Chapter 3
Audrey waited until Nora was asleep in my car.
Then she told me.
Four months earlier, Elise sent her one message.
If anything happens, don’t let Brent take Nora anywhere.
Nothing more.
Audrey thought it meant Elise was ending a relationship with him.
I stared.
“You knew they were involved?”
“Not involved.”
She shook her head.
“Brent wanted her.”
Different.
Elise refused him repeatedly.
Brent responded by making himself useful.
Driving Nora.
Delivering birthday cakes.
Handling errands.
Appearing safe.
Audrey disliked him.
But Elise always said:
“He’s annoying, not dangerous.”
Until that message.
“Why didn’t you show me?”
Audrey’s eyes filled.
“Because she told me not to involve you.”
There it was.
The phrase my children used whenever they thought protecting me meant keeping me uninformed.
“Why?”
“She said you’d make it a family war.”
Maybe I would have.
At the time.
That truth hurt.
I had spent decades teaching my daughters that when I knew danger existed, the entire organization moved.
Useful for power.
Terrible for trust.
Elise wanted answers before armies.
So she told Audrey only enough to protect Nora.
Then she disappeared.
Brent supplied the runaway story immediately.
Too quickly.
He told Audrey Elise had been unhappy.
Told relatives she wanted a life without Sloan pressure.
Told me motherhood overwhelmed her.
Every lie attached itself to a real frustration Elise had voiced.
She did hate my security.
She did complain about the family.
She did talk about taking Nora somewhere quieter.
Truth makes the strongest foundation for deception.
I looked at Audrey.
“Did Elise ever mention this bakery?”
She nodded.
“One thing.”
“What?”
“She said the ovens weren’t the hottest part of the building.”
I frowned.
Odd.
Then Celia’s face changed.
There.
She understood.
I turned toward her.
“What’s below us?”
Brent started fighting the guards.
Too late.
Celia whispered:
“Old refrigeration rooms.”
The bakery basement.
Closed for years, supposedly.
I looked toward the floor.
May you like
My daughter had not only been locked behind the counter.
Something beneath the bakery had frightened her enough to leave a sentence disguised as a joke.
