Chapter 3 - six missing hours)
The argument lasted twenty minutes.
Daniel accused Rebecca of spying.
Rebecca accused Daniel of lying.
Neither mentioned Mia until Mia began crying.
That ended everything.
Rebecca slept in the nursery.
At dawn, Daniel apologized.
He cried.
Real tears.
"I don't know what's happening to us."
Rebecca did.
She simply did not know what to call it yet.
Daniel left for work at eight.
Rebecca called in sick.
Then she drove to daycare with Mia and asked Connie for attendance records.
Connie hesitated.
Rebecca lowered her voice.
"I think someone is lying to me about where my daughter has been."
That changed everything.
Connie printed three months.
Rebecca sat in her car and compared the sheets with her calendar.
There were five days Daniel claimed to have Mia at home when Mia had actually spent part of the day at daycare.
Each gap lasted between two and six hours.
Six missing hours.
Four missing hours.
Three missing hours.
Rebecca highlighted every gap.
Then she looked at the dates of Mia's accidents.
Three matched.
She called Daniel.
"Where are you?"
"Office."
Rebecca listened.
There were no office sounds.
Only traffic.
"What street?"
Silence.
Then Daniel laughed softly.
"What is this?"
"I need you to pick up milk."
"I'll get it after work."
"What street are you on?"
"Rebecca."
She hung up.
Her phone rang immediately.
She turned it off.
Then she drove to Daniel's office.
His car was not there.
At one thirty, Rebecca parked across from their house.
At one forty seven, Daniel's car arrived.
He entered through the garage.
He was carrying a black duffel bag.
Rebecca waited.
Twenty minutes later, he left without it.
She did not follow him.
She went inside.
The house felt different when Daniel was absent.
Not safer.
Exposed.
Rebecca searched the garage.
Nothing.
The basement.
Nothing.
The workbench.
Nothing.
Then Mia wandered toward the old freezer.
She stopped beside it.
"Mommy."
Rebecca crouched.
"What, baby?"
Mia touched the wall behind the freezer.
There was a thin vertical seam.
Rebecca moved the freezer.
Behind it was a narrow door painted the same gray as the wall.
Her throat closed.
She opened it.
A storage cavity.
Inside were documents.
Hospital discharge instructions.
Prescription labels with names removed.
Photocopies of insurance cards.
A cheap prepaid phone.
A child's blue sweater Rebecca had never seen.
And photographs.
Rebecca picked up the first.
Mia sleeping in the back seat of Daniel's car.
Second.
Mia in a waiting room.
Third.
Mia lying on a hospital bed.
A nurse stood in the background.
The nurse was Lena Ortiz.
Rebecca did not know her name yet.
She only knew her face.
The timestamp was six days earlier.
Rebecca stared at the photograph until her vision blurred.
Daniel had taken Mia to a hospital.
He had lied.
Then Rebecca found the form.
Most of the page had been torn away.
But one line remained.
PATIENT: LILY B.
Rebecca heard the garage door.
Daniel was home.
She shoved everything into her purse except the photographs.
No time.
Footsteps above.
"Rebecca?"
She closed the hidden door.
Moved the freezer.
"Rebecca?"
Closer.
She lifted Mia and hurried toward the stairs.
Daniel appeared at the top.
He smiled.
"You're home."
Rebecca kept climbing.
His eyes dropped to her purse.
Then to the freezer.
Then back to her.
"You were looking for something?"
Rebecca smiled.
"Frozen peas."
Daniel stared.
"There are no frozen peas downstairs."
Rebecca stopped.
"I forgot."
Neither moved.
Mia buried her face in Rebecca's shoulder.
Daniel descended one step.
Rebecca climbed one.
"What's in your purse?"
"Work."
"Show me."
Rebecca's blood turned cold.
"What?"
Daniel smiled.
"I'm joking."
Rebecca forced herself to laugh.
Daniel did not.
He walked past her toward the freezer.
Rebecca reached the top of the stairs.
Then ran.
Not dramatically.
Not screaming.
She simply walked quickly through the kitchen, grabbed her keys, and reached the front door.
Daniel called behind her.
"Rebecca."
She opened it.
"Rebecca."
His voice changed.
"Stop."
She ran.
She strapped Mia into the car so quickly her fingers missed the buckle twice.
Daniel appeared in the doorway.
He did not chase her.
That frightened Rebecca more than if he had.
He stood barefoot on the porch, watching.
Rebecca drove away.
Ten minutes later, Daniel sent one text.
YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU FOUND.
Rebecca looked at the message at a red light.
Then another arrived.
BRING MIA HOME BEFORE YOU MAKE THIS WORSE.
Rebecca turned off the main road.
She drove to the police station.
Then she stopped across the street.
What would she say?
My husband took my child to a hospital.
My husband lied about daycare.
My husband has photographs.
None of it proved abuse.
None of it proved danger.
And if police called Daniel, he would know exactly what Rebecca had.
She looked at Mia in the rearview mirror.
Mia was asleep.
Rebecca drove to a hotel instead.
That night she examined the documents.
One photograph had writing on the back.
A room number.
ER 12.
May you like
Below it were three words.
LENA SAW EVERYTHING.
