Chapter 6 - His Mother in the Passenger Seat
Evelyn didn’t run.
She sat alone in the hospital chapel, turning a gold wedding ring around her finger.
The police found her there.
“I wasn’t part of the attack,” she said.
Her voice sounded exhausted.
“Then why were you in the car?” Daniel asked.
Evelyn looked at Adrian through the glass wall of his room.
“I thought we were going to speak with Emma.”
“In a stolen vehicle?” I asked.
“I didn’t know it was stolen.”
“Who was driving?”
She pressed her lips together.
Daniel leaned closer.
“Your son was almost killed.”
“I know.”
“Your granddaughter was in that wheelchair.”
Evelyn shut her eyes.
That word broke something.
Granddaughter.
Richard arrived with an attorney before she answered.
“No more questions,” he said.
Evelyn looked at her husband.
Then at the lawyer.
Then back at me.
“I’m sorry.”
Richard grabbed her shoulder.
“Stop talking.”
She went silent.
The lawyer escorted her away.
Adrian watched from his bed.
His good hand curled into a fist.
“He did this,” he said.
“You don’t know that.”
“My father controls her.”
“Your mother is an adult.”
“She’s afraid of him.”
“And she still got into the car.”
Adrian looked at me.
I could see he wanted me to make the truth easier.
I didn’t.
People could be frightened and still guilty.
They could be controlled and still make decisions that hurt others.
Evelyn had made hers.
Adrian looked away first.
That afternoon, the DNA results arrived.
Probability of paternity: 99.99 percent.
Adrian read the number three times.
Then he began crying.
Quietly.
No dramatic sobs.
No apology.
Just tears sliding into his hair while he stared at Lily through the nursery glass.
I almost felt sorry for him.
Then my phone vibrated.
An unknown number.
The message contained a photograph of my apartment door.
Another showed the inside of Lily’s nursery.
A third showed the empty crib.
Beneath the images were six words.
A baby cannot inherit if missing.
I showed Daniel.
He immediately called security.
Adrian saw the photographs.
His tears stopped.
“We need to move you.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you.”
“I didn’t say with me.”
He reached for his phone.
“My grandfather built a secure residence outside the city.”
“Your father knows about it.”
“No. Nobody does.”
I looked at him.
“Vanessa?”
His silence answered.
Daniel swore.
Adrian lowered the phone.
“I told her about it once.”
“Of course you did.”
“I was drunk.”
“Of course you were.”
He flinched.
Good.
Some mistakes deserved to hurt.
Daniel began arranging a temporary safe location.
A federal judge granted an emergency protection order.
Police officers were placed outside my hospital room.
By midnight, the floor was quiet.
At 12:17, the fire alarm went off.
Smoke rolled beneath my door.
The officers outside didn’t answer.
I lifted Lily from her bassinet.
The handle was hot.
May you like
Then someone on the other side began unlocking the door.
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