Chapter 4
For several seconds, I thought I had heard Claire wrong.
“Your mother?”
She nodded.
“My mother’s name is Judith.”
I stared at her.
Judith had been part of our lives from the beginning.
She lived forty minutes away.
She had held Madison at birthday parties.
Bought her Christmas gifts.
Sat in the front row at school concerts.
She had hugged me at our wedding.
“No,” I said.
Claire’s expression was broken.
“Daniel, Eric knew my mother before he knew me.”
“What?”
“They worked together.”
“You never told me that.”
“I didn’t think it mattered.”
Officer Ramirez stepped closer.
“Tell me everything.”
Claire sat on the edge of the motel bed.
“My mother managed an apartment complex when I was nineteen. Eric did maintenance work there. That’s how I met him.”
“How close were they?” Ramirez asked.
“I don’t know. My mother liked him at first.”
“At first?”
“Then when I got pregnant, everything changed.”
Claire rubbed her hands together.
“She kept telling me Eric wasn’t ready. She said I was ruining my life. She wanted me to move home without him.”
“And after he left?” I asked.
“She said she never heard from him again.”
My stomach tightened.
“Apparently that was another lie.”
Police went to Judith’s house.
We followed.
By the time we arrived, the front door was open and officers were inside.
Judith was not there.
Neither was Madison.
But there was enough inside the house to make the truth impossible to ignore.
Printed photographs.
Bank statements.
Old letters.
And one large plastic storage box hidden in the back of Judith’s closet.
Inside were years of records about Eric.
Copies of emails.
Money transfers.
Addresses.
Photographs.
Judith had known where he was.
For years.
Claire sat on the hallway floor holding a stack of papers.
Her mother had lied to her for more than a decade.
And apparently, I wasn’t the only person who had kept a secret.
Officer Ramirez picked up one transfer receipt.
Five thousand dollars.
Sent to Eric eight years earlier.
Another.
Three thousand.
Five years earlier.
Another.
Two thousand.
Two years earlier.
Claire whispered, “She was paying him.”
“Why?” I asked.
Nobody answered.
Then we found the letters.
The first was from Eric.
Judith,
I did what you wanted. I stayed gone.
But Daniel thinks he bought me off.
Maybe that’s useful.
I looked at Claire.
Her face had no expression.
The next letter was worse.
You said Claire would eventually realize Daniel isn’t right for her.
It’s been four years.
How long exactly am I supposed to wait?
Another.
Madison will ask about me someday.
When she does, make sure she hears the right version first.
I felt sick.
This hadn’t started four months earlier.
This had been planned for years.
Claire whispered, “My mother wanted us to split up.”
I crouched beside her.
“Why?”
She looked at me.
“I think I know.”
“What?”
“She never liked that I married you.”
“She was nice to me.”
“She was polite to you.”
“There’s a difference.”
Claire looked toward the room filled with officers.
“My mother believed I had thrown away my future.”
“Because of me?”
“Because I married a mechanic.”
I almost laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because it was so small compared with the damage surrounding us.
Claire continued.
“She wanted me to go back to school. She wanted me to marry someone with money. Someone from what she called a respectable family.”
“You never told me.”
“Because I told her to stop.”
“And she did?”
“I thought she did.”
Apparently Judith had simply stopped saying it out loud.
A detective arrived shortly before dawn.
Her name was Naomi Brooks.
She read the messages.
Reviewed the documents.
Then asked us a question neither of us expected.
“Does Judith have access to any family property outside the city?”
Claire frowned.
“My grandfather had a cabin near Blue Ridge.”
“Who owns it?”
“My mother now.”
“Address?”
Claire gave it.
Detective Brooks made a call.
Then she turned to us.
“Stay here.”
“No,” Claire said immediately.
“Mrs. Hayes—”
“My daughter may be there.”
“And if she is, we need to approach carefully.”
“I’m coming.”
Brooks studied her.
Then she looked at me.
“You keep her back.”
“I’ll try.”
“That wasn’t a suggestion.”
Two hours later, we were driving toward the mountains.
The rain had stopped.
Morning was beginning to break.
Claire hadn’t spoken for almost twenty minutes.
Then she said, “Do you remember our wedding?”
I glanced at her.
“Of course.”
“My mother cried.”
“She did.”
“I thought she was happy.”
Maybe she had been.
People were complicated.
Love could exist beside control.
Concern could become obsession.
A person could believe they were protecting you while destroying your life.
I knew that better than anyone.
“I understand her more than I want to,” I said.
Claire looked at me.
“What?”
“I kept the truth from you because I thought I knew what was best for you.”
Her eyes hardened slightly.
“You’re not the same as her.”
“No. But I understand the first step.”
“What first step?”
“Deciding someone else doesn’t deserve to make their own choice.”
Claire looked away.
That was the worst part of secrets.
Even when your reasons were loving, the secret still took something away from the person you claimed to protect.
Choice.
Trust.
Truth.
We reached the cabin shortly after seven.
Police vehicles stopped half a mile away.
Officers moved quietly through the trees.
Claire and I were kept near the road.
Then my phone rang.
Madison.
I answered instantly.
“Madison?”
She was crying.
“Dad?”
The word nearly broke me.
“I’m here.”
“I want to come home.”
“We’re coming.”
“No!”
Her whisper became urgent.
“Don’t come inside.”
“Where are you?”
“The cabin.”
I looked toward Detective Brooks.
She was already signaling officers.
“Is Eric there?”
“Yes.”
“Grandma?”
“Yes.”
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Can you get outside?”
“I don’t know.”
Then I heard arguing behind her.
Judith’s voice.
Eric’s.
Madison whispered, “They’re fighting.”
“About what?”
“Me.”
My stomach clenched.
“What are they saying?”
“Grandma says this wasn’t supposed to happen.”
“What wasn’t?”
“She says Eric was only supposed to tell me enough to make Mom leave you.”
I closed my eyes.
There it was.
The plan.
Madison continued.
“Eric wants money.”
“How much?”
“I don’t know.”
“He said something about fifty thousand.”
Claire heard that and covered her mouth.
Then a loud crash came through the phone.
Madison gasped.
“Hide,” I told her.
“I am.”
“Where?”
“Bathroom.”
“Lock the door.”
“There’s no lock.”
“Put something in front of it.”
“I can’t.”
“Then stay quiet.”
Eric shouted in the background.
“You owe me!”
Judith shouted back.
“You took the girl! That was never part of this!”
“You wanted Daniel gone.”
“I wanted Claire to wake up!”
“You wanted control.”
Then another crash.
Madison began breathing faster.
“I’m scared.”
“I know.”
“Dad, I’m sorry.”
“Not now.”
“I said horrible things.”
“Madison, listen to me.”
She cried quietly.
“You have nothing to apologize for right now. We are getting you out.”
Footsteps approached her bathroom.
She stopped breathing.
I heard the doorknob move.
Then Eric said, “Madison?”
She covered the phone.
His voice came again.
“I know you’re in there.”
I looked desperately at Detective Brooks.
She whispered into her radio.
Officers were moving.
Eric pushed the bathroom door open.
Madison screamed.
“Give me the phone,” he said.
“No!”
“Madison.”
“Get away from me!”
Then the line went dead.
Claire ran toward the cabin.
I caught her around the waist.
“No!”
“That’s my baby!”
“Police are going in!”
Three officers rushed through the trees.
A shout echoed from the cabin.
Then another.
“Police!”
A gunshot cracked through the morning.
Claire screamed.
I froze.
For one horrible second, the whole world stopped.
May you like
Then a second shot rang out.
And smoke began pouring from one of the cabin windows.
