Chapter 6 - Rebecca Came for Sophie
Rebecca disappeared before police reached her condo.
Her closets were half-empty.
Passport gone.
Laptop gone.
The eight hundred thousand dollars had been moved through three accounts before investigators froze what remained.
But Rebecca made one mistake.
She didn’t run immediately.
She came to my house first.
We discovered that the next morning.
I refused to leave Lily at the hospital alone, so Daniel stayed with both girls while I drove home with Detective Ruiz.
The moment I entered my foyer, I knew something was wrong.
A drawer beneath the staircase stood open.
Rebecca knew that drawer.
Everyone in the family did.
It was where I kept spare keys.
Ruiz touched my arm.
“Don’t touch anything.”
We moved upstairs.
My office door was unlocked.
Papers covered the floor.
Cabinet drawers had been pulled open.
The small fireproof safe behind my desk was damaged.
“She came here.”
Ruiz nodded.
“What would she want?”
I knew immediately.
“The original case files.”
Years earlier, before Thomas became my investigator, I had kept copies of everything.
Phone logs.
Photographs.
Notes.
Reports.
There had also been one item Rebecca might have feared more than anything.
My father’s old private ledger.
He kept handwritten notes on loans he made to family members.
Including Rebecca.
I checked the safe.
The ledger was gone.
So were several files from the year Lily disappeared.
Ruiz swore softly.
Then a voice came from the hallway.
“Mom?”
I nearly jumped.
Sophie stood there.
I stared at her.
“Sophie? What are you doing here?”
“Dad brought me.”
Daniel appeared behind her.
“Lily wanted to stay with Dr. Patel while they finished some tests. Sophie wanted clothes.”
I looked at Ruiz.
“We need to leave.”
Then Sophie frowned.
“What happened to your office?”
“Someone came in.”
Her face changed.
“Aunt Rebecca?”
Every muscle in my body tightened.
“Why did you say that?”
Sophie looked at Daniel.
Then back at me.
“She was here yesterday.”
The room went silent.
“What?”
“Before we found Lily.”
My heart began pounding.
“When?”
“In the morning.”
“You were with Mrs. Taylor.”
Our housekeeper had watched Sophie while I attended meetings.
Sophie nodded.
“Aunt Rebecca came by.”
Ruiz stepped closer.
“What did she do?”
“She asked where Mom kept Grandpa’s old notebooks.”
I felt sick.
“Did Mrs. Taylor tell her?”
“No.”
Sophie hesitated.
“But I did.”
Daniel put his hand on her shoulder.
“You didn’t know, Soph.”
She looked frightened.
“She said it was for a surprise.”
I crouched.
“You did nothing wrong.”
“But I showed her.”
“You trusted your aunt. That is not your fault.”
Sophie’s eyes filled.
Then she said something worse.
“She came back last night.”
I stood.
“What?”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“You didn’t tell me that.”
“She told me not to.”
Ruiz immediately asked, “Where did you see her?”
“Outside.”
“At this house?”
Sophie nodded.
“I woke up because I heard tapping.”
My skin turned cold.
“On your window?”
“Yes.”
Sophie’s bedroom was on the second floor.
But a low section of roof ran beneath it.
Rebecca and I had climbed onto that roof as teenagers.
She knew exactly how to reach Sophie’s window.
“What did she say?”
“She told me she needed to talk.”
“Did you open the window?”
“A little.”
My stomach twisted.
“Sophie.”
“I’m sorry.”
I hugged her.
“No. I’m not angry.”
Ruiz asked gently, “What did Rebecca want?”
“She asked if Mom found the girl.”
Lily.
“And what did you say?”
“I said yes.”
“What else?”
“She asked if the girl said anything about her.”
Daniel and I exchanged a look.
Sophie continued.
“I said I didn’t know.”
“Then what happened?”
“She told me to come with her.”
My blood froze.
“She what?”
“She said you were upset and weren’t thinking clearly. She said we should go somewhere safe until everything calmed down.”
Daniel swore.
“Did she try to take you?”
Sophie nodded slowly.
“She said, ‘Pack a bag. I’ll help you out the window.’”
I could barely breathe.
“What did you do?”
“I told her no.”
“Why?”
Sophie looked almost embarrassed.
“Because she was acting weird.”
Ruiz asked, “Did she threaten you?”
Sophie thought.
“Not exactly.”
“What exactly did she say?”
Sophie’s voice became quiet.
“She said, ‘You don’t want to make the same mistake Lily did.’”
Every person in that room stopped moving.
Daniel’s face went white.
Ruiz immediately pulled out her phone.
“That changes the risk level.”
I hugged Sophie so tightly she complained.
“Mom.”
“Sorry.”
But I didn’t let go.
Rebecca had already stolen one daughter.
Last night, she had tried to take the other.
Ruiz called for officers to secure the house.
Within an hour, both Sophie and Lily were moved to a protected location.
It was supposed to feel safe.
Instead, Lily panicked the moment she realized there were officers outside.
“I’m trapped again.”
“No,” I said.
She paced the hotel suite.
“There are people at the doors.”
“They’re keeping Rebecca out.”
“That’s what she used to say.”
I understood.
Locked doors had never meant safety to Lily.
So I asked Ruiz to position officers downstairs instead.
Then I gave Lily the room key.
“You control the door.”
She stared at me.
“You mean that?”
“Yes.”
She walked to the door.
Opened it.
Closed it.
Opened it again.
Nobody stopped her.
Her shoulders slowly relaxed.
That evening, Thomas arrived carrying a laptop.
“I found Connor Hale.”
“Where?”
“He used Rebecca’s credit card at a motel outside Rockford.”
Ruiz immediately contacted local police.
Thomas looked at me.
“There’s more.”
He opened a scan of a bank record.
“The eight hundred thousand wasn’t random.”
“What do you mean?”
“Rebecca had been stealing from your foundation for years.”
My stomach dropped.
“How much?”
“Possibly over four million.”
Daniel whispered, “Jesus.”
Thomas continued.
“Connor appears to have been blackmailing her.”
“For Lily?”
“For everything.”
Then Thomas showed me an old email recovered from an archived account.
Sender: Connor Hale.
Recipient: Rebecca Grant.
Date: three days after Lily disappeared.
The message contained only two sentences.
Denise says the kid keeps asking for her mother.
Fix this now or I walk.
I stared at it.
Proof.
Real proof.
Rebecca had known.
Rebecca had planned it.
Rebecca had hidden my child.
Lily stood behind me.
I hadn’t realized she was reading.
Her face turned pale.
“Denise tried to give me back.”
I closed the laptop.
“Lily—”
“She tried.”
I stood.
“She should have tried harder.”
Lily nodded.
Then she whispered, “There’s something else.”
“What?”
“When Rebecca came after Denise died, she brought a metal box.”
Thomas leaned forward.
“What kind of box?”
“Blue. With a broken handle.”
“What was inside?”
“I only saw it once.”
Lily looked directly at me.
“Pictures of me when I was two.”
My pulse accelerated.
“And a yellow dress.”
The room disappeared around me.
The dress Lily had been wearing the day she vanished.
Thomas stood immediately.
“Where is the box?”
Lily swallowed.
“In Rebecca’s house.”
Ruiz shook her head.
“We searched the condo.”
“Not that house.”
May you like
Everyone looked at Lily.
She whispered, “The house where she kept me.”
