Chapter 10 - MARIA IS GONE
The retirement center went into lockdown.
Maria had vanished twenty minutes earlier.
Security footage showed a woman in a nurse's coat escorting her through a side door.
Vanessa.
Michael stared at the screen.
"She took an eighty-one-year-old woman?"
Brooks zoomed in.
Vanessa kept looking behind her.
Like someone was forcing her.
A black SUV waited outside.
Registered to Vane Strategic Holdings.
Charles.
Police issued an abduction alert.
Then Vanessa called me.
Not Michael.
Me.
"Rachel?"
Her voice shook.
"Where is Maria?"
"I didn't want this."
"Where?"
"Charles says if I tell you, he'll give police the videos."
"What videos?"
She started crying.
"Of me hitting Emma."
"Police already have them."
Silence.
"What?"
"Your mother lied to you."
Vanessa's breathing changed.
"She said she'd protect me."
"She used you."
Behind her, a man shouted.
Vanessa whispered quickly.
"Old cannery. River Road."
The line cut.
Police moved.
I stayed with Emma at headquarters.
Michael went with Brooks.
The cannery was half abandoned.
They found Maria tied to a chair in an office.
Alive.
Charles was gone.
Vanessa sat on the floor beside her, crying.
She surrendered.
At the station, Vanessa asked for me.
I almost refused.
Then I went in.
Her face looked younger without makeup.
"I didn't mean to hit Emma that hard."
I said nothing.
"Mom told me to scare you."
"You threw a cast-iron skillet at a baby."
"I know."
"No, you don't."
She cried.
"She said if Emma got hurt, they'd blame you for leaving her unattended."
I felt sick.
"So why were you screaming at Emma?"
"Mom said the kitchen camera needed audio that made it look like I walked in after the accident."
Margaret had scripted even the shouting.
Vanessa whispered, "There's more."
"What?"
"Mom didn't plan to stop at custody."
My body went cold.
"What was the end?"
May you like
Vanessa looked toward the mirror.
"She wanted Michael declared incompetent too."
