Chapter 13 - VANESSA’S LAST CHOICE
Vanessa should have been in the hospital.
Instead, she stumbled out of the car holding her side.
Her face was white.
Mateo ran toward the house.
“Mommy!”
Elena screamed.
“No!”
Charles turned his gun toward the window.
Daniel hit him from behind.
The gun fired into the ceiling.
Elena ran outside.
Mateo crashed into her arms.
“How did you get here?”
He cried.
“Nessa said Dad needed me.”
Elena looked at Vanessa.
“You took him again?”
Vanessa shook her head.
“I got him out.”
“What?”
Vanessa leaned against the car.
“One of Charles’s officers came for him.”
Kim ran outside.
Her face turned murderous.
“What officer?”
Vanessa gave a badge number.
Kim went pale.
She knew the name.
Corruption.
Inside the house, Daniel and police restrained Charles.
Vanessa looked at Elena.
“I heard him call.”
“Who?”
“Charles.”
She coughed.
Blood touched her lip.
“He ordered Mateo moved.”
Elena’s anger didn’t disappear.
But something changed.
“You saved him.”
Vanessa nodded.
“This time.”
Mateo stared at her.
“Nessa?”
She looked at him.
Her face broke.
“Hey, bug.”
Mateo stayed close to Elena.
Vanessa didn’t ask him to come closer.
That mattered.
She lowered herself onto the curb.
“I’m sorry.”
Mateo frowned.
“For what?”
Vanessa cried silently.
“For telling you your mommy was dead.”
Mateo looked at Elena.
Then back.
“That was a lie.”
“Yes.”
“Lying is bad.”
Vanessa laughed through tears.
“Yeah.”
“It is.”
He thought for a moment.
“Are you going away?”
Vanessa looked toward police.
“Yes.”
“Forever?”
She couldn’t answer.
Daniel came outside.
His face was bruised.
He saw Vanessa.
Stopped.
She looked at him.
“Hi.”
Daniel almost laughed.
“Hi?”
“I didn’t know what else to say.”
Neither did he.
She looked at him.
“I’m sorry.”
Daniel stared.
“You already said that.”
“I know.”
“It doesn’t fix anything.”
“I know.”
“You built our marriage on a kidnapped child.”
Vanessa flinched.
“I know.”
Daniel’s eyes filled.
“Stop saying you know.”
She looked down.
Daniel’s voice cracked.
“You have no idea what you did to me.”
Vanessa whispered:
“No.”
She nodded toward Mateo.
“But I know what I did to her.”
Elena said nothing.
Police approached Vanessa.
She raised her hands slowly.
Before they cuffed her, Mateo spoke.
“Nessa?”
She turned.
He held Elena’s hand tighter.
“I still remember when you made dinosaur pancakes.”
Vanessa’s face crumpled.
“I remember too.”
Mateo looked confused.
“Can somebody be bad and good?”
Nobody answered immediately.
Finally Elena crouched beside him.
“People can do good things and terrible things.”
Mateo looked at Vanessa.
“Which are you?”
Vanessa cried.
“A person who should have made different choices.”
The officers led her away.
Daniel watched.
He didn’t wave.
He didn’t call after her.
But when she disappeared into the police car, he quietly sat on the curb.
Elena sat beside him.
Neither spoke.
Then Kim walked over.
“We found Charles’s records.”
Elena looked up.
“How many children?”
Kim’s face was grim.
“At least seventy-three.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Kim continued.
“And there’s something else.”
“What?”
“Matthew kept a second copy of the evidence.”
Elena frowned.
“Where?”
Kim looked at Mateo.
“Inside the stuffed moon toy he had as a baby.”
Elena stopped breathing.
She knew that toy.
It had disappeared the night Mateo was taken.
Daniel slowly looked toward Charles’s house.
“There’s one in Mateo’s room.”
Elena turned to him.
“What?”
Daniel swallowed.
“Vanessa gave it to him three years ago.”
Elena stood.
May you like
And suddenly the case wasn’t over.
The most important piece of evidence had been sitting beside Mateo’s bed the entire time.
