Chapter 7 - the empty house)
Rebecca drove faster than she ever had.
Claire called police.
Sophie finally answered two minutes before they arrived.
She was crying.
"He's here."
Rebecca almost drove onto the sidewalk.
"Who?"
"Daniel."
"Where is Mia?"
"With me. Upstairs."
"Lock the door."
"I did."
"Police are coming."
"I know."
A crashing sound exploded through the phone.
Sophie screamed.
The line went dead.
Rebecca abandoned the car half on the curb.
Claire followed.
The front door was open.
Inside, a lamp lay shattered.
"Sophie!"
No answer.
Rebecca ran upstairs.
The bedroom door was locked.
She pounded.
"Sophie!"
"It's me!"
The door opened.
Sophie was inside holding Mia.
Blood ran from a cut on her forehead.
Rebecca grabbed her daughter.
"Where is Daniel?"
Sophie shook.
"He left."
"Why?"
"I don't know."
Claire entered.
Sophie pointed toward the window.
"He wasn't trying to get Mia."
Rebecca stopped.
"What?"
"He kept asking for the diaper bag."
Rebecca looked at the bag on the bed.
She opened it.
Everything seemed normal.
Diapers.
Snacks.
Clothes.
Medication.
Medication.
Rebecca lifted the bottle.
Children's fever reducer.
Except it was not the bottle she had packed.
The label looked new.
Claire took it.
"Don't open that."
Rebecca stared.
"Why?"
"Police need it untouched."
Sirens approached.
Daniel had not come for Mia.
He had come for evidence.
Or to plant it.
The police took the bottle.
Inside was not fever medicine.
Laboratory testing later found a prescription sedative dissolved into the liquid.
Enough to make Mia severely drowsy.
Possibly enough to stop her breathing if given repeatedly.
The prescription belonged to Rebecca.
Except Rebecca had never been prescribed it.
Someone had created a pharmacy record in her name.
Detective Aaron Wells took the case.
At first, he was cautious.
Then he saw the timeline.
Daycare records.
Hospital evidence.
Camera footage.
Claire's files.
Patricia's connection.
"What does Daniel say?"
Rebecca asked.
Wells closed his notebook.
"We haven't found him."
Rebecca's stomach turned.
His car was abandoned at a train station.
Wallet inside.
Phone broken beneath the driver's seat.
No sign of him.
Patricia had disappeared too.
Rebecca moved into a protected family shelter for three days.
Mia underwent blood testing.
No permanent damage.
Rebecca cried when the pediatrician told her.
She cried harder than she had when she learned about the danger because until then she had not realized how certain she was that something irreversible had already happened.
Adam flew in from Colorado.
He arrived furious.
Not at Rebecca.
At himself.
"I should've been here."
Rebecca looked at him.
"You didn't know."
"I knew I didn't like him."
"That's not the same."
Adam held Mia for nearly an hour.
Daniel had spent months telling Rebecca that Adam was unreliable.
That his calls were inconsistent.
That his work mattered more than Mia.
Now Rebecca questioned every missed call.
Every canceled visit.
Every message Daniel claimed Adam sent.
Adam showed her his phone.
Dozens of texts Rebecca had never received.
Daniel had blocked his number on Rebecca's phone during certain weeks.
He had replied pretending to be Rebecca.
The manipulation was bigger than illness.
Daniel had been isolating Mia from the one person who could automatically challenge his future adoption.
Detective Wells returned the next morning.
He had news.
A traffic camera caught Patricia's car crossing the state line.
Daniel was not visible.
But Wells believed he was inside.
"Where are they going?"
Claire knew.
"Oregon."
Rebecca turned.
"Owen."
Claire's son.
Daniel's son.
The child Daniel had lost thirteen years earlier.
Claire's face drained.
"He isn't running."
May you like
She looked at Rebecca.
"He's fixing unfinished business."
