Chapter 14 - The Woman Who Sent the Letter
I had spent years believing Wallace was the only person who knew my address. Now I learned the woman about to marry Nathan had watched my daughter grow up from a distance.
Vega traced the consulting invoices to an account controlled by Pierce's office. One payment was made the same week Lily started preschool. Another matched the day she had surgery to repair a broken wrist after a playground fall.
"They followed us to a hospital?" I asked.
Vega didn't soften her answer. "It appears so."
An estate records clerk named Ada Finch asked to speak to us. She was forty-something, with worried eyes and a purse she held in both hands.
"I sent the anonymous letter that brought you to the house," she told me. "I didn't think you'd believe a stranger. I thought if you saw the records yourself, you could decide what to do."
"You put us in danger," I said.
"I know." She looked ashamed. "I had copies, but not enough to prove who had authorized the false documents. I was afraid Pierce would destroy the originals."
"You should have gone to the police."
"I tried. Last year. Without originals, I was told it looked like a family dispute. After Wallace died, Pierce had me fired."
Vega asked to see everything Ada had saved. She produced a backup of the estate's document-access logs. Victoria had opened my medical file, my letters, and the grandchild trust provision repeatedly. Two days before my hiring, she had downloaded a template labeled EMERGENCY FAMILY RELOCATION.
Ada slid one more page across the table.
"Meridian booked a driver for Wednesday," she said. "Not for the airport. For the back service entrance to Nathan's estate."
"Why there?" I asked.
"Because someone planned to bring Lily back to the house without you."
May you like
Vega's phone rang. She listened, her face hardening.
"We just found the driver's pickup instructions," she said. "They don't list your daughter as a passenger. They list her as property to be transferred."
