Chapter 4
Detective Torres moved Daniel and Sophie out of the house that night.
They were taken to a protected apartment owned by the city.
Only three officers knew the address.
Daniel checked every lock twice.
Sophie sat on the bed with Bunny pressed beneath her chin.
“Is Aunt Vanessa coming back?”
“I won’t let her near you.”
“You said Mommy would be okay too.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Sophie had not said it cruelly.
That made it worse.
He sat beside her.
“You’re right. I said that because I believed it. But I didn’t know the truth.”
“Do you know it now?”
“Not all of it.”
She stared at Bunny.
“Mommy called someone before she fell.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know. She said, ‘Victor knows about the baby.’”
Daniel’s breath caught.
“What baby?”
Sophie shrugged.
Torres entered carrying two cups of hot chocolate and a file.
“We found V-Line Consulting,” she said. “It was registered by Vanessa four years ago. The address belongs to a closed medical clinic.”
Daniel took the file.
“Why would Rachel mention a baby?”
Torres hesitated.
“There’s something else on the flash drive.”
She opened her laptop.
A scanned hospital form appeared.
It listed Vanessa as the patient.
The date was eight years earlier.
The form concerned the birth of a baby girl.
Daniel read the father’s name.
Victor Hale.
He looked toward Sophie.
She was seven.
For one terrible second, an impossible thought entered his mind.
Torres saw it on his face.
“No,” she said quietly. “The dates do not match. Sophie is Rachel’s biological daughter. Her records are clear.”
“Then where is Vanessa’s child?”
“We don’t know.”
Torres explained that the clinic had closed after an investigation into illegal adoptions. Several babies had disappeared into private arrangements.
Vanessa’s daughter was listed as stillborn.
But no death certificate existed.
Daniel remembered Vanessa’s hatred whenever Rachel talked about motherhood.
He had mistaken it for grief over relationships that failed.
Now it looked like something darker.
Sophie suddenly slid off the bed.
“Mommy had another video.”
Torres turned.
“Where?”
“She sent it to me.”
Daniel stared at her.
“You didn’t have a phone.”
“Mommy let me use her tablet.”
The tablet had disappeared the night Rachel died.
Vanessa claimed Sophie had broken it weeks earlier.
“Did you see the video?” Torres asked.
Sophie nodded.
“Mommy was crying. She said Aunt Vanessa thought I was someone else.”
Daniel felt cold.
“Someone else who?”
Before Sophie could answer, the apartment lights went out.
Torres drew her weapon.
“Get down.”
Daniel pulled Sophie to the floor.
Footsteps sounded in the hallway outside.
Slow.
Deliberate.
Someone tested the doorknob.
Torres moved beside the door.
Daniel covered Sophie with his body.
The handle stopped moving.
A phone began ringing outside.
Not Daniel’s.
Not Torres’s.
The ringtone was a lullaby Rachel used to sing.
Sophie lifted her head.
“That’s Mommy’s song.”
A man’s voice came through the door.
“Daniel, I don’t want to hurt the child.”
Torres signaled for silence.
“I only want what Rachel stole from me,” the man continued.
Daniel looked at the flash drive on the table.
Victor Hale had found them.
At a location only three officers knew.
That meant someone inside the police department had told him.
A gunshot shattered the lock.
Torres fired back.
Sophie screamed.
Daniel carried her into the bathroom as another bullet tore through the wall.
Then the fire alarm began ringing.
Smoke poured beneath the apartment door.
May you like
Victor was not only trying to get inside.
He was burning the building around them.
