Chapter 8
The doctor confirmed I was in labor.
It was five weeks too early.
Nurses moved around me, preparing medication and calling the neonatal team.
I kept asking for Ryan.
“He’s on his way,” Susan promised.
“He needs to find Lily.”
“He can do both.”
“No, he can’t.”
Another contraction tore through me.
I gripped the bed rail and cried out.
Susan held my hand.
I wanted my husband.
I wanted my daughter.
I wanted the woman who started all of this locked behind a wall so high she could never see my family again.
Detective Torres called.
Officers had reached the lake house.
It was empty.
They found Claire’s blood on the floor, Lily’s broken bracelet near a closet, and fresh tire tracks behind the property.
Evelyn had moved them again.
But Lily’s call gave police one important clue.
A train horn could be heard in the background.
Only two roads near the lake house ran alongside active railroad tracks.
Officers blocked both.
Ryan was driving back to the hospital when he saw a dark SUV speed past him toward the highway.
Claire’s car had been abandoned at the lake house.
The SUV matched a vehicle registered to Evelyn.
Ryan called the detective and followed from a distance.
“Don’t approach them,” Torres warned.
“My daughter is in that car.”
“Units are less than ten minutes away.”
“Ten minutes is too long.”
Evelyn turned onto a narrow service road beside the tracks.
Ryan followed.
The SUV stopped near an old crossing.
Evelyn stepped out and walked toward him.
She looked so much like Margaret that Ryan felt as if he were watching a younger version of his mother.
“Get out of the car,” she shouted.
Ryan remained behind the wheel.
“Where is Lily?”
“Give me the phone with the amendment.”
“I don’t have it.”
“Then your daughter stays with me.”
“You aren’t leaving this road.”
Evelyn smiled.
“You think I didn’t see you following me?”
Claire suddenly appeared in the SUV’s rear window.
Blood covered one side of her face, but she was awake.
She pointed behind Evelyn.
Lily opened the back door and ran.
Evelyn turned.
Ryan threw his car door open.
“Lily!”
She sprinted toward him.
Evelyn grabbed the back of her shirt.
Lily screamed.
Ryan reached them and shoved Evelyn’s hand away.
He lifted Lily into his arms.
Evelyn pulled a knife from her coat.
Claire struck her from behind with the SUV’s emergency flashlight.
The knife fell.
Evelyn spun and knocked Claire to the ground.
Ryan put Lily inside his car and locked the doors.
Then he stood between Evelyn and Claire.
Police sirens approached.
Evelyn froze.
“It’s over,” Ryan said.
She looked toward the tracks, then toward the woods.
Claire rose unsteadily.
“Don’t run, Evelyn. You’ll only make it worse.”
Evelyn laughed.
“You think Margaret will let me take the blame alone?”
Police vehicles blocked both ends of the road.
Evelyn raised her hands.
Detective Torres forced her to the ground and handcuffed her.
Ryan opened his car.
Lily launched herself into his arms.
“Daddy!”
He held her so tightly she could barely speak.
“I’ve got you. I’ve got you.”
“Mommy needs us.”
Ryan looked at her.
“How do you know?”
“The other lady said Mommy’s baby was coming.”
Ryan called me.
Susan answered.
“Ryan, she’s in labor.”
“I have Lily.”
Susan covered her mouth.
I heard her repeat the words to me.
The relief that moved through my body was almost as powerful as the contractions.
“Let me hear her,” I begged.
Lily came onto the phone.
“Mommy?”
“My sweet girl.”
“I’m sorry I went with the fake policeman.”
“No. This is not your fault.”
“Are you having the baby?”
“Maybe.”
“Tell her to wait for me.”
I laughed and cried at the same time.
“I’ll try.”
Ryan brought Lily to the hospital after doctors examined her.
Claire was treated for a concussion and several cuts.
She insisted on coming too.
When Lily entered my room, I pulled her against me.
She touched my stomach.
“Is the baby scared?”
“No,” I said. “She’s brave like her sister.”
