Chapter 12 - VANESSA’S LAST MOVE
Lucas ran upstairs.
“Vanessa!”
Emma’s bedroom door slammed.
Lucas hit it with his shoulder.
Locked.
Not again.
“Emma!”
No answer.
He kicked the door.
Once.
Twice.
It burst open.
Emma wasn’t there.
Vanessa stood beside the empty bed.
Lucas stopped.
“Where is she?”
Vanessa smiled.
“You really love dramatic entrances.”
Lucas stepped toward her.
“Where is my daughter?”
“Relax. Grace took her ten minutes ago.”
Lucas stared.
“How do you know?”
“Because I watched.”
He suddenly understood.
Vanessa hadn’t come for Emma.
She came for something else.
“The box.”
Vanessa smiled.
“There you go.”
“It’s with the FBI.”
“No, it isn’t.”
Lucas said nothing.
Vanessa continued.
“The agents took copies.”
Lucas’s face changed.
She knew too much.
“You think Rachel left only one?”
Lucas remembered something.
Emma’s words.
Mommy’s box.
Not files.
Not evidence.
Box.
Vanessa walked toward Rachel’s old bookshelf.
Lucas stepped in front of her.
“No.”
Vanessa pulled a knife.
Lucas stopped.
“Move.”
“You’re going to stab me in my daughter’s bedroom?”
“Don’t make me.”
Lucas stared into her eyes.
“You were going to marry me.”
“Yes.”
“Did any of it matter?”
For the first time, Vanessa looked wounded.
“That’s the worst part.”
Lucas frowned.
“I did love you.”
“No.”
“I did.”
“You don’t lock the child of someone you love in a bathroom.”
Vanessa’s jaw tightened.
“She wasn’t supposed to get hurt.”
“You told her she wouldn’t be family.”
“Because she wasn’t supposed to stay.”
Lucas’s face hardened.
“There it is.”
Vanessa’s eyes filled.
“You don’t understand what it’s like growing up with people like Charles.”
“You made choices.”
“So did Rachel.”
“Rachel tried to stop them.”
“And got herself killed.”
Lucas moved fast.
He grabbed Vanessa’s wrist.
The knife fell.
She clawed his face.
They crashed against the bookshelf.
Books fell everywhere.
Vanessa reached for the knife.
Lucas kicked it under the bed.
Police sirens sounded outside.
Vanessa panicked.
“No.”
Lucas pinned her against the wall.
“It’s over.”
She laughed through tears.
“You still don’t know where the real evidence is.”
Lucas stared.
Vanessa pointed toward a stuffed rabbit on Emma’s shelf.
Rachel had given it to Emma before the crash.
Lucas picked it up.
The stitching along the back had been recently cut.
Inside was a tiny memory card.
Vanessa smiled.
“That’s what everybody died for.”
Lucas heard police entering downstairs.
He looked at the card.
“What’s on it?”
Vanessa’s smile vanished.
“Something that proves Charles Mercer was never in charge.”
Lucas inserted the memory card into his laptop.
A video opened.
Rachel appeared on screen.
May you like
Behind her stood a man Lucas knew extremely well.
His own father.
