Chapter 12 - THE ROAD TO GREENFIELD
“Cancel the visit.”
Adrian was already grabbing his keys.
Daniel followed him.
“Adrian, police are contacting them.”
“I’m contacting them too.”
Emily’s mother, Margaret, answered on the second ring.
“Adrian?”
“Do not leave the house.”
Silence.
“What happened?”
“Vanessa may be coming toward Greenfield.”
Margaret gasped.
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“Is Sophie with you?”
“Yes.”
“Keep her there.”
“I will.”
Then Margaret said something strange.
“Adrian… Vanessa called me yesterday.”
His hand tightened around the phone.
“What?”
“She said she wanted to apologize.”
“For what?”
“She wouldn’t say.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I told her never to contact us again.”
Adrian’s jaw clenched.
“What else did she say?”
Margaret hesitated.
“She asked if we still had Emily’s old journals.”
Adrian stopped moving.
“What journals?”
“You didn’t know?”
“No.”
Margaret’s voice softened.
“Emily wrote constantly during the last year of her life.”
Adrian’s heart pounded.
“Where are they?”
“In a box in our attic.”
“Lock the doors. Police are coming.”
He hung up.
Sophie stood at the staircase.
“Is Grandma okay?”
“Yes.”
It was a lie.
Or at least he hoped it wasn’t one yet.
Adrian arranged for Sophie to stay with Rosa and two security officers.
Then he drove to Greenfield with Marcus.
Rain started halfway there.
Hard.
The windshield wipers could barely keep up.
Thirty minutes from town, Margaret called.
Her voice was shaking.
“She’s here.”
Adrian’s heart stopped.
“Vanessa?”
“Yes.”
“Do not open the door.”
“I didn’t.”
“Where’s Robert?”
“Upstairs.”
“Police are two minutes away.”
A crash sounded through the phone.
Margaret screamed.
The line went dead.
“Margaret!”
Nothing.
Adrian pressed harder on the gas.
Marcus called 911 again.
“Units are already there.”
“Not fast enough.”
They reached the house eleven minutes later.
Police cars surrounded it.
The front window was shattered.
Margaret sat in an ambulance with a cut on her forehead.
Adrian ran to her.
“Where is she?”
Margaret pointed toward the woods behind the house.
“She took the journals.”
Police were searching.
Robert was safe.
Margaret had tried to stop Vanessa from breaking into the attic.
Vanessa shoved past her.
Then disappeared through the backyard.
Adrian looked at the broken window.
“What was in those journals?”
Margaret’s eyes filled with tears.
“One thing Vanessa was terrified you’d read.”
Adrian stared at her.
“What?”
Margaret took a slow breath.
“Emily met her.”
Adrian froze.
“Before she died?”
May you like
“Yes.”
“And she wrote down everything Vanessa said.”
