Chapter 13 - THE CAR ACROSS THE STREET
Robert called the center’s security team while Naomi moved everyone away from the windows.
The black sedan remained across the street for nearly two minutes.
Then it pulled into traffic and disappeared.
A security camera captured the license plate.
The car was registered to a rental company. It had been rented using identification belonging to a woman who had died three years earlier.
Claire began trembling.
“I need to get Sophie.”
“Where is she?” Elena asked.
“At school.”
Naomi contacted local officers and arranged for Claire and her daughter to stay in a protected location.
Before Claire left, Elena took her hand.
“Do not confront Owen alone.”
“He’s my husband.”
“So was Daniel.”
The words sounded colder than Elena intended.
Claire understood them anyway.
That afternoon, Elena returned to her apartment and found an envelope beneath her door.
There was no stamp.
No return address.
Inside was a single sheet of paper.
You keep opening doors that were meant to stay closed.
Beneath the sentence was a photograph of Elena standing outside the center that morning.
She called Naomi immediately.
Investigators collected the envelope, checked the building cameras, and found footage of a delivery driver wearing a cap that concealed most of his face.
The driver had entered using another tenant’s access code.
That evening, Margaret insisted Elena stay at her parents’ home.
Elena resisted at first.
She had spent too many years allowing fear to decide where she went and whom she trusted.
But accepting protection was not the same as surrendering control.
She packed an overnight bag.
At the Vale residence, Brianna was waiting in the kitchen.
“I remembered something,” she said.
She placed an old wedding-planning binder on the counter.
Inside were seating charts, vendor lists, fabric samples, and handwritten notes from Celeste.
Brianna turned to the final section.
Lydia Crane had approved dozens of wedding payments.
Several had been sent through Crownstead Asset Protection.
“She told me it was a vendor management service,” Brianna said. “I never questioned it.”
Elena studied the invoices.
Crownstead had received more than one hundred thousand dollars before the forged transfer from Elena’s account.
The payments were labeled consultation fees.
“What did Crownstead actually do?” Elena asked.
“Nothing that I ever saw.”
Robert entered carrying his laptop.
“The rental company sent the driver information to Naomi.”
He turned the screen toward them.
The man who rented the sedan was Owen Maddox.
Claire’s husband.
Brianna covered her mouth.
Elena read the name twice.
Owen had known Claire was at the center.
He had followed her.
But something about the situation felt wrong.
A man secretly stealing from his family did not usually rent a car under a dead woman’s identity.
He did that when someone had taught him how.
Elena’s phone rang.
Claire was calling from the protected location.
“Owen is here,” she whispered.
May you like
In the background, someone knocked on a door.
Then a man’s voice said, “Claire, they’ll hurt Sophie if you don’t let me explain.”
