Chapter 7
I picked Lily up from school every day.
That was the first decision I made when Ortiz showed me the photographs.
The school changed its pickup instructions immediately. Only my mother and I could collect her. Officers checked the area before classes began, and I told Lily’s teacher enough to keep her safe.
I hated seeing fear in my daughter’s eyes when I explained the change.
“Grandpa Preston took those pictures?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. The police are finding out.”
She touched my hand.
“I don’t want him to take me.”
“He won’t.”
I meant to keep that promise.
Anna and June left the hospital two days later. Anna accepted my mother’s invitation to stay in the guest room for a while. It was a crowded house, but June wanted to be near Lily, and my mother wanted both children where she could see them.
I slept on the sofa.
The first night, I heard June cry out. Anna reached her before I did. I stood in the hallway while she soothed her.
The next morning, June asked if I had heard.
“I did,” I said.
“Did I wake you up?”
“Yes. It’s okay to wake me.”
She considered that while spreading jam on toast.
“Mommy says I can leave the bedroom door open.”
“You can.”
“And I can get water whenever I want.”
“Of course.”
She glanced toward the hall.
“Even at night?”
“Even at night.”
She ate half the toast. Then she asked for another piece and waited while I made it.
At work, investigators examined years of records. I gave them access to everything I could and stepped back from decisions involving Preston’s contracts. My lawyer helped me understand what the police needed.
Daniel stayed at the company. He found another false invoice in a folder Preston had overlooked.
This one included a signature Vanessa had used on behalf of an outside supplier.
When Ortiz told me, I felt sick.
I had spent days trying to understand how much Vanessa knew. Each new record made that question harder.
Vanessa’s lawyer asked if I would speak to her.
I agreed to a meeting with my own lawyer present. I needed to ask about Lily, and Ortiz had cleared the conversation.
Vanessa sat across from me in a plain room. She looked tired. For a moment, I remembered her reading Lily stories on the sofa.
Then I remembered June behind the wall.
“Is Lily all right?” she asked.
“She’s safe.”
Vanessa nodded. Tears gathered in her eyes.
“I want to see her.”
“That will have to be arranged through the lawyers and the court.”
“I know.”
I asked when she learned June was my daughter.
“When Anna sent the first letter,” she said.
“Why keep it from me?”
“I thought you would go back to her.”
“You could have told me the truth at any time.”
She looked down.
I asked about the payments. She admitted signing documents for her father. She said he told her they were routine and that she stopped asking when she understood they were not.
“Did you know he’d taken June before he brought her to the house?”
“Yes.”
I waited.
“I thought he’d let her go in a day,” she said. “Then Anna wouldn’t hand over the drive. Dad said moving June would make it worse. I believed him.”
“You saw her in that passage every day.”
“I know.”
“You heard her ask for her mother.”
Vanessa covered her face.
I had come hoping she might tell me something that would help find Preston. Instead, I saw how many chances she’d had to help June and hadn’t taken.
Before I left, Vanessa said, “Dad keeps an old cabin outside Briar Glen. He used it when he wanted no one to find him.”
I gave the address to Ortiz.
That evening, I returned to my mother’s house. Anna was helping Lily and June build a blanket fort in the living room. The girls had left an opening wide enough for an adult.
June waved me over.
“There’s room for you.”
I crawled in. Lily handed me a cushion and informed me that I was in charge of guarding the entrance.
Anna smiled for the first time since I’d seen her again.
After the girls went to bed, I told her about my meeting with Vanessa.
Anna listened without interrupting.
“I don’t know what I would have done if someone had told me June was afraid,” she said.
“I know.”
She looked at me carefully.
“I need you to understand something. June called you Daddy because she wanted to find you. She’s still getting to know you.”
“I understand.”
“And I don’t know yet what our lives will look like after this.”
“I’m not asking you to decide.”
She nodded.
“I want her to have you,” she said. “I want Lily to have her sister. We can start there.”
I felt some of the weight in my chest ease.
My phone buzzed before I could answer. Ortiz had sent a message: officers had reached the cabin. The door was open. Preston was gone.
A second message followed.
May you like
They had found a small overnight bag inside.
It belonged to Lily.
