Chapter 3 - The Missing Hours
Mark’s face went white when he realized what Lily had said.
He stood in the doorway holding the memory card between two fingers while Vanessa watched him from a chair across the hall. Her hands were restrained in front of her, but there was something almost satisfied in her expression.
She knew she had managed to wound me.
Maybe she believed that was enough to save herself.
“Rachel,” Mark said, “I can explain.”
I stood so quickly that my chair scraped against the floor.
“Not in front of Lily.”
Claire asked Dr. Reeves to remain with her while the officer led Mark and me into a small consultation room at the end of the hall.
The door closed.
I turned on him.
“Who is the woman from your office?”
Mark lowered the evidence bag onto the table.
“Her name is Julia Sanders. She is an attorney our company hired during the merger.”
“And why did Lily believe you were hiding meetings with her?”
“Because I was.”
The room seemed to shrink.
Mark raised both hands.
“I was not having an affair.”
“Then why did you tell our eight-year-old daughter to keep your meetings secret?”
“I wasn’t meeting Julia socially. I was helping her investigate your sister.”
I stared at him.
“That makes no sense.”
“Three months ago, accounting discovered money missing from one of the nonprofit education funds my company administers. Vanessa’s school received grants from that fund. Her name appeared on several reimbursement forms.”
I thought of Lily’s statement.
Aunt Vanessa takes money from Grandma’s bedroom.
“How much money?” I asked.
“Nearly eighty thousand dollars.”
My knees weakened.
Mark pulled out the chair for me, but I remained standing.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because the evidence was incomplete. Julia warned me that if Vanessa learned we were investigating, she might destroy records. Your mother had also signed two documents connected to the account.”
“My mother?”
“She claimed she didn’t understand what she was signing.”
I almost laughed.
That was exactly what Mom always did. She ignored danger until it could no longer be hidden, then claimed she had been confused.
Mark continued.
“I sometimes took Lily to Vanessa’s apartment because Julia’s office is in the same building. Vanessa offered to watch her for an hour. I thought it would appear normal and keep Vanessa from suspecting anything.”
“You used our daughter as part of an investigation?”
“No. I thought she was safe.”
“You thought she was safe with a woman you suspected of stealing eighty thousand dollars?”
His eyes dropped.
“I made a terrible decision.”
“A terrible decision?”
My voice cracked.
“Our daughter has a fractured wrist, injuries along her jaw, and a broken cheekbone.”
“I didn’t know.”
“You didn’t want to know.”
He looked up sharply.
“That isn’t fair.”
“Lily told you she didn’t like being at my mother’s house. Instead of asking her why, you hid a camera and then ignored the footage.”
“I didn’t ignore it. Your mother found it.”
“And that should have made you more suspicious.”
He pressed both palms against the table.
“You’re right.”
The immediate surrender took some of the force from my anger, but none of the pain.
He was right about one thing.
He had made a terrible decision.
So had I.
We had both treated Lily’s discomfort like a mystery to solve later instead of a warning to act on immediately.
An officer entered and collected the memory card.
“We will send this for expedited review,” he said.
“How long will that take?” I asked.
“If the files are intact, we may have something today.”
Mark sat beside the wall, his elbows resting on his knees.
“Can I see Lily?”
“Not yet,” I said.
He looked devastated.
I wanted to comfort him.
I also wanted to hit him.
Before either feeling won, Claire returned.
“Vanessa has requested an attorney,” she said. “She is no longer answering questions. Diane is still insisting she knew nothing about the previous injuries.”
“She knew enough to stop me from taking Lily to urgent care,” I said.
Claire nodded.
“That matters.”
“Will Vanessa be arrested?”
“The officers are consulting with the prosecutor. The birthday video establishes the immediate injury, but the older fractures require further investigation.”
Mark stood.
“What happens to Lily now?”
“She will be admitted overnight for observation because of the vomiting and fever. A forensic interviewer will speak with her when she is medically stable.”
“Can we take her home tomorrow?”
“That depends on whether the home is considered safe.”
I almost objected, then understood what she meant.
They did not know whether Mark or I had failed to protect her intentionally.
They did not know whether Vanessa was the only person who had hurt her.
Claire looked at both of us.
“Lily mentioned a basement room.”
I frowned.
“My mother doesn’t have a basement.”
“Vanessa does,” Mark said quietly.
I turned toward him.
“She has a finished lower level beneath her apartment building. Storage rooms, maintenance space, an old laundry area.”
Claire continued.
“Lily said Aunt Vanessa made her sit in a dark room when she told secrets.”
I gripped the back of a chair.
“How long?”
“She could not estimate. She said Vanessa took her phone and told her you were too busy to come.”
My lungs stopped working.
I remembered afternoons when Lily had returned quiet and exhausted. Mom would say she had played too hard. Vanessa would complain that Lily was becoming spoiled and dramatic.
They had created a story around every warning.
And I had accepted it.
“I want to see her,” I said.
Claire nodded.
When I returned to the examination room, Lily was lying beneath a thin blanket. The swelling on her cheek had darkened. Her eyes looked enormous in her pale face.
I sat beside her.
“I’m sorry.”
She frowned.
“For what?”
“For not knowing.”
Lily reached for my hand.
“Aunt Vanessa said you knew.”
My heart cracked.
“She said you sent me there because I was difficult.”
“No.” I leaned close, fighting tears. “That was a lie. You are not difficult. You never deserved any of this.”
“She said Grandma believed her.”
I could not defend my mother.
Not anymore.
“Grandma was wrong.”
Lily stared at the blanket.
“Is Daddy mad?”
“He’s mad at himself.”
“Is he going away?”
The fear in her voice made me realize she had heard more than we thought.
“No. Daddy made a mistake, but he didn’t hurt you.”
She seemed uncertain.
“Did the lady from his office hurt our family?”
“No.”
“Then why did he say I couldn’t tell?”
“Because adults sometimes keep secrets they believe are helpful. But he should never have asked you to keep one from me.”
Lily considered that.
Then she whispered, “Aunt Vanessa has lots of secrets.”
“What kind?”
“She keeps papers behind the washing machine.”
My pulse quickened.
“What papers?”
“I don’t know. She got mad when I saw them.”
“Is that why she hurt your wrist?”
Lily nodded once.
Before I could ask anything else, Dr. Reeves returned.
“We need to move Lily upstairs.”
As hospital staff prepared the bed, an officer approached me in the hallway.
“We received authorization to search Vanessa’s apartment.”
“She mentioned papers behind the washing machine.”
The officer wrote it down immediately.
Then his radio crackled.
A voice reported that officers had arrived at Vanessa’s building.
They found the apartment door open.
The rooms had been searched.
Drawers were dumped onto the floor. A computer was missing. The basement storage room had been emptied.
Someone had reached the evidence before the police.
Vanessa was still inside the hospital.
My mother was still inside the hospital.
Mark had been with me.
“Who else knew about the investigation?” I asked.
Mark looked toward the hall.
“Only Julia.”
A terrible thought formed.
“Where is she now?”
He pulled out his phone and called.
It rang until voicemail.
He tried again.
No answer.
Then my phone vibrated.
A message had arrived from an unknown number.
It contained a photograph of Lily sitting alone in a dark basement room.
Her face was turned toward the camera, and a bruise covered one side of her jaw.
May you like
Beneath the photograph were eight words:
Stop asking questions, or the next child disappears.
