Chapter 2
Four months earlier, Elise disappeared on a Thursday.
I remembered every hour.
Breakfast at my house.
Nora on her lap.
Audrey complaining about traffic.
Elise distracted.
She checked her phone six times.
I noticed.
Did not ask.
That failure stayed with me.
At two in the afternoon, Elise left Nora with Audrey and said she needed one hour.
She never returned.
Brent told us she had been seeing someone secretly.
He claimed she talked about leaving New York.
He even described a suitcase.
I believed none of it completely.
But grief makes uncertainty exhausting.
Eventually a lie repeated enough starts occupying space beside truth.
I looked at him now.
“What happened when she came here?”
Celia answered before he could.
“She confronted Brent.”
“About what?”
No answer.
I waited.
Audrey took Nora outside with one bodyguard.
Good.
My granddaughter did not need this part.
Celia sat down.
Elise had discovered Brent was using the bakery’s private delivery route for something outside family business.
Not drugs.
Not weapons.
People.
That word tightened every muscle in my body.
“What people?”
Brent snapped:
“You’re making it sound—”
I turned.
“Then make it sound better.”
He could not.
The bakery delivered cakes, bread, and catering supplies to several Sloan properties.
Delivery vehicles moved freely.
Brent had begun transporting certain family members between estates without recording it through my security network.
At first, adults avoiding attention.
Then one woman.
Then another.
Women trying to leave husbands connected to Sloan crews.
Brent did not help them escape.
He returned them.
For money.
My stomach turned.
Elise found out.
“She came here because she thought one woman was hidden in the bakery.”
Celia nodded.
“She was.”
“And Elise?”
Celia started crying harder.
“She tried to take her out.”
Brent stopped her.
Locked Elise inside this office.
For four hours.
That was where she begged.
Not for herself.
For him not to go near Nora after he realized Elise had told someone part of what she knew.
“Who?”
I asked.
Celia looked at Audrey.
I followed her eyes.
My younger daughter went pale.
May you like
Elise had told Audrey something before disappearing.
And Audrey had never told me.
