Chapter 7 - My Mother’s Return
My mother looked older than she had in the basement footage.
A pale scar crossed the side of her face, and one hand trembled beneath her gloves.
I wanted to embrace her.
I wanted to strike her.
Instead, I drove through the snow.
“You watched Daniel throw me out,” I said.
“I arrived seconds after you pressed the remote.”
“You let me believe you were dead for four years.”
“If Daniel knew I was alive, he would have used you to reach me.”
“He used me anyway.”
Her eyes closed.
“I know.”
My mother explained that she discovered Daniel’s real identity shortly after our wedding. She began collecting evidence, but Vanessa found out and sabotaged her car.
My mother survived the crash. Henry helped move her into hiding while they investigated Daniel’s network.
“Why did you not tell me?”
“You loved him. Every message I sent could have led him to me.”
“You decided I was safer sleeping beside a predator.”
“I decided wrong.”
The admission hurt more than an excuse would have.
She pointed toward the remote.
“The mansion’s archive records sound, motion, and changes to the structure. Daniel punctured the gas line while searching for the server. Pressing the button preserved the final recording.”
“What is on it?”
“His confession about Rebecca.”
The old greenhouse stood beyond the mansion’s northern woods. Its glass roof had collapsed years earlier, leaving snow across the stone floor.
Daniel waited beneath a hanging work light.
Vanessa stood beside him wearing a black coat. Her false pregnancy belly was gone.
Rebecca sat in a chair with her hands bound.
She was painfully thin, but alive.
Daniel looked toward my car.
“You were told to come alone.”
“I stopped obeying you when you shoved me into the snow.”
My mother stepped from the passenger side.
Vanessa’s face twisted.
“You should have died in the river.”
My mother raised a small pistol.
“You first.”
Daniel held a gun against Rebecca’s head.
“Give me the remote.”
I lifted Eleanor’s bundled blanket.
“You come near me, and your daughter falls.”
Daniel’s eyes fixed on the blanket.
For the first time, he looked frightened.
He believed I had brought our baby into the trap.
I placed the bundle beside the greenhouse entrance and removed the remote.
Vanessa moved toward it.
My mother fired into the snow near her feet.
Daniel tightened his grip on Rebecca.
“Press the release command.”
“There is no release command.”
“Then what does the red button do?”
“It sends every recording to an external server.”
His face emptied.
I pressed the button again.
The greenhouse speakers activated.
Daniel’s recorded voice filled the ruined building.
Once Claire delivers, we declare her unstable. The child controls the trust, and I control the child.
Vanessa’s voice followed.
And Rebecca?
Daniel answered.
She has survived this long. She can survive in the basement until we need her again.
Police lights ignited beyond the trees.
Daniel turned toward Vanessa.
“You said you destroyed that recording.”
Vanessa raised her gun.
Not at me.
May you like
At Daniel.
Continue to the next part: Vanessa decides Daniel has become the final witness she must eliminate before the police reach the greenhouse.
