Chapter 12 - The House Turned Against Us
I grabbed Lily and ran through the back door.
Claire followed.
We got into my truck and locked the doors.
From the driveway, I watched the front door of my own house swing open.
No one came out.
No one went in.
Police arrived seven minutes later.
They searched everything.
Empty.
Vanessa wasn’t inside.
She didn’t need to be.
She still had remote access to the smart-home system.
Locks.
Thermostat.
Indoor cameras.
The baby monitor we still used because Lily sometimes had nightmares.
Vanessa had been watching us.
Maybe for days.
Maybe longer.
A technician disconnected everything from the internet.
Every smart lock was removed.
Every camera replaced.
The old router was taken as evidence.
Police traced login activity.
Most of it came through hidden networks.
But one login was sloppy.
A motel forty miles away.
Officers arrived after midnight.
Vanessa was gone.
Again.
But the room wasn’t empty.
She had left clothes.
Receipts.
A laptop charger.
And printed pages from Lily’s school website.
My hands went numb when the detective showed me.
“Why would she print this?”
“We think she may have been watching the pickup routine.”
I leaned against my truck.
“She wants Lily?”
“We don’t know.”
“What else could she want?”
“Control.”
I hated that answer because it sounded exactly right.
Vanessa didn’t want to raise Lily.
She wanted to prove she could still reach her.
The next morning, the detective called again.
They had found motel security footage.
Vanessa wasn’t alone.
Travis—the cousin who delivered Sarah’s picture—had been there.
Police picked him up.
This time he talked.
A lot.
Vanessa had paid him to use his car.
Paid him to buy prepaid phones.
Paid him to deliver packages.
He insisted he never knew she was targeting a child.
Then he told police where Vanessa had planned to go.
Her father’s old hunting cabin near Lake Mercer.
I knew the place.
I had been there once.
Remote.
Miles from the nearest town.
Police headed there.
They told me to stay home.
I did.
For exactly twenty minutes.
Then my phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
No one spoke.
“Vanessa?”
Silence.
Then I heard breathing.
And a child crying.
My heart stopped.
I ran upstairs.
“Lily!”
No answer.
Her room was empty.
The bathroom was empty.
Back door open.
Claire was unconscious on the kitchen floor.
Blood near her hairline.
The phone was still against my ear.
Then Vanessa spoke.
“You chose Lily.”
May you like
Her voice was almost cheerful.
“So come get her.”
