Chapter 7 - THE WOMAN WHO DISAPPEARED
Margaret Howard was officially missing.
Police searched the estate grounds.
Nothing.
Her car remained outside.
Her purse remained inside.
Her phone was found beneath her bed.
Daniel refused to believe she had run.
Elena wasn’t sure what to believe anymore.
Margaret had helped Vanessa.
That much was undeniable.
But the recovered video changed everything.
Elena, if you ever see this, run.
Why warn the woman she had been trying to remove?
Ruiz asked the same question.
“Something changed.”
They gathered at the secure apartment the following morning.
Thomas remained in custody.
The forensic team continued rebuilding Elena’s damaged server.
Daniel hadn’t slept.
Elena barely had.
“Vanessa’s mother.”
Elena placed the old photograph on the table.
“We find her.”
Ruiz nodded.
“Her name was Rebecca Price.”
Daniel looked at the photograph.
“What happened to her?”
Ruiz opened a file.
“Officially?”
“Yes.”
“She died in a car accident in 1999.”
“And unofficially?”
“The police report is strange.”
“How?”
“No autopsy.”
“No photographs.”
“No verified dental records.”
Elena understood immediately.
“You think she survived.”
“I think we need to consider it.”
Daniel looked toward the window.
“If Vanessa believed my parents stole her mother’s company, why pretend to be my friend for twenty years?”
“Access.”
Elena answered.
“She needed you to trust her.”
Daniel looked at her.
“And I did.”
“Yes.”
He absorbed the blow without arguing.
Ruiz placed another document on the table.
“We also found this.”
A bank statement.
Vanessa had received monthly payments from a shell company since age eighteen.
The company belonged to Samuel Price.
But its funding came from somewhere else.
Howard Holdings.
Daniel frowned.
“My father was paying her?”
“Possibly.”
Elena shook her head.
“Or Margaret.”
Ruiz nodded.
“Either way, someone inside the family financed Vanessa for years.”
Elena’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
Everyone froze.
Ruiz gestured for her to answer.
Elena activated speakerphone.
“Hello?”
Breathing.
Then Margaret’s voice.
“Elena.”
Daniel stood.
“Mom?”
“Don’t say my name.”
“Where are you?”
“I don’t have much time.”
Elena looked at Ruiz.
He was already tracing the call.
“Margaret, who has you?”
Silence.
Then:
“Vanessa.”
Daniel grabbed the phone.
“Mom, where are you?”
“I don’t know.”
Her voice broke.
“She knows everything.”
“What does that mean?”
“She knows what we did in 1998.”
Elena leaned closer.
“What did you do?”
Margaret began crying.
“I was young.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“We stole the company.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Margaret continued.
“Richard didn’t know at first.”
“Samuel forged Rebecca’s signature.”
“We told everyone she had agreed to sell.”
“She hadn’t.”
Elena felt sick.
“What happened to Rebecca?”
Margaret whispered:
“Samuel killed her.”
The room went silent.
Daniel stared at the phone.
Margaret continued.
“Or I thought he did.”
Elena frowned.
“What do you mean?”
A sound came through the phone.
A door opening.
Margaret gasped.
“Elena, listen.”
“Vanessa has the original ledger.”
“She has Rebecca’s shares.”
“And she has something else.”
“What?”
Margaret began speaking faster.
“Richard changed everything before he died.”
“What did he change?”
“He knew Vanessa would come back.”
“What did Richard do?”
Margaret whispered:
“He left the controlling shares to your baby.”
Elena stopped breathing.
“What?”
The line crackled.
Then another voice appeared.
Vanessa.
“Enough, Margaret.”
A slap sounded.
Daniel shouted.
“VANESSA!”
Vanessa laughed softly.
“Daniel.”
“You touch her again and—”
“And what?”
“You’ll come save Mommy?”
Vanessa sounded amused.
“You couldn’t even protect your wife.”
Daniel’s face twisted.
Elena took the phone.
“What do you want?”
Vanessa became quiet.
“You finally asked the right question.”
“Tell me.”
“The original trust amendment.”
“Bring it to me.”
Elena looked at Ruiz.
“I don’t have it.”
“But Daniel can find it.”
“And if we do?”
Vanessa’s voice became cold.
“You get Margaret back.”
“Alive?”
A pause.
“If you’re quick.”
The call ended.
Ruiz checked the trace.
“Got it.”
“Where?”
He looked up.
“Howard Holdings headquarters.”
Daniel frowned.
“That’s impossible.”
“Why?”
“The building is full of security.”
Elena understood before he did.
“Security Vanessa has had access to for years.”
Ruiz gathered his officers.
Daniel grabbed his coat.
Elena stood too.
“No.”
Daniel looked at her.
“You’re staying.”
“She called me.”
“You’re pregnant and injured.”
“She wants the trust.”
“Elena—”
“She pushed me down the stairs because she thought I was weak.”
Elena picked up her coat.
“I’m done helping her believe that.”
Twenty minutes later, they entered Howard Holdings through the underground garage.
The building appeared empty.
Too empty.
The elevator doors opened on the executive floor.
Daniel stepped out first.
Elena followed Ruiz.
Then every television screen in the hallway turned on simultaneously.
Vanessa appeared.
She smiled.
“Welcome home.”
Behind her sat Margaret.
Bound to a chair.
Vanessa leaned toward the camera.
“Now let’s find out how much Daniel Howard is willing to lose…”
May you like
She placed a pistol against Margaret’s head.
“…to save the mother who betrayed him.”
