Chapter 12 - Rachel Bell’s Missing Years
Rachel Bell returned under federal protection.
She looked older than her thirty-two years.
Thin.
Short hair.
A scar along her chin.
Emma met her in a federal interview facility three weeks before her due date.
Rachel stared at Emma’s belly before looking into her eyes.
“Thomas had a daughter.”
“You knew my father?”
“For six months.”
“When?”
“Before he died.”
Emma sat down.
“What did he tell you?”
Rachel’s hands trembled.
“Not enough.”
She explained that her mother had worked for Conrad Vale.
Not as an employee.
As a patient recruiter.
Rachel’s mother had suffered from addiction, debt, and unstable housing.
Vale helped her.
Then owned her.
She brought vulnerable women into programs connected to Redbridge’s early network.
Some were pregnant.
Some were involved in custody disputes.
Some simply had no families powerful enough to ask questions.
Thomas discovered it.
“He thought it was a data project,” Rachel said. “Then he realized they were using his software to choose people.”
“Choose them for what?”
“Pressure. Recruitment. Removal. Whatever a client needed.”
Emma thought of Number Twenty.
“Was my father trying to expose them?”
“Yes.”
“Then why didn’t he go to police?”
“He did.”
“What happened?”
“Someone inside warned Vale.”
Emma stared.
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
Rachel looked toward the mirrored wall.
“Thomas stopped trusting institutions after that.”
“Did Conrad kill him?”
Rachel’s eyes lowered.
“I don’t know.”
“You said you knew him before he died.”
“Thomas contacted my mother because she had records.”
“What records?”
“Names.”
“How many?”
“Hundreds.”
Emma felt cold.
“Where are they?”
Rachel smiled sadly.
“If I knew, I wouldn’t have spent three years locked in a private hospital.”
Emma leaned forward.
“Jonah put you there?”
“He signed papers.”
“Why?”
“Because Redbridge told him I was dangerous.”
Rachel’s voice remained remarkably calm.
“They drugged me. Told me I’d abandoned my child. Told people I was delusional when I said records were being falsified.”
Emma gripped the edge of the table.
“How did you survive?”
“I stopped arguing.”
The answer hurt.
Rachel continued.
“I learned which version of myself they wanted. Cooperative. Quiet. Confused.”
“Why didn’t you escape?”
“I tried twice.”
“What happened?”
“Both times, someone brought me back.”
Emma thought of officers, records, systems.
A cage did not need bars if every door led back to the same people.
“What does this have to do with me?”
Rachel looked at her for a long moment.
“Your father gave me something.”
“What?”
“A key.”
Emma waited.
“Physical?”
“Yes.”
“To what?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where is it?”
“I mailed it before I was committed.”
“To whom?”
Rachel’s expression changed.
“To you.”
Emma stared.
“I never received anything.”
“It wasn’t addressed to Emma Carter.”
“What name?”
Rachel looked directly at her.
“Emma Vale.”
The room went silent.
Emma’s pulse raced.
“Why?”
“Thomas told me that if something happened to him, there was one name Redbridge would never expect him to protect.”
“Mine?”
“No.”
Rachel shook her head.
“Conrad’s.”
Emma thought about the false birth certificate.
Mother: Rachel Vale.
“Who is Rachel Vale?”
Rachel Bell looked frightened.
“That’s what Thomas wanted you to find out.”
Agent Shaw entered the room.
She carried a phone.
“We have a problem.”
Emma turned.
“What?”
“Matthew Carter has disappeared.”
Emma stood.
“He was in custody.”
“He was being transported.”
“What happened?”
“Vehicle collision.”
“Did he escape?”
“We believe he had help.”
Rachel’s face lost color.
Emma saw it.
“You know what that means.”
Rachel did not answer.
“Tell me.”
Rachel whispered, “Redbridge doesn’t rescue people.”
Emma stared.
May you like
“What do they do?”
“They erase liabilities.”
