Chapter 3
I dropped to my knees beside the vent.
“Maya?”
“Please hurry.”
Her voice was weak.
“Vanessa comes back when she thinks the children are asleep.”
I searched the wall.
There was no visible door.
Vanessa appeared at the bottom of the stairs.
“She broke into our house.”
“You told me Maya stole jewelry and ran away.”
“She did.”
“She is behind this wall.”
“She came back and threatened me.”
“So you imprisoned her?”
Vanessa lifted both hands.
“I was protecting the children.”
I laughed once because the alternative was screaming.
“You locked a woman behind a wall.”
Maya struck the metal again.
“There is a switch beneath the camera.”
I tore the camera from its mount.
Behind it was a narrow black button.
The wall clicked.
A hidden panel opened several inches.
The smell that escaped was unbearable.
I pulled the panel wider.
Maya lay inside a narrow concrete space.
Her wrists were tied with electrical cable.
One ankle was fastened to a pipe.
A bottle of water and several empty food wrappers sat beside her.
She had lost weight.
A purple bruise covered one side of her face.
I rushed toward her.
Vanessa grabbed the back of my shirt.
“Do not untie her.”
I turned.
“Stay away from me.”
“She knows things that could destroy this family.”
“You already destroyed it.”
I freed Maya’s wrists.
She gasped when I touched the rope around her ankle.
“Vanessa has the key.”
I searched Vanessa’s cardigan.
She fought me, clawing at my neck.
Another small key was pinned inside the lining.
I unlocked Maya.
She could not stand without support.
As I helped her toward the stairs, Vanessa picked up the broken camera and struck the back of my shoulder.
I stumbled.
Maya fell.
Vanessa reached for the fireplace poker.
Noah appeared at the top of the staircase.
He held my phone.
“The police are outside.”
Vanessa froze.
Noah was lying.
I could see it in his face.
The sirens had not arrived yet.
But Vanessa believed him.
She dropped the poker and ran toward the kitchen.
I followed.
She reached the back door.
Mrs. Lopez stood outside with Anna.
When she saw Vanessa, she blocked the path.
“You are not going anywhere.”
Vanessa turned toward the front entrance.
Real police sirens sounded in the distance.
Her shoulders fell.
Then she began crying.
Not frightened crying.
Controlled crying.
The kind that appeared when someone needed witnesses.
By the time officers entered, Vanessa was sitting on the living room floor holding her cheek.
“My husband attacked me,” she said.
“He has been drinking.”
I stared at her.
She had used the exact sentence written on Anna’s punishment list.
A female detective named Carla Ruiz entered behind two officers.
She saw Noah’s face.
Anna’s hair.
The open basement door.
Then Maya appeared at the top of the stairs.
Ruiz reached for her radio.
“We need paramedics and child protective services.”
Vanessa’s crying stopped.
Her attorney arrived twenty minutes later.
His name was Grant Mercer.
He carried a folder that had been prepared before I came home.
Inside was an emergency custody petition.
It accused me of alcoholism, violent behavior and neglect.
It claimed Noah had begun abusing Anna because I failed to supervise them.
Attached were recordings from the basement camera.
In one, Anna cried while saying, “Daddy gets angry.”
The video ended before Vanessa’s voice could be heard coaching her.
Grant placed another document on the table.
If the court granted emergency custody to Vanessa, she would become temporary guardian of both children.
She would also control the trust Rachel left them.
The trust was worth thirty-two million dollars.
It transferred fully into protected accounts when Anna turned five.
Her birthday was six weeks away.
May you like
Vanessa had not only been hurting my children.
She had been teaching them the words that would help her steal their future.