Ryan stood on the other side of the bed.
His face was bruised and his hand was bandaged.
But we were together.
For the first time since Margaret had entered our house, I felt like I could breathe.
The doctor checked my progress.
“Labor has slowed,” she said. “We may be able to delay delivery.”
“How long?”
“Every day helps.”
She admitted me for the remainder of the pregnancy.
Lily refused to leave until Ryan promised he would stay with me.
My mother took her home under police protection.
Claire sat beside Susan in the waiting room.
Their reunion was quiet at first.
Then Susan took her daughter’s face in both hands and began sobbing.
“I thought I lost you.”
Claire held her.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For not telling you everything.”
Claire admitted she had contacted Jack and demanded money.
The recording was real.
But the demand was part of a trap.
She wanted Jack to move stolen funds into an account federal investigators could trace.
She had already been working with them.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Susan asked.
“Because you would have tried to protect me.”
“I am your mother.”
“That’s why.”
Claire handed Detective Torres a small flash drive she had hidden inside her shoe.
It contained financial records, messages between Jack and Ben, and recordings of Margaret discussing Robert’s amendment.
One recording had been made the night before the attack.
Margaret’s voice was unmistakable.
“Emily is having another girl. Ryan will never control the trust through a son.”
Jack replied, “The amendment already gives it to him.”
“Not if the amendment disappears.”
“And what do you plan to do about Emily?”
A long silence followed.
Then Margaret said, “I’ll remind her that women who disappoint this family don’t stay comfortable for long.”
Ryan listened without moving.
Detective Torres stopped the recording.
“That gives us conspiracy.”
“Play the rest,” Ryan said.
The next part was worse.
Jack warned Margaret not to repeat what she did to Susan.
Margaret laughed.
“Susan survived.”
“And Robert didn’t.”
“You told Ben to frighten Robert.”
“You told him which car Ryan would be in.”
The recording ended.
Both of them had known.
Both had helped create the situation that killed Robert.
Neither cared which person was supposed to be inside the car.
Ryan walked into the hallway.
I found him sitting on the floor beside a vending machine.
He had covered his face with both hands.
I lowered myself carefully into a chair.
He looked up.
“I spent my whole life feeling guilty.”
“For what?”
“Dad turned around because I forgot my science project. If he hadn’t taken me home, he would have reached the office before the brakes failed.”
“You were twelve.”
“I thought my mistake killed him.”
“Margaret and Jack killed him.”
His eyes filled.
“I should have known.”
“No child should have to suspect his own mother.”
He leaned against my knees.
I ran my fingers through his hair.
Then he said something I wasn’t expecting.
“I lied to you too.”
My hand stopped.
“About what?”
“Before I went to Chicago, Margaret told me about the trust.”
My chest tightened.
“How much did she tell you?”
“She said our baby’s sex could affect an inheritance. She asked me to convince you to get another ultrasound.”
“You told me that appointment was your idea.”
“I thought if we proved the baby was a girl again, she would finally stop.”
“You hid this from me.”
“I was ashamed.”
“No. You were protecting her.”
“I was trying to protect you from her obsession.”
“You let her into our house.”
“I didn’t know she would—”
“You knew she saw our child as money.”
He lowered his head.
“I made the wrong choice.”
The truth hurt because he was right.
He had chosen silence.
And silence had given Margaret room to plan.
A nurse approached us.
“Mrs. Hale, you need to return to bed.”
Ryan stood and offered his hand.
I didn’t take it.
“I need space.”
His face fell.
“Emily.”
“I love you. But I don’t know if I trust you right now.”
I walked back to my room alone.
That evening, Margaret was brought before a judge.
Her attorney argued she was an elderly woman with no criminal record.
The prosecutor played part of Claire’s recording.
Margaret was denied bail.
As deputies led her away, a reporter shouted a question about her unborn granddaughter.
Margaret turned toward the cameras.
May you like
Then she smiled.
“Emily’s baby won’t survive long enough to inherit anything.”
