Chapter 3 - The Woman Who Called Herself Mom
Nathaniel moved Ruby into a private conference room on the second floor.
The room had no windows facing the street, and only two doors, both guarded. His security team swept the furniture for listening devices while technicians restored the building’s internal network.
Ruby sat at the end of a table designed for thirty executives.
Her feet did not reach the floor.
Nathaniel placed a cup of hot chocolate in front of her.
“I don’t like marshmallows,” Ruby said.
He removed them one by one with a spoon.
She watched him suspiciously.
“Are you going to arrest my mom?”
“No.”
“Are you going to take me away from her?”
“No.”
“You said those answers too fast.”
Nathaniel set down the spoon.
“You are right. I cannot promise what other people might try to do. But I will not separate you from the woman who raised you.”
Ruby relaxed slightly.
Nathaniel called the number on the eviction notice.
It connected to an automated service.
He called the city property office.
The clerk confirmed that Hawthorne Residential Holdings had filed an emergency repossession request against apartment 4C.
The request contained Nathaniel’s electronic authorization.
He had never signed it.
Someone inside Vale Meridian had used his identity.
At the same time, Nathaniel’s security chief, Marcus Reed, dispatched a team to Ruby’s apartment.
When they arrived, the door was open.
Furniture had been overturned.
The locked drawer beneath the family photograph was empty.
June Bennett was gone.
Ruby learned this when Marcus entered the conference room and whispered to Nathaniel.
She knew immediately that something was wrong.
“What happened?”
Nathaniel did not answer.
Ruby pushed the hot chocolate away.
“What happened to my mom?”
Marcus crouched beside her.
“The apartment was empty.”
“She was at work.”
“We called the bakery. She never arrived.”
Ruby climbed down from the chair.
“I have to go home.”
“We cannot let you leave the building,” Nathaniel said.
Ruby looked at the guards.
“You locked me in.”
“It is for your protection.”
“That’s what the man at our apartment said before he told us to leave.”
The accusation struck harder than Nathaniel expected.
He ordered the guards to step away from the doors.
“You are not a prisoner. But someone threatened you on every screen in this building. Until we understand why, going outside would be dangerous.”
Ruby opened her backpack.
She took out a library book, a pencil case, a small stuffed rabbit, and a lunch container.
At the bottom was a silver key.
“Mom gave me this last year,” she said. “She told me to keep it with me every day.”
Nathaniel recognized the symbol engraved into the key.
A small compass surrounded by four lines.
It was the private seal of the Vale family.
Only five keys had ever been made.
His father had owned one. Nathaniel still possessed another. His late wife had carried the third.
Elara had taken the fourth when she disappeared.
“Where did June get this?” he asked.
“She said it belonged to my real mother.”
Nathaniel sat beside her.
“So June told you she was not your birth mother?”
“Not exactly.”
Ruby held the stuffed rabbit closer.
“When I was six, I found a hospital bracelet. It said Baby Girl Vale.”
Nathaniel closed his eyes.
Ruby continued.
“Mom said a woman left me with her because bad people were coming. She said the woman loved me, but she couldn’t come back.”
“What did the woman look like?”
“Mom wouldn’t say.”
“Did she tell you the woman’s name?”
Ruby shook her head.
“She only said my middle name came from her.”
Elara.
Nathaniel reached into Silas’s briefcase and removed the photograph.
He placed it on the table.
“Have you seen this woman before?”
Ruby stared at Elara.
“No.”
Then she pointed at the edge of the photograph.
“But I know that room.”
Nathaniel leaned closer.
Behind Elara was a blue wall painted with white clouds.
“That’s the room behind our kitchen,” Ruby said. “The one Mom never opens.”
Marcus looked at Nathaniel.
“The apartment search team found no room behind the kitchen.”
Ruby took the silver key.
“There is.”
She pointed toward the compass symbol.
“This opens it.”
Nathaniel stood.
“We’re going to Hawthorne Lane.”
Before they reached the elevator, Marcus received a call.
He listened, then ended it.
“The police found June Bennett.”
“Where?”
“In a car near the river.”
Ruby’s face went white.
Marcus quickly added, “She is alive.”
“Take us to her,” Nathaniel said.
Marcus did not move.
“There is another problem.”
May you like
He looked at Ruby.
“June claims she has never seen this child before.”
