Chapter 5 - The Seamstress’s Warning
Lucas reached the estate twenty-five minutes later.
By then, Vanessa and Voss were gone.
The office looked untouched, but the hidden camera inside the bookshelf had recorded them.
Lucas had installed it years earlier after an attempted burglary. Vanessa did not know it existed.
He watched the footage with Claire and Rebecca.
Vanessa entered first. She wore gloves.
Voss unlocked the desk drawer with a copied key and removed Mara’s records. They spoke too quietly for the camera’s microphone to capture every word, but several phrases were clear.
Midnight clause.
Original certificate.
Dress lining.
Ashford before the ceremony.
Then Vanessa held up Mara’s missing guardianship letter.
Voss placed it inside a brown envelope.
“Why hide it in the dress?” Claire asked.
Rebecca paused the recording.
“Because Vanessa will be surrounded by people all day. No one searches a bride.”
On screen, Vanessa said something else.
This time, the microphone caught it clearly.
“If Lucas resists, Cross has already prepared the injection.”
Claire looked at her brother.
“The wedding is canceled.”
Lucas wanted to agree.
Then Ellie appeared at the office door.
She wore her backpack and held a paper flower she had made at school.
“Why is Aunt Claire angry?”
Lucas closed the video window.
“Come here, bug.”
Ellie climbed onto his lap.
“Is Vanessa mad at me?”
“No.”
“She said I told a lie.”
“What lie?”
Ellie looked toward Rebecca, uncertain.
Lucas introduced her as an old friend of Mara’s.
At the sound of her mother’s name, Ellie touched the silver necklace she wore beneath her shirt. It contained a tiny photograph of Mara.
“Vanessa said Mommy left because she didn’t want us,” Ellie whispered.
Lucas felt Claire’s hand close around the back of a chair.
“Vanessa said that?”
“She told me not to ask you because it makes you sad.”
Lucas kept his voice calm.
“Your mother loved you more than anything.”
“Then why did she go?”
He had answered that question many times, always using the story he had been given.
There was an accident. She could not come home. None of it was your fault.
Now the words felt incomplete.
Before he could answer, the doorbell rang.
A thin elderly woman stood outside holding a garment bag.
“My name is Rosa Bell,” she said. “I’m altering Miss Arden’s wedding gown.”
Lucas invited her in.
Rosa looked frightened.
“I found something sewn into the lining yesterday. An envelope. Miss Arden took it away before I could read it.”
“Why come here?”
“Because she asked me to create a hidden pocket large enough for documents and a glass vial.”
Claire’s gaze sharpened.
“What kind of vial?”
“I don’t know. But when I refused, Mr. Voss called me. He said my shop lease could disappear.”
Lucas showed her the video.
Rosa pressed one hand to her mouth.
“That is the envelope.”
“Can you make another hidden seam?” Lucas asked.
“Why?”
“Because they think I know nothing. I need them to continue believing that.”
Claire pulled him aside.
“You are not seriously considering letting the wedding proceed.”
“Not the marriage. The ceremony.”
“That is still too dangerous.”
“If I cancel now, Voss destroys the sealed file and disappears. Cross erases the medical records. Evelyn stays hidden. We stop one document but never learn what happened to Mara.”
Claire glanced toward Ellie.
“And while you investigate, Vanessa remains near your daughter.”
“She won’t be alone with Ellie for one second.”
Rebecca approached them.
“There may be another reason not to cancel yet. Voss filed something with the family court this morning.”
She showed Lucas a court notice.
A private guardianship review had been scheduled.
Date: the wedding day.
Time: 11:55 p.m.
Location: Ashford Behavioral Center.
May you like
At the bottom was a judge’s electronic authorization.
The document claimed Lucas had requested the hearing himself.
