Chapter 3
The Lake Geneva house had belonged to Victoria’s grandmother.
I had been there once.
Gardens.
Lake.
White stone.
A place designed to look peaceful enough that no one would imagine anything ugly happening inside it.
Elena stayed there eleven days.
Her phone was taken “for security.”
Her car removed “for maintenance.”
Every meal delivered.
Every conversation watched.
Victoria visited twice.
Preston six times.
I asked Elena:
“What did they want?”
“To know what I would do.”
That answer surprised me.
“What?”
She looked at Victoria.
“They wanted me to write that the child wasn’t yours.”
Of course.
Not simply disappear.
Rewrite.
If Elena later surfaced, there would be a statement.
A story.
A convenient doubt.
“Did you?”
“No.”
Preston muttered:
“She almost did.”
Elena turned on him.
“No. I wrote what you told me because you said I could leave after.”
Important distinction.
Compliance under confinement.
Then she destroyed the paper before they could take it.
That was when Preston’s behavior changed.
“He said they were done asking.”
My jaw tightened.
“What happened?”
A car.
Late at night.
Two men.
No destination given.
Elena realized something was wrong when they took the back road away from the lake instead of the highway.
She fought.
Not physically at first.
Questions.
Demands.
One driver stopped at a gas station.
She ran.
Six months pregnant now?
No.
This was five months earlier.
Barely beginning to show.
She hid in the women’s restroom until a stranger helped her call a friend.
That friend kept her hidden.
Chicago.
Then Milwaukee.
Then back.
I stared.
“Why didn’t you contact me after that?”
Elena laughed once.
Not kindly.
“I did.”
She reached into her cardigan and pulled out a folded list.
Dates.
Numbers.
People contacted.
Nine attempts.
Three went through Bellini associates.
Two through Sloan connections.
Four were intercepted.
How did she know?
Because every time she reached out, Preston appeared somewhere nearby within a day.
May you like
The betrayal was larger than two siblings.
Someone inside my own family had been telling them whenever Elena tried to reach me.
