Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD
The police arrived eleven minutes later.
To Elena, it felt like an hour.
She sat on the grass holding Mateo so tightly he finally whispered:
“Mommy, you’re squishing me.”
Elena immediately loosened her arms.
“Oh.”
She laughed once through tears.
“Sorry, baby.”
Mateo touched the scrape on her palm.
“You got hurt.”
“I’m okay.”
“You’re bleeding.”
“It looks worse than it is.”
That was a lie.
Everything was worse than it looked.
Daniel stood several feet away speaking to an officer.
His hands shook.
He kept looking toward Elena and Mateo.
Like his brain still refused to accept what his eyes had seen.
An officer approached Elena.
“Ms. Reyes?”
“Yes.”
“I’m Officer Grant.”
He crouched a few feet away.
“Can you tell me what happened?”
Elena looked at Mateo.
“Not in front of him.”
Grant nodded.
A female officer led Mateo toward a nearby bench and gave him bottled water.
Elena watched him every second.
Then she turned back.
“That woman is Vanessa Cole.”
Daniel heard the name and looked over.
Grant glanced toward him.
“Mr. Cole says Vanessa is his wife.”
Elena’s eyes narrowed.
“His wife?”
Daniel stepped closer.
“For three years.”
Elena stared at him.
“She told me she was single.”
Daniel’s face tightened.
“When?”
“Six years ago.”
He looked confused.
Elena continued.
“She worked at St. Matthew’s Medical Center.”
Daniel said nothing.
“She was a nurse.”
His face changed.
“No.”
“She was.”
“No. Vanessa worked in pharmaceutical sales.”
“After St. Matthew’s.”
“How do you know?”
Elena’s voice lowered.
“Because she was in the delivery room when Mateo was born.”
Daniel stopped breathing for a second.
Grant took notes.
Elena continued.
“My husband died before Mateo was born.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I didn’t have much family.”
Her fingers curled against her knees.
“Vanessa was kind to me.”
Daniel whispered.
“Oh, God.”
“She checked on me.”
Elena looked at him.
“Then Mateo disappeared.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Grant asked:
“When?”
“Four years ago.”
Daniel opened his eyes again.
“What?”
Elena looked at him.
“He was fourteen months old.”
Daniel stared at Mateo across the park.
“That makes no sense.”
“It makes perfect sense if your wife stole him.”
Daniel snapped:
“She didn’t steal him.”
Elena’s head whipped toward him.
Daniel immediately regretted it.
“I mean…”
He rubbed his face.
“She told me his biological parents died in a car accident.”
Elena went still.
“She said what?”
Daniel swallowed.
“She said Mateo was her cousin’s child.”
Grant looked between them.
“And you believed her?”
Daniel’s expression hardened defensively.
“She had paperwork.”
Elena gave a bitter laugh.
“She always had paperwork.”
Daniel reached inside his jacket and took out his phone.
He searched quickly.
Then held up a photograph.
It showed Vanessa holding a much younger Mateo.
Below it was a court document.
GUARDIANSHIP ORDER.
Elena stepped forward.
She recognized the judge’s signature.
She also recognized the date.
Her stomach turned.
“That’s three days after I supposedly died.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Supposedly?”
Elena nodded.
“Someone filed a death certificate in my name.”
Grant stopped writing.
“What?”
“I spent almost a year fixing it.”
Daniel stared.
Elena looked toward the road where the SUV had disappeared.
“And the man driving that car today was Dr. Raymond Pierce.”
Grant frowned.
“Who is that?”
Elena’s mouth went dry.
“The physician who signed my death certificate.”
Daniel’s face emptied.
Officer Grant straightened.
“I think we need detectives.”
Elena looked back at Mateo.
He was swinging his feet under the bench.
Small.
Alive.
Close enough to touch.
She had imagined this moment for four years.
But she had never imagined what came next.
Her phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
One message.
NO MORE RUNNING, ELENA.
Then another.
May you like
YOU GOT THE BOY BACK.
NOW GIVE US WHAT HIS FATHER LEFT YOU.
