Chapter 6 - The Maid Who Vanished)
Rosa was not at home.
Her car was still parked behind the mansion.
Her phone had been found inside a laundry room drawer.
Nothing suggested she had planned to leave.
Police questioned Vivian for less than twenty minutes.
She told them Rosa had seemed emotionally unstable.
Ethan nearly exploded when he heard.
Clara stopped him from confronting her.
"We need facts."
"My mother is inventing a story about Rosa."
"I know."
"She could be in danger."
"I know."
The second maid, Elena Cruz, agreed to meet them secretly.
She refused to return to the mansion.
They met at a diner thirty miles away.
Elena arrived wearing sunglasses and a baseball cap.
She looked exhausted.
"Mrs. Whitmore knows I talked to Rosa."
Clara leaned forward.
"About what?"
"The night before Mr. Ethan came home, Rosa found something."
"What?"
"A phone."
Ethan frowned.
"Whose phone?"
"Mr. Charles's."
Ethan stared.
"My father died six years ago."
Elena nodded.
"It was in the old wine cellar."
During renovations, workers had discovered a narrow compartment behind a wooden cabinet.
Inside was a box containing several personal items.
A watch.
Two notebooks.
An old smartphone.
Rosa recognized Charles's initials on the case.
Before she could give it to Ethan, Vivian learned the compartment had been found.
"What happened to the phone?" Clara asked.
Elena looked around the diner.
"Rosa took it."
"Where?"
"I don't know."
"Did Vivian know she had it?"
"Yes."
Ethan's hands tightened.
"Why didn't Rosa mention this when she gave me the letter?"
"Because she was scared."
Elena's eyes filled with tears.
"Rosa said the phone had recordings."
Clara felt cold.
"Recordings of who?"
"Mrs. Whitmore."
Ethan leaned closer.
"Did Rosa hear them?"
"One."
"What was on it?"
Elena lowered her voice.
"A man was yelling."
"What man?"
"Mr. Charles."
"What was he saying?"
Elena closed her eyes.
"He said, 'You cannot make another person disappear.'"
Nobody spoke.
Clara finally asked, "Another?"
Elena nodded.
"That word frightened Rosa."
Ethan sat back.
Rebecca.
Adrian.
Maybe there had been others.
"Where would Rosa go if she thought Vivian was after her?"
Elena shook her head.
"Rosa doesn't have family nearby."
"Friends?"
"Church."
"Which church?"
Elena wrote an address on a napkin.
Before Ethan could take it, Clara noticed a black SUV outside.
The engine was running.
A man sat behind the wheel.
"Elena, did anyone follow you?"
Elena turned.
Her face drained of color.
"That's one of Mrs. Whitmore's drivers."
Ethan stood.
"Back door."
They left through the kitchen.
The SUV pulled away before Ethan could see the license plate.
They drove directly to St. Catherine's Church.
A priest named Father Michael recognized Rosa's photograph.
"She came here last night."
Clara's heart jumped.
"Is she here?"
"No."
"Where did she go?"
Father Michael hesitated.
"She asked me to hold something."
He led them to his office.
From a locked cabinet, he removed a small envelope.
Inside was a memory card.
Ethan stared at it.
"Did she say what this was?"
"She said, 'If Mr. Ethan comes, give him this. If Mrs. Whitmore comes, burn it.'"
Clara looked at Ethan.
They found a computer in the church office.
The memory card contained seven audio files.
The first was dated six years earlier.
Charles's voice filled the room.
"You promised Rebecca would be the last."
Vivian answered.
"I did what was necessary."
"Necessary? You destroyed her career."
"She was going to destroy the company."
"She was telling the truth."
"The truth does not employ twelve thousand people."
Charles sounded exhausted.
"And Adrian?"
Silence.
Then Vivian said, "Adrian made his choice."
Ethan froze.
The recording continued.
Charles said, "Where is he?"
Vivian answered, "Somewhere he cannot damage this family."
Clara covered her mouth.
The file ended.
Ethan immediately called Daniel.
"Your brother was alive after he supposedly disappeared."
Daniel went silent.
Ethan continued.
"My mother knew."
"Send me the recording."
"There are six more."
They played the second file.
Vivian and Charles were arguing again.
Charles said, "If anything happens to me before I can correct this, the trust activates."
Vivian laughed.
"You think giving Ethan's future wife voting rights will stop me?"
"No."
"Then why do it?"
"Because you underestimate people you consider beneath you."
Clara stared at the computer.
Charles had never met her.
Yet his words felt directed at her.
The third recording was shorter.
Charles said, "North River has the final package."
Vivian replied, "I can reach anyone."
"No. Not this time."
The fourth file contained only static.
The fifth began with another voice.
A younger man.
"Mr. Whitmore, I found the patient records."
Charles answered.
"Adrian, you need to leave."
Daniel made a choking sound over the phone.
"That's him."
Adrian continued.
"They changed outcomes. People were told their tests were negative when they weren't."
Charles said, "If Vivian learns you copied those records..."
The recording abruptly ended.
Clara whispered, "He had proof."
Ethan played the sixth file.
Nothing.
Then a woman's voice.
Not Vivian.
"Charles, your wife knows where the boy is."
Rebecca stood behind them in the church office.
She had followed from Pennsylvania.
Her face went white.
"That's me."
The seventh recording contained only one sentence.
Charles whispered into the phone.
"If Rosa ever finds this, tell Ethan to look beneath the garden where his mother never walks."
The recording ended.
Father Michael frowned.
Clara looked at Ethan.
"The garden."
Ethan knew immediately.
May you like
There was only one garden Vivian never entered.
His father's memorial garden.
