CHAPTER 6: The Photograph
627 Words
CHAPTER SIX
The Photograph
Clara didn't sleep.
Not after the photograph.
She kept staring at it until her eyes hurt.
It was a picture of her standing outside her room.
Someone had taken it only minutes before.
Someone had been watching her.
She was about to call the number when there was a knock on her door.
Clara froze.
Three knocks.
Just like before.
She slowly approached the door.
"Who is it?"
"Clara?"
It was a woman's voice.
Clara recognized it.
"Ms. Bennett?"
"Yes. Open the door."
Ms. Bennett was one of the university's competition coordinators.
Clara hesitated before unlocking the door.
The woman stood outside with a serious expression.
"Come with me."
"Why?"
"I've been asked to take you to the administration building."
Clara's stomach tightened.
"Is there a problem?"
Ms. Bennett didn't answer.
That was enough.
Clara grabbed her jacket and followed her.
The walk to the administration building felt longer than usual.
Every person who passed her suddenly looked suspicious.
Every shadow made her turn.
She couldn't stop thinking about the photograph.
When they entered the building, Ms. Bennett led her into a small conference room.
There was already a man sitting at the table.
Clara had never seen him before.
"Sit down," he said.
Clara slowly took the chair opposite him.
"Am I in trouble?"
The man studied her.
"That depends."
"On what?"
He slid a brown envelope across the table.
Clara stared at it.
"What is that?"
"Something that was found during a review of the competition archives."
Her eyebrows pulled together.
"What does it have to do with me?"
"That's what we're trying to determine."
Clara hesitated before opening the envelope.
Inside was a photograph.
An old one.
Very old.
She picked it up.
At first, she didn't understand what she was looking at.
There were three people standing outside what looked like a hospital.
A young man.
A woman.
And a little girl.
Clara's eyes moved to the woman.
Her breath stopped.
She knew that face.
She had seen it thousands of times.
She had grown up looking at it.
Her hand began to tremble.
"No..."
The woman in the photograph was her nanny.
But she looked much younger.
And she wasn't alone.
Clara looked at the little girl standing beside her.
She stared.
Then she looked at the date printed beneath the photograph.
Twenty years ago.
Her heart began pounding.
"Where did you get this?"
The man leaned back.
"That's the interesting part."
Clara looked at him.
"It was attached to an old university file."
"What file?"
He didn't answer immediately.
Instead, he asked:
"Do you know who the man standing beside your nanny is?"
Clara looked at the photograph again.
She didn't.
But something about him felt strangely familiar.
"No."
The man slowly pushed another piece of paper toward her.
Clara looked down.
Her eyes widened.
It was a name.
A name she had heard before.
A name that appeared on several buildings around campus.
A name belonging to one of Stanford's most powerful families.
Clara looked up.
"What does my nanny have to do with them?"
The man didn't answer.
Because suddenly, his phone rang.
He glanced at the screen.
His expression changed.
He stood.
"I need to take this."
He walked out of the room.
Clara looked back at the photograph.
Her fingers tightened around its edges.
Then her phone vibrated.
She almost dropped it.
Unknown Number.
A message appeared.
«Now you know where to look.»
Clara's blood ran cold.
She looked toward the closed door.
Then back at the photograph.
Someone knew what she had just discovered.
Someone had known she would see this photograph.
And suddenly, Clara understood something terrifying.
The person behind the messages wasn't just watching her.
They were leading her somewhere.
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