Chapter 6 - Yesterday's Threat
Lucy pulled a folded page from the back of the envelope.
The check beside it was dated three days earlier.
Ethan read the note without speaking.
Take this and stop calling. If you send the girl to Ethan, I will give the police everything. You know whose name is on those transfers.
No signature. But the check bore Victoria's name, and the envelope carried the foundation's return address.
Dana arrived as Ethan finished photographing it.
She listened, examined the papers, and asked Olivia's permission to help preserve the evidence. Olivia agreed before Dana finished the question.
"We'll report what we have," Dana said. "We won't guess at what we can't prove."
Olivia asked Lucy to come close.
"You weren't supposed to carry any of this."
"You weren't supposed to die without telling him."
"I'm still here."
"Then tell him everything."
Olivia looked at Ethan.
"When I got sick, I called the office again. I asked for you. Victoria called back instead. She said you'd think I wanted money."
"I wouldn't have."
"I know what I should've done. I kept thinking I'd get stronger, then drive over myself."
Ethan sat beside the bed.
"What did you tell Lucy about me?"
"That you were a good man. That we hurt each other. That I didn't know how to fix it."
He swallowed.
"You let her think I knew she existed?"
Olivia's face crumpled.
"Sometimes she asked things I couldn't bear to answer. I let silence do the lying."
Lucy looked from one adult to the other.
"So nobody just said what happened? For eleven years?"
Neither answered quickly enough.
"That's stupid," she said, her voice breaking. "You're all grown-ups."
"You're right," Olivia whispered.
Ethan reached for Lucy, then stopped, letting her decide.
She leaned against Mrs. Alvarez instead.
He accepted that. He had earned nothing yet.
Olivia tried to lift her water cup. Her hand slipped. Water spread across the blanket.
The monitor changed its rhythm.
A nurse came in fast, looked at Olivia, and pressed a button on the wall.
"I need everyone to step out."
"Mom?" Lucy said.
Olivia tried to answer. Only a thin breath came.
Ethan took Lucy's hand while staff moved around the bed.
May you like
In the hallway, the surgeon pulled on a cap.
"We can't wait any longer," she said. "We're taking her now."
