Chapter 8 - Forty Seven Nights)
The evidence took hours to organize.
The girls were moved immediately to Alexander's bedroom, the warmest room in the house.
A pediatric doctor Rebecca trusted arrived before midnight.
The examination found dehydration, mild weight loss, and signs of repeated food restriction.
Nothing required hospitalization.
That fact did not comfort Alexander.
The doctor explained that children could appear physically functional while still experiencing serious neglect.
Alexander sat beside the bed while all four girls ate soup.
Slowly.
Carefully.
Valerie asked before taking a second piece of bread.
"Can I?"
Alexander nearly broke again.
"You never have to ask permission to eat when you're hungry."
She looked at her sisters.
"Really?"
"Really."
Camila asked, "Even after bedtime?"
"If you're hungry after bedtime, you tell me."
Sophie dipped a spoon into soup.
"What if you're working?"
Alexander swallowed.
"Then I stop working."
Regina studied him.
"What if it's important?"
"You are more important."
The four girls exchanged looks.
Trust, Alexander realized, could not be restored by a sentence.
They had heard promises before.
He would have to prove it.
Downstairs, police officers interviewed guests separately.
Vanessa remained in Rebecca's sight until officers arrived.
Alexander did not watch when she was escorted from the office.
He did not want the girls to see it either.
He asked Henry to close the bedroom door.
Sometime after midnight, Daniel arrived from New York with a hard drive containing the security archive.
Rebecca joined him in the library.
Alexander came downstairs only after the girls fell asleep.
"What do we have?"
Daniel looked exhausted.
"Forty-seven nights."
Alexander sat.
The first recording played.
Vanessa shouting.
The second.
Vanessa ordering a child into the hallway.
The third.
A plate being taken away.
Then photographs.
Locked doors.
Dark rooms.
Children sitting at the dining table without food while parties happened nearby.
Alexander stopped after twenty minutes.
"I can't."
Rebecca turned off the screen.
Daniel looked down.
Alexander pressed both hands against his face.
"How did I not see this?"
Neither person answered immediately.
Finally Daniel said,
"Because she worked very hard to make sure you didn't."
"That's not enough."
"No."
"I should have known."
Rebecca leaned forward.
"You should have asked more questions."
Alexander looked at her.
She did not soften it.
"You relied too heavily on Vanessa. You ignored signs because you trusted your marriage. You traveled too much."
Alexander nodded.
"But," Rebecca continued, "you did not starve them. You did not lock them in rooms. You did not forge documents."
"I gave her access."
"Then take responsibility for that part."
Alexander looked toward the ceiling.
Above them, four girls slept in his room.
"What happens now?"
Rebecca opened a folder.
"Vanessa will hire attorneys."
"Of course."
"She may argue that discipline was misinterpreted. The forgery will be more difficult for her to explain."
"What about the trust documents?"
"Potential fraud. Maybe more."
"Will she come back here?"
"Not tonight."
"Ever?"
Rebecca paused.
"That's not a promise I can make yet."
Alexander's jaw tightened.
Daniel said, "There's another problem."
"What?"
"The financial review."
Alexander looked at him.
Daniel opened his laptop.
"When I saw the trust files, I started checking household accounts."
"And?"
"Vanessa spent more than nine hundred thousand dollars in eight months."
Alexander blinked.
"On what?"
"Jewelry. Events. Transfers to a company called Greenstone Lifestyle Holdings."
"I don't know that company."
"Neither did I."
Daniel turned the screen.
"The registered owner is Cynthia Palmer."
Vanessa's friend.
Alexander stared.
"How much?"
"Two hundred eighty thousand transferred directly."
Rebecca asked, "For services?"
"Supposedly event consulting."
"Did she provide services?"
Daniel gave a humorless smile.
"Not two hundred eighty thousand dollars worth."
Alexander remembered Cynthia laughing in his ballroom while his daughters sat in the cold.
"Keep digging."
Daniel nodded.
Then the library door opened.
Sophie stood there holding the torn rabbit.
Alexander immediately rose.
"What are you doing awake?"
"I had a bad dream."
He crossed the room.
She held up Oliver.
"Can you fix him?"
Alexander looked at the ripped seam.
Cotton showed through.
"I can try."
"Mommy fixed him better."
"I know."
Sophie climbed onto his lap.
Rebecca and Daniel quietly gathered their papers.
Before leaving, Rebecca stopped.
"Sophie, can I ask something?"
Sophie nodded.
"The card you hid. Was there only one?"
Sophie looked confused.
"One what?"
"Memory card."
She thought.
Then shook her head.
Regina appeared at the door in her nightgown.
"No."
Everyone turned.
Regina rubbed her eyes.
"There were two."
Alexander stared.
"What?"
Regina pointed at the rabbit.
"Sophie used the black one."
"Where's the other?"
Regina walked into the library.
"In Mommy's recorder."
Sophie frowned.
"But Vanessa broke the black one."
Regina nodded.
"I copied it."
Alexander's heart stopped.
Rebecca crouched.
"You copied the recordings?"
Regina shrugged.
"I put them on the silver one because Sophie loses things."
Sophie looked offended.
"I do not."
"You lost your purple shoe."
"That was Camila."
Alexander almost laughed despite everything.
Then Rebecca asked the only question that mattered.
"Regina, where is the silver card?"
Regina looked toward the hallway.
"In Daddy's Christmas present."
Alexander stared.
"What Christmas present?"
The girls had made him something.
The thing Vanessa mentioned during the phone call.
Valerie appeared behind her sisters.
"A picture frame."
"Where is it?"
Valerie's face changed.
"Under the tree."
Everyone looked toward the ballroom.
Hours earlier, dozens of guests had been walking around that tree.
Vanessa had known the girls made a present.
If she realized a second card existed, the strongest evidence in the house might already be gone.
Alexander stood.
"Show me."
They ran downstairs.
The ballroom was nearly empty now.
Police had dismissed most guests.
Wrapping paper and abandoned glasses covered tables.
The Christmas tree still glowed.
Beneath it sat dozens of gifts.
The girls searched.
Red box.
Blue box.
Gold box.
Nothing.
Valerie looked at Alexander.
"It was here."
Sophie whispered,
"Vanessa took it."
Alexander turned.
Then Henry spoke from the doorway.
"No."
Everyone looked at him.
May you like
Henry held a square package wrapped in silver paper.
"I did."
