Chapter 5
I kept Vanessa on the phone while Ortiz signaled another officer.
“Where did you leave Anna?” I asked.
Vanessa gave an address.
It was a small motel outside town.
Ortiz wrote it down and sent officers there immediately. Vanessa said Anna had been alive when she left her in one of the rooms.
“Why take her there?” I asked.
“Dad wanted her away from the yard. The police were coming.”
“You knew the police were coming because you’d seen me find June.”
“Yes.”
Her voice broke.
I had once known every change in that voice. I had known when she was nervous at a party or upset after a call with her father.
I hadn’t known what fear sounded like when she was afraid of being caught.
Vanessa told me Preston had said Anna was stealing from the company. He had convinced her that June would be safe at our house until Anna returned what she’d taken.
“You locked her inside a wall,” I said.
“I brought her food.”
“Lily brought her bread because she was hungry.”
Vanessa began to cry again.
I asked the question that had waited for six years.
“What happened to Anna’s letters?”
She didn’t answer.
“Vanessa.”
“I took them.”
June was across the room, asleep beneath a clean blanket. I could see the curve of her cheek. She had spent her whole life believing I knew about her.
“How many?”
“Two that came to the apartment. Then one after we married.”
I closed my eyes.
“Did she tell you she was pregnant?”
“Yes.”
The word was almost too small to hold what she had done.
Vanessa said she had been afraid of losing me. At first she meant to tell me. By the time June was born, she thought I would never forgive her.
“You were right,” I said.
“I love you.”
I looked at Lily.
“You let our daughter keep a frightened child secret from me.”
Vanessa drew in a shaky breath. Before she could answer, Ortiz took the phone. She asked Vanessa to remain where she was and ended the call after confirming the motel room number.
The next hour felt endless.
My mother stayed with the girls. I walked the corridor until Ortiz returned.
Officers had found Anna in the room.
She was alive.
I gripped the wall.
“She’s being taken to a hospital,” Ortiz said. “She’s exhausted and dehydrated. A doctor will assess her injuries.”
“Can June see her?”
“When Anna is ready. We’re arranging it.”
For a few seconds, relief was all I felt.
Then Ortiz added that Preston had reached the motel first. A witness saw him leave minutes before officers arrived.
Anna was conscious. She had told them Preston wanted a small drive containing records of the payments. She’d hidden a copy somewhere he hadn’t found.
June’s drawing came back to me. The number on its back.
I told Ortiz.
She had already sent it to the financial investigators.
By evening, Anna was well enough to call June. I stayed beside my daughter while a nurse held the hospital tablet. Anna appeared on the screen, pale and tired, with tears in her eyes.
“Mommy!”
June moved so quickly the nurse nearly dropped it.
“I’m here, sweetheart,” Anna said. “I’m so sorry.”
“I was brave like you said.”
“You were.”
June looked at me.
“Daddy found the wall.”
Anna’s eyes met mine.
For six years, I had imagined what I might say if I saw her again. None of it mattered now.
“She’s safe,” I said.
“I know.” Anna wiped her face. “Ruth told me.”
June wanted to show Anna her blanket, her food, and the drawing Daniel had brought. We let her talk until she grew sleepy.
Before the call ended, Anna asked to speak to me alone.
My mother took the girls to the playroom down the hall.
“I believed you didn’t want us,” Anna said.
“I know. I believed you wanted me gone.”
She nodded. Neither of us tried to make those years disappear.
“I tried to reach you when I found the payments,” she said. “I thought if you saw the records, you’d help. Then June vanished.”
“I will help now.”
“Preston knows where I kept the original drive. He thinks the copy is all I have.”
“Tell Ortiz.”
“I did.” She paused. “I also told her there may be another person involved. Someone at your company approved transfers Preston couldn’t authorize alone.”
I thought of every signature I had given him. My stomach tightened.
“Mine?”
“I don’t know yet,” she said. “Some approvals look like yours.”
The call ended when her doctor came in.
That night, Ortiz told me the police had arrested Vanessa. They had enough evidence to hold her while they investigated June’s confinement and Anna’s abduction.
Preston was still gone.
I sat between the girls’ beds, listening to them breathe.
Then Daniel called.
He had found one of the approvals Anna mentioned. It carried my name, but the date was a day I had been in the hospital with Lily.
He sent it to Ortiz.
May you like
A second later, I heard him turn away from the phone.
Someone had entered my office.
