Chapter 10 - THE WOMAN WHO RAISED HER
The threat made the search for Lena urgent. Bell arranged protection for Claire’s apartment and sent the scarf for examination.
Victoria stayed with Rosie that night. They made grilled cheese sandwiches because Rosie said Lena used to cut hers into triangles. After dinner, Rosie fell asleep on the couch with one hand inside her blue box.
Victoria sat awake beside her.
At six in the morning, Bell called.
They had found Lena.
She was alive.
A highway patrol officer had spotted her at a rural bus station fifty miles away. She was weak, frightened, and had been hiding under another name. She had gone there after escaping Crane’s car. Her phone was gone. She did not know Ada had reached Victoria or that Rosie was safe.
Victoria told Rosie only that Lena had been found and was coming back.
Rosie burst into tears.
“Can I see her?”
“As soon as she gets here.”
Lena arrived that afternoon with an officer. She looked older than Victoria remembered, her face thinner, but she went straight to Rosie.
Rosie ran across the room. Lena caught her and sank to her knees.
“I looked everywhere,” Lena whispered.
“I found the bird lady,” Rosie said.
“I know, baby.”
Victoria stepped into the hall to give them space. Lena followed her a few minutes later.
“I don’t expect you to forgive me,” Lena said.
“I don’t know what I feel yet.”
Lena nodded. “That’s fair.”
“Why didn’t you come to me when you saw the news?”
“I tried. Crane caught me outside your house. He said Charles had the clinic papers and video of me leaving with Rosie. He told me they would take her away before I could explain. I panicked.”
“You could have gone to the police later.”
“I should have. Every year I told myself I would. Rosie was safe, and I was afraid of what would happen if I was arrested before anyone believed me.”
Victoria looked through the doorway. Rosie sat with Claire, showing her a drawing.
“You let me think she was dead.”
Lena’s eyes filled. “I did.”
There was no easy way across that truth. Victoria did not offer one.
Bell arrived to speak with Lena. Lena described her recent meeting with Charles. She had learned from an old clinic employee that Charles had kept the nursery video. She went to demand he tell Victoria the truth. Charles offered money. Lena refused.
When she left, Crane followed her. He caught her at Briar Road, where she had once hidden with Rosie. She escaped through a back window, but Crane took her phone and bag.
“Maren found me later,” Lena said. “She told me she could get me to Victoria safely if I gave her the original video. I didn’t believe her.”
Bell asked where the original was.
“In Rosie’s box. I made a copy for myself, but Crane took it.”
Bell’s phone rang. She listened, then walked to the far side of the hall.
May you like
When she returned, she was looking at Lena.
“Charles just came to the station with his attorney,” she said. “He says you demanded ten million dollars to return his daughter.”
