Chapter 7
Robert had backups.
That was the first good news.
He had scanned every letter years earlier because Ellen told him Amanda might eventually destroy the originals.
Amanda didn’t know that.
The second good news was that Robert and Ellen were staying with relatives after the break-in.
The bad news was everything else.
The police couldn’t prove Amanda had been there.
A neighbor’s camera showed a dark SUV.
The license plate was unreadable.
Dad wanted Lily and me out of the house.
Rachel agreed.
So we moved into a hotel under different names.
I hated it.
The room smelled like carpet cleaner.
There was no backyard.
I couldn’t sleep because every sound in the hallway made me think someone was outside.
Dad put a chair under the door handle.
Seeing him do that made me more scared, not less.
Lily tried to make the hotel fun.
She jumped between the beds.
She called the ice machine “free snow.”
She made Dad buy tiny cereal boxes from the lobby store.
But at night, she cried quietly.
She missed Amanda.
One evening she whispered, “What if Mom is scared too?”
I didn’t know what to say.
Dad did.
“She may be.”
Lily looked at him.
“Then why can’t she come here?”
“Because when someone is scared, they still have to follow rules that keep other people safe.”
“Do you hate her?”
Dad stared at the floor.
“No.”
I was surprised.
Lily was too.
“You don’t?”
“I hate what she did.”
“That’s different?”
“Yes.”
Dad looked at both of us.
“Hating someone forever gives them a room in your head. I don’t want Amanda living in mine.”
I didn’t understand completely.
But I remembered it.
The forensic accountant arrived the next morning.
Her name was Priya Shah.
She spread financial records across the little hotel desk.
Dad made Lily and me watch movies on the other bed.
Again, I listened.
Priya found more than thirty-eight thousand dollars.
Much more.
Amanda had used a credit card Dad didn’t know existed.
She had opened it using his information.
There were payments to storage facilities.
Hotels.
Cash withdrawals.
A private mailbox.
Then Priya found something that made Rachel lean forward.
“What’s that?”
“A recurring payment.”
“To whom?”
Priya turned the laptop.
“Northstar Documentation Services.”
Rachel frowned.
“What do they do?”
“I looked them up. Translation, notarization, visa applications, passports.”
Dad stood.
“Passports?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Three months ago. Then again last week.”
The room became silent.
Dad looked at Lily.
She was watching cartoons.
She hadn’t heard.
Rachel lowered her voice.
“We need to know whether Amanda applied for travel documents.”
“Lily already has a passport.”
“Where is it?”
Dad’s face changed.
“At the house safe.”
Rachel didn’t say anything.
Dad grabbed his phone.
Officer Collins met us at the house.
Dad opened the safe.
His passport was there.
Mine was there.
Lily’s wasn’t.
Dad stared into the safe.
“I checked this two months ago.”
Officer Collins asked, “Who knew the code?”
“Amanda.”
Rachel rubbed her forehead.
“Daniel, did she ever discuss international travel?”
“Not recently.”
“Family overseas?”
“Her mother’s side is from Canada, but they’re all citizens here.”
Officer Collins took notes.
“Any other countries?”
Dad shook his head.
Priya called thirty minutes later.
The passport-services payment had included expedited processing for a minor.
Lily.
Dad looked sick.
Amanda had been preparing something before the camera ever appeared.
Before Dad returned early.
Before the court order.
That meant she had already been planning to take Lily somewhere.
The question was why.
Police upgraded the situation immediately.
They contacted border authorities.
Airlines.
Local airports.
Rachel filed an emergency motion asking the judge to suspend Amanda’s visitation entirely.
Then another surprise arrived.
Monica called Dad.
Amanda’s sister.
Dad put her on speaker with Officer Collins present.
Monica sounded terrified.
“I didn’t know.”
Dad’s voice was hard.
“Know what?”
“What she was doing to Ethan.”
“Where is Amanda?”
“I don’t know.”
“You left the apartment with her.”
Monica went quiet.
Officer Collins stepped closer.
“Monica, this is Officer Collins. Lying about Amanda’s location could expose you to criminal charges.”
Monica began crying.
“She told me Daniel was controlling her.”
Dad didn’t react.
“She said he was trying to take Lily because he hated that she wasn’t biologically his.”
Lily heard that from across the room.
She turned off the television.
Monica continued.
“I picked Amanda up. She asked me to drive her to a storage unit.”
“Which one?” Officer Collins asked.
“I’ll give you the address.”
“What was inside?”
“Suitcases. Cash. Documents.”
Dad closed his eyes.
“Where did you take her?”
“To a motel near the interstate.”
“And then?”
“I left.”
“Why?”
Monica’s crying grew louder.
“Because I saw the passport.”
Nobody moved.
“What passport?” Officer Collins asked.
“Lily’s.”
Dad gripped the edge of the table.
Monica continued.
“And there was another one.”
Rachel frowned.
“Another passport for whom?”
Monica whispered, “For Amanda.”
“That’s not surprising.”
“No.”
Monica took a shaking breath.
“It wasn’t in Amanda Miller’s name.”
Officer Collins’s eyes narrowed.
“What name?”
“Anna Mitchell.”
Rachel immediately opened her laptop.
Dad looked toward Lily and me.
I could see fear rising in his face again.
Officer Collins asked the next question.
“Did Amanda say where she was going?”
Monica hesitated.
“Yes.”
Dad stepped toward the phone.
“Where?”
“Vancouver first.”
“And after that?”
“Somewhere overseas.”
“Where?”
Monica started crying harder.
“She wouldn’t tell me.”
May you like
Then she said the sentence none of us forgot.
“She said once she got Lily back, none of you would ever see them again.”
