Chapter 15 - THE HOUSE
Police surrounded my block before I arrived.
Owen had entered through a service panel Caleb installed years earlier.
He knew the alarm codes.
He knew the camera blind spots.
He knew my house better than I did.
Ramirez refused to let me enter until the tactical team cleared the first floor.
Then Owen spoke through the home's intercom.
"I only want Daniel."
Ramirez shook her head.
"No."
I looked at the monitor.
"He wants to talk."
"He wants control."
"I know."
That mattered.
Eventually Ramirez allowed me into the front entry with officers close behind.
Owen stood upstairs behind the nursery gate.
"Stay where you are," Ramirez called.
"Do you know why Emma was selected?"
"Money."
"That's what Vanessa thinks."
"What, then?"
"Claire."
My chest tightened.
"Your wife noticed us."
"You were watching her."
"She was unusually observant."
"She was a mother."
Owen smiled.
"Exactly."
He said Claire had begun collecting evidence on Hearth before her accident.
She copied emails.
Recorded calls.
Tracked one technician.
"Where is the evidence?" I asked.
"She hid it."
"How do you know?"
"Because we never found it."
Then he looked toward Emma's room.
"Your daughter did."
My heart stopped.
Owen explained that weeks before Claire died, she had placed something inside Bunny.
A storage card.
Hearth had spent eighteen months trying to recover it without alarming me.
Vanessa repeatedly took the rabbit because Owen believed the card was still inside.
I thought of Emma clutching Bunny at dinner.
"You're lying."
"Ask her why she never lets anyone open the seam."
I remembered.
Claire had repaired the rabbit herself.
One ear had a tiny hand-stitched line.
Owen stepped backward.
"The evidence your wife collected could put everyone away."
"Then why not take Bunny?"
"Emma screams when anyone touches it. You notice screams."
The sentence made me sick.
He had built his entire plan around what adults failed to notice.
Ramirez raised her voice.
"Owen Cross, step away from the gate."
Owen looked at me one last time.
May you like
"Claire trusted a four-year-old more than she trusted you."
Then he ran toward the back stairs.
