Chapter 2 - The Sister Who Always Arrived
Ava was driving home from the state investigative office when Lily called.
The storm had reduced the highway to a narrow tunnel between darkness and rain. Ava could barely hear Lily above the weather, but she recognized the fear in her sister’s breathing.
“Where are you?” Ava asked.
“In the kitchen.”
“Is Garrett there?”
“Yes.”
“Is Mom there?”
“Yes.”
Ava turned her car toward the farmhouse.
“Are you in immediate danger?”
Lily was silent.
Ava forced herself not to fill the silence with questions. She had interviewed hundreds of frightened witnesses. She knew that people often needed time to find words that would change their lives.
“He took my phone,” Lily finally said. “He moved my chair.”
Ava’s hands tightened around the steering wheel.
“Can you get to a safe room?”
“No.”
“Can you stay on the call?”
“Yes.”
“I am coming.”
There was movement on Lily’s end. A chair scraped across the floor.
Garrett’s voice appeared in the background.
“Who are you talking to?”
Lily did not answer.
Ava activated the emergency system in her vehicle and contacted Ruiz.
She and Ruiz had worked financial investigations together before Ava transferred to the senior investigative unit. She trusted him because he did not confuse loudness with authority.
“I need officers at my mother’s farmhouse,” Ava said. “Possible unlawful restraint, financial exploitation, and evidence destruction.”
Ruiz did not waste time asking whether Ava was certain.
“Send the address.”
Ava had once believed that loving Lily meant protecting her from every difficult choice. After their father’s death, Ava had tried to convince Lily to move into her apartment in the city. Lily refused.
“This is my home too,” Lily had said.
Ava had interpreted the refusal as loyalty to Diane.
Now she wondered whether Lily had been trying to preserve the last place where she remembered feeling independent.
Through the phone, Ava heard Garrett demanding the device.
Then came a crash.
“Lily?”
“I’m here.”
“What happened?”
“He pushed my chair away.”
Ava’s chest went cold.
“Did he touch you?”
“Not yet.”
Not yet.
The words stayed with Ava as she drove faster through the storm.
She wanted to tell Lily that everything would be fine. She wanted to promise that Garrett would never frighten her again.
But investigators were trained not to make promises they could not guarantee.
So Ava gave Lily something stronger than reassurance.
She gave her a plan.
“Listen carefully,” Ava said. “Keep the phone hidden. Do not challenge him. Tell me what you can see.”
“The back door. The refrigerator. Mom is near the sink.”
“Is there another exit?”
“Not without my chair.”
“Then stay where you are. I am twelve minutes away. Police are coming from the opposite road.”
Garrett’s footsteps approached.
Ava heard Lily slide the phone farther beneath the table.
Then Garrett spoke.
“You keep causing problems, and one day Ava will finally become tired of rescuing you.”
Ava felt anger rise through her, hot and immediate.
Lily answered before Ava could speak.
May you like
“She never gets tired of me.”
That sentence carried Ava through the final miles.
