The accident had happened three years and three months earlier.

Louise noticed this.

“Mr. Cole, please, don’t think anything.”

“I haven’t said anything yet.”

“But you’ve already understood.”

At that moment the telephone rang. The number of my assistant, Priya, was visible on the screen.

“Sir, there is a gap in the security recordings,” she said. “Forty-one minutes from nine in the morning do not exist at all.”

“What kind of gap?”

“The camera shows static. And I found one more thing. The door lock was opened with your code.”

I looked at Louise. Her hands were trembling so much that the girl’s pink hair clip fell onto the floor.

“Priya, lock every door. Let no one leave the building.”

“Sir, it’s already too late. Someone took a file from the security room.”

The elevator bell rang outside the office.

Louise pressed Nora to her chest.

And I picked up the old letter and reached toward its first line…

The sheet trembled in my hand. I recognized Elena’s handwriting immediately—letters slanted slightly to the right, and at the end a small circle that she drew only for me.

Louise stood at the door and covered the child’s ears with her hands.

“Where did you get this letter?” I asked.

“Elena gave it to me three years ago.”

“Elena died that day.”

“No, Mr. Cole. That day only the person you thought had died died.”

Louise’s words sounded in the room like a heavy noise.

Nora pulled her hand away from her mother.

“Mother, tell him. He has the right to know.”

“Not yet.”

“But he came back.”

The door handle slowly went down. Head of security Victor Hale entered from outside. He held a folder in his hand, although his gaze froze on the child.

“Mr. Cole, the exit from the building is safe,” he said.

“Then why are you so pale?”

Victor could not answer me.

Nora looked toward him and suddenly hid behind her mother.

“This man was not loved by the lady in blue,” she whispered.

The folder fell from Victor’s hand.

At that moment I understood that Louise’s fear was not coming from me. She was waiting for someone’s return.

I opened the letter. The first sentence was from Elena, but on the second line my name was no longer written. One word could be seen there—“Grace.”

“Who is this?” I asked.

Louise lowered her eyes.

Victor locked the door.

“Do you want the answer?” he said. “Then first you must know that the child you are holding is your daughter…”

Such silence descended in the room that even the ticking of the brass clock, running two minutes fast on the desk, sounded like a scream.

“Repeat it,” I told Victor.

“Nora is your daughter.”

Louise closed her eyes. Nora heard nothing; she was still looking at the old sheet and hiding her fingers stained with ink.

“My daughter Grace died three years ago,” I said.

“That is what they told you.”

Victor opened the folder and placed two documents on the desk. The first was the accident report. The second—a secret medical record.

“Two people were taken from the scene of the accident,” he said. “Elena was dead. The child was found alive, but with serious injuries. Someone changed the hospital record and transferred the child under another name.”

“Someone?”

Louise barely managed to produce a voice.

“Me.”

I turned toward her.

“Why?”

“Because Elena asked me to. She came to me one hour before the accident. She knew that millions were disappearing from the company’s financial accounts. She knew that your business partner, Arthur Bell, was doing it. And she knew that Victor was on his side.”

Victor clenched his teeth.

“Speak carefully.”

“I remained silent for three years,” Louise continued. “Elena told me that if anything happened to her, I should hide the child from you. She said that you were also in danger, because Arthur thought that you had discovered everything.”

I looked up at the letter.

“Is this her handwriting?”

“Yes. She could not finish the letter. I hid it in the book, but before I could reach the police, I got into an accident. Then Victor told me that if I brought the child to you, he would kill us both.”

Victor reached toward the gun.

I picked up the heavy clock from the desk and struck his wrist with it. The gun fell onto the floor. Louise led Nora into the corner.

“Now the DNA result,” I said.

Priya opened the door and two police officers entered. In her hand was a sealed laboratory envelope.

“We received the urgent test,” she said. “The result is ninety-nine point ninety-nine percent.”

I looked at Nora. She had a small mole on her left cheek in exactly the same place as Elena had in her childhood photograph.

“Father?” she asked.

The strength left my knees. I knelt before her.

“Yes, little one.”

Nora carefully came closer to me and wrapped her arms around my neck.

Louise leaned against the wall and began to cry. Victor, meanwhile, looked like a defeated man for the first time.

But I had not yet read the letter to the end.

The last sentence broke off in the middle: “If Damian finds Grace, tell him that Arthur still has…”

At that moment my telephone rang. An unknown number was on the screen.

“Mr. Cole,” the man said, “if you want your daughter to remain alive, come alone to the old railway station this evening.”

Nora’s hand was still around my neck.

And then I understood that Elena’s secret concerned not only the past…