Chapter 5 - CAROLINE'S VOICE
I called back seventeen times.
Nothing.
Detective Coleman traced the call.
It came from a prepaid phone near an abandoned motel thirty miles outside town.
Police found the phone in a trash can.
Caroline was gone.
But surveillance footage showed her.
Alive.
Walking beside a man wearing a baseball cap.
She wasn't restrained.
That confused everyone.
"Maybe she's working with them," Madison said later.
I hadn't invited Madison to the hospital.
She came anyway.
Her cheek was swollen where Travis had shoved her away during the attack.
She acted like she was the victim.
I stared at her.
"You tried to hit me with a wrench."
She crossed her arms.
"I was angry."
"That's your explanation?"
"You insulted me."
"So you tried to cave in my skull?"
Mom stood behind her.
She looked smaller than I remembered.
"I came to apologize."
I laughed.
The movement hurt my stitches.
"Which part?"
She looked confused.
"The wrench?"
"The kidnapping?"
"The fake birth certificate?"
"The twenty-eight years of lying?"
Her eyes filled with tears.
"We didn't kidnap you."
"Then tell me what happened."
Mom looked toward the door.
Coleman was outside.
Eleanor was meeting investigators.
Travis had gone for coffee.
For the first time, it was only the three of us.
Mom sat down.
"Richard brought you home."
My skin prickled.
"When?"
"You were eleven months old."
"From where?"
"He wouldn't tell me."
"Did you ask?"
"Of course."
"And?"
"He said your mother had abandoned you."
I stared at her.
"You believed him?"
"I wanted a baby."
There it was.
Not love.
Want.
"We'd been trying for years."
Mom wiped her eyes.
"Then Richard brought you home."
"He had documents."
"He said everything was legal."
"Then Madison was born."
Mom nodded.
Four years after me.
Suddenly, my entire childhood made terrible sense.
The difference.
The resentment.
The constant reminder that Madison was their real daughter without anyone ever saying the words.
"You knew eventually."
Mom looked down.
"When you were nine."
"How?"
"Rose came to the house."
I remembered that day.
Grandma Rose had arrived unexpectedly.
Mom and Dad had screamed at her behind a closed door.
I had been sent upstairs.
"What did she say?"
"She called Richard a thief."
Mom's voice shook.
"She said he'd taken you from a safe house."
My stomach twisted.
"You knew from the time I was nine?"
She nodded.
"And you did nothing."
"I was afraid."
"For twenty years?"
No answer.
Madison rolled her eyes.
"Can we stop pretending Emily had some horrible childhood?"
I stared at her.
"You mean before or after you tried to smash my face?"
"You always acted superior."
"I was twelve when you pushed me down the stairs."
Madison's face tightened.
"You told everyone I slipped."
"You did slip."
"You pushed me."
Mom whispered.
"Madison."
"What?"
"Stop."
Madison stared at her.
For once, Mom wasn't defending her.
Madison's expression became ugly.
"This is unbelievable."
She grabbed her purse.
"Suddenly Emily finds out she's related to some billionaire and everybody worships her."
I blinked.
There it was.
The real problem.
Money.
Not my mother.
Not the kidnapping.
Not the assault.
Money.
"You think this is about inheritance."
Madison laughed bitterly.
"Isn't it?"
She looked at Mom.
"You don't think Eleanor Hale is going to leave everything to her precious missing granddaughter?"
Mom went pale.
"Madison."
"What?"
"Don't."
Madison looked at me.
"Congratulations, Emily."
She smiled.
"You finally found a way to make everyone care about you."
She walked out.
Mom followed several minutes later.
I thought the conversation was over.
It wasn't.
That evening, Detective Coleman returned.
"We found Richard."
"Where?"
"Bus station."
My pulse jumped.
"Did you arrest him?"
"Yes."
"Did he talk?"
Coleman sat down.
"He claims Caroline isn't Victor's prisoner."
"What does that mean?"
"He says Caroline has been hiding voluntarily for twenty-eight years."
I stared at her.
"That's impossible."
"Richard says she was protecting you."
"From Victor?"
Coleman shook her head.
"No."
"From who?"
May you like
She hesitated.
"From Eleanor."
