Chapter 9 - the yellow sweater)
Police entered seconds later.
Daniel ran.
Patricia did not.
She stood beside Owen and raised both hands.
Rebecca untied him.
Claire rushed downstairs when officers cleared the house.
Owen collapsed against his mother.
Daniel escaped through a basement window into the wooded drainage area behind the property.
For three hours police searched.
They found nothing.
Patricia was arrested.
At the station she finally explained the yellow sweater.
There was dried residue inside the collar.
Medication.
Daniel had used the sweater to transfer crushed sedative mixed with a topical cream onto Mia's skin during a staged fall.
Not enough for precise dosing.
Enough to make her sluggish.
Enough for him to record Rebecca coming home to a confused child and later claim Rebecca ignored symptoms.
But Patricia said the plan evolved.
Daniel became impatient.
He wanted stronger incidents.
"I told him no hospital," Patricia said during recorded questioning. "Hospitals create records."
Rebecca watched from behind the interview glass.
Detective Wells asked, "Then why did you go with him?"
"Because Mia wouldn't wake up."
Patricia's voice cracked.
The first genuine emotion Rebecca had seen from her.
"He panicked."
"You helped him use a false name."
"Yes."
"Why Lily Bennett?"
Patricia looked at the table.
"My daughter."
Rebecca stared.
Wells paused.
"You have a daughter?"
"Had."
Patricia closed her eyes.
"Lily died when she was three."
Daniel had a sister.
A real one.
The lie about a half sister named Rachel had hidden a more painful truth.
Lily died from an accidental medication overdose while Patricia was caring for her.
Daniel was eight.
Patricia spent years blaming doctors.
Daniel spent years blaming Patricia.
And yet when he needed a false identity for an unconscious child, he used Lily's.
Not random.
A dead child could never appear in a database as a living adult.
But it was also something darker.
A private punishment.
A reminder to Patricia.
Rebecca wondered whether Daniel had ever loved anyone without also wanting control over them.
Patricia admitted the plan began as financial revenge.
William Hale, Rebecca's father, had indeed destroyed Patricia's family business.
But records showed the collapse was more complicated.
Patricia's husband had committed fraud.
William exposed it.
Daniel had grown up hearing only Patricia's version.
A family myth became a mission.
Daniel researched Rebecca.
Met her deliberately.
Married her deliberately.
Then somewhere along the way, greed replaced revenge.
Mia's trust became the target.
Daniel wanted adoption.
Then Rebecca declared unfit.
Then Adam removed.
Then full control.
"What was supposed to happen to Adam?" Wells asked.
Patricia looked away.
Rebecca felt cold.
Wells repeated.
"What was the plan for Mia's biological father?"
Patricia whispered, "Drugs in his car."
Rebecca closed her eyes.
Daniel had planned another frame.
Not murder.
Not originally.
Just enough to destroy everyone around Mia.
Wells asked, "Where is Daniel now?"
Patricia smiled faintly.
"If I knew, do you think I'd be sitting here?"
Rebecca turned away from the glass.
Then her phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
A photograph.
Mia asleep in Sophie's guest room.
Rebecca's heart stopped.
She called Sophie.
Sophie answered immediately.
"Mia's fine."
Rebecca could not breathe.
"When was that picture taken?"
"What picture?"
Rebecca looked closer.
The photograph had been taken through the bedroom window.
Tonight.
While police guarded Sophie.
Daniel had been close enough to watch Mia sleep.
A second message arrived.
YOU KEEP TAKING PEOPLE FROM ME.
A third.
NOW I TAKE ONE THING FROM YOU.
Rebecca typed with shaking hands.
WHAT?
The response came instantly.
TRUST.
May you like
Then Mia's trust account administrator called.
Someone had just attempted an emergency transfer of every dollar.
