Chapter 4
Ortiz listened to Daniel’s recording over the phone.
Then she asked him to send it directly to the police.
I stood in the hospital corridor while she spoke to her team. I caught only pieces: Vanessa’s car, traffic cameras, the route out of the yard.
When she ended the call, I asked, “Where is my wife?”
“At your house with two officers. She says she took Anna to a clinic.”
“Which clinic?”
“She hasn’t given us an address.”
I started toward the doors.
Ortiz blocked my path.
“Ryan, I need you here with the children. We’re looking for Anna.”
I hated that she was right.
Back in the room, June had fallen asleep. Lily held the edge of her blanket. My mother sat between them, one hand resting lightly on each girl’s foot.
I had never seen her look so angry.
She told me Anna had called her three days before June disappeared. Anna worked as an accountant for a firm reviewing contracts with my company. She had found payments she couldn’t explain. When she followed them, she saw Preston’s name.
“She wanted to show you,” my mother said. “She was afraid Vanessa would stop her.”
“She should have come to me years ago.”
“She did, Ryan.”
I looked at her.
My mother had saved two letters Anna mailed to my old apartment. Both had been returned unopened. The envelopes said I had moved.
“I hadn’t moved,” I said.
“I know. Anna showed them to me.”
My mother’s voice softened.
“She thought you sent them back. I thought you knew what was happening and had made a terrible choice. I should have asked you myself.”
I remembered the first year after Anna left. My mother and I barely spoke. She had looked at me with disappointment I couldn’t understand. Vanessa told me Mom missed Anna and needed time.
We had lost six years because none of us had compared what we were told.
“I’m sorry,” my mother said.
“So am I.”
We sat together until Ortiz returned.
She had news, but not the news I wanted.
Vanessa said Anna had gotten out of the car near a bus station. The cameras showed Vanessa entering the bus station parking area. They did not show Anna leaving on foot.
Ortiz’s team was collecting more footage.
They had also found June’s backpack in a locked room at the storage yard. Anna’s purse was there.
I asked if I could see it.
“Not yet,” Ortiz said. “But there was a photograph in it.”
She showed me an image on her phone.
Anna stood outside a school with June. The little girl wore a bright red coat and a wide smile. I stared at the picture until Ortiz lowered the screen.
“She had a whole life,” I said.
“She still does.”
I held on to that sentence.
By morning, Preston’s lawyer had called the police. He claimed Anna had agreed to let June stay with Vanessa during a personal crisis. There was no written agreement.
June’s account said otherwise. So did the hidden space where we found her.
Still, Preston remained missing.
Ortiz said officers were watching his home and known properties. I asked whether he could get to the girls.
“We have officers at this hospital,” she said. “We’ll make a safety plan before they leave.”
I went to June’s bedside.
Her eyes opened as I pulled up a chair.
“Are you going away?”
“No.”
“Mommy said grown-ups sometimes promise that and then disappear.”
I swallowed.
“I have to speak to people sometimes. When I leave this room, Grandma Ruth will be here. I’ll tell you where I’m going.”
She nodded, but her hand found mine.
Lily woke and climbed into my lap.
“Can June come home with us?”
I looked at the doorway, remembering the narrow space behind her closet.
“We’ll find somewhere else to stay.”
Lily thought about that.
“Somewhere with windows for June?”
“Yes,” I said. “Lots of windows.”
At noon, Daniel arrived at the hospital. He brought a sealed company laptop for the police and a small blue bag he had found in my office.
“Anna left this, too,” he said. “It was under the reception desk.”
Inside was a child’s drawing. A man and a little girl stood beside a crooked tree. Above them, in uneven letters, June had written, ME AND DAD SOMEDAY.
I could barely hold it.
A number was written on the back. It matched a payment reference in Daniel’s records, one he didn’t recognize.
He told Ortiz, who came to collect it.
As she examined the drawing, my phone rang.
Vanessa.
Ortiz glanced at the screen and asked me to answer on speaker.
I did.
Vanessa sounded as though she had been crying.
“Ryan, Dad lied to me. I can tell you where Anna is.”
“Tell me now.”
“First, promise Lily won’t hear what I did.”
I looked at my daughter, safe in my mother’s arms.
“You can tell the police.”
May you like
Vanessa went quiet.
Then she said, “If Preston reaches Anna before they do, she won’t be able to tell you anything.”
