Chapter 6 - The Empty Bedroom
Daniel's world collapsed in seconds.
He ran upstairs.
Lily's bed was empty.
Sam screamed from the hallway.
“Dad!”
Daniel turned.
Sam was holding Lily's stuffed rabbit.
“She was here.”
“What happened?”
“Vanessa came.”
“When?”
“Just before.”
Daniel grabbed the security phone.
Marcus answered.
“Lock down the property.”
“Already doing it.”
“The children?”
“Sam is with me.”
“Lily is gone.”
Silence.
Then Marcus said, “I'll find her.”
Daniel ran to the garage.
The security system showed one vehicle leaving the property.
Vanessa's.
The plate belonged to a car registered under a shell company.
Jonah tracked it.
“Westbound.”
Daniel's chest tightened.
“Where?”
“Industrial district.”
The old warehouse.
Daniel drove.
He didn't care about the warning to come alone.
He brought Marcus, Jonah and the police.
They surrounded the building.
The door was open.
Inside, nothing.
Then Daniel heard crying.
Lily.
He ran toward the sound.
A small storage room.
Door locked.
Daniel kicked it open.
Lily was inside.
Alone.
Terrified.
But unharmed.
Daniel grabbed her.
“My baby.”
She clung to him.
“Daddy.”
“I'm here.”
“I knew you'd come.”
The words nearly broke him.
“Where's Vanessa?”
Lily pointed toward the hallway.
“She said she'd be back.”
Jonah found a recorder on the floor.
A man's voice played.
“Your daughter wasn't the target.”
Daniel's blood ran cold.
“You were.”
The recording continued.
“We needed you to leave the company.”
Daniel looked at Marcus.
Greg.
It had been Greg.
He had used Vanessa as a distraction.
But where was she?
The police searched every room.
Nothing.
Then Daniel found a note.
You looked in the wrong place.
Again.
There was a second line.
Rachel knew the truth.
You know nothing.
That night, Daniel sat with Lily until she slept.
He couldn't stop thinking about the sentence.
Your daughter wasn't the target.
You were.
Someone had manipulated the abuse to destabilize him.
But Vanessa had still hurt Lily.
That could not be excused.
At 2 a.m., Marcus came in.
“We found Vanessa.”
“Where?”
“At the train station.”
Daniel stood.
“Take me there.”
Vanessa was sitting alone on a bench.
Her hair was disheveled.
Her expensive coat was torn.
She looked nothing like the woman who had once stood beside Daniel at charity galas.
“I didn't take Lily to hurt her,” she said.
Daniel stood ten feet away.
“You kidnapped her.”
“I was trying to protect her.”
“From who?”
“Greg.”
“Then why didn't you tell me?”
“Because he had Ethan.”
“He was already alive.”
“I didn't know you knew.”
Daniel stared.
“Who ordered the bath?”
Vanessa began to cry.
“Greg.”
The words landed like a hammer.
“He told me to frighten Lily enough that she'd become afraid of you.”
“Why?”
“So you'd stop looking into Rachel's accounts.”
Daniel's fists clenched.
“Did he order the injuries?”
“He told me to make it believable.”
“Did you know the water was dangerous?”
“Yes.”
Daniel's face changed.
“And you did it anyway.”
Vanessa lowered her head.
“Yes.”
There was no defense.
No excuse.
Just a confession.
Police arrested her.
But before they took her away, she called Daniel back.
“There is someone else.”
Daniel stopped.
“Who?”
“Rachel's nurse.”
“She helped Greg.”
Vanessa shook her head.
“No.”
She whispered a name.
“Claire Whitmore.”
May you like
Daniel went completely still.
His sister.
