Chapter 11
Red Hollow was empty.
At first.
My men searched the convent.
Old bedrooms.
Kitchen.
Chapel.
Nothing.
Then Elias called.
“There’s a garden cottage.”
My pulse changed.
“Open it.”
“Already did.”
Pause.
“Someone lived here recently.”
Recently.
Not two years ago.
Recently.
I didn’t breathe.
“What did you find?”
“Children’s drawings.”
I looked at the triplets.
My girls had never been there.
“Of what?”
“Three little girls.”
My knees nearly gave.
Bianca saw my face.
She understood.
“No.”
I turned.
“What?”
“She’s dead.”
No one had said Elena.
Bianca had.
Again.
“How do you know?”
“I was there when she died.”
Samuel shouted:
“No, you weren’t.”
Bianca looked at him.
“You think because she escaped once she survived forever?”
Silence.
I stepped closer.
“When did you find Red Hollow?”
Her face emptied.
Marco whispered:
“Don’t.”
She laughed suddenly.
Why do villains laugh when the room closes?
Because contempt feels safer than fear.
“Last year.”
My chest tightened.
“You found Elena last year.”
“She found us.”
“What happened?”
“She demanded the girls.”
I felt something savage move through me.
“She wanted her children.”
“She abandoned them.”
“She was hiding from you.”
“She left.”
Victim becomes villain.
Always.
“What did she say?”
Bianca’s voice turned mocking.
“She said she’d come back for you.”
My breathing stopped.
“She thought you still loved her.”
“I did.”
Bianca flinched.
Good.
“I do.”
That hurt more.
“She threatened me.”
“With?”
“Truth.”
Of course.
“What happened next?”
Marco stepped in.
“She ran again.”
“Where?”
“We don’t know.”
I looked at Bianca.
She looked away.
Different answers.
There.
“Which one is lying?”
Silence.
Then Elias’s phone rang again.
He listened.
Looked at me.
“We found something else.”
“What?”
“A hidden room under the cottage.”
Bianca’s face went white.
“What?”
“Medical supplies.”
My heart pounded.
“And a recent photograph.”
“Of?”
Elias swallowed.
“Elena.”
I closed my eyes.
Date printed on the back.
May you like
Three weeks ago.
My wife had been alive three weeks ago.
