Chapter 7 - THE GARAGE DOOR
We reached the garage too late.
The side door was open.
Inside, nothing looked disturbed.
Then Pierce noticed fresh footprints.
Someone had entered recently.
They led toward an old wooden cabinet.
The cabinet had belonged to Josephine.
We opened it.
Nothing.
Then Elena pointed toward the floor.
A loose board.
Under it was a small cassette recorder.
Old-fashioned.
I pressed play.
Josephine's voice filled the garage.
“If you're hearing this, Beatrice has finally found the ledger.”
My chest tightened.
“My dear Charlotte, I am sorry.”
The recording continued.
“I could not tell you the truth when you were young.”
Josephine explained that my father had discovered Beatrice's financial fraud.
He had copied everything.
But Beatrice discovered him.
She threatened his family.
My mother was pregnant.
Elena was already born.
I was six.
My father had to choose.
He gave Josephine the evidence.
Then disappeared.
Not because he wanted to abandon us.
Because he believed Beatrice would kill him.
I covered my mouth.
For twenty years, I had believed my father simply left.
He hadn't.
He had sacrificed his life so we could survive.
Then Josephine said something else.
“The ledger is only proof of the past.”
A pause.
“The real danger is what Beatrice is willing to do now.”
The recording ended.
Pierce looked at me.
“What now?”
“We protect Penelope.”
But then my phone rang.
Hospital.
My heart stopped.
The nurse sounded frightened.
“Dr. Bennett, your daughter is gone.”
I couldn't breathe.
“What?”
“She was taken from the pediatric floor.”
“By whom?”
“We don't know.”
The corridor around me seemed to disappear.
Pierce was already moving.
“Lock down the hospital.”
We ran.
Security footage showed a woman entering Penelope's room.
Brown coat.
Gray hair.
Beatrice.
She had used a visitor badge.
She had told staff she was Penelope's grandmother.
The footage showed Penelope leaving willingly.
She wasn't dragged.
She was holding Beatrice's hand.
I felt sick.
“She trusted her.”
Pierce looked at me.
“We'll find them.”
Then Elena stepped closer.
“She won't hurt Penelope.”
I looked at her.
“How can you know that?”
“Because Beatrice never wanted children hurt.”
“Then why leave Penelope alone?”
“Because she wanted you blamed.”
I understood.
Beatrice had always been careful.
She didn't need Penelope dead.
She needed Penelope useful.
A witness.
A tool.
A reason for me to lose custody.
Then my phone received a photograph.
Penelope sitting in the back seat of a car.
Alive.
Scared.
Beside her was Beatrice.
No message.
Just the image.
Pierce immediately traced the metadata.
The photo had been taken at an abandoned roadside property outside Minneapolis.
We went there with officers.
The building was empty.
But Penelope's yellow sweater lay on a chair.
A child's drawing sat beside it.
The drawing showed a house.
The words beneath it:
MOMMY WILL FIND ME.
I almost broke.
Then I noticed something.
The drawing had a red flower in one corner.
The same flower as Elena's bracelet.
Pierce understood.
“She left us a marker.”
Penelope had been clever.
She had been leaving clues.
We followed them.
The flower led to an old community center.
Inside, we found a children's room.
Empty.
Except for a small backpack.
Penelope's.
Inside was a family photograph.
But there was another person in it.
My father.
Alive.
Standing beside Beatrice.
And holding Elena as a baby.
I stared.
“That picture shouldn't exist.”
Elena whispered,
“It does.”
On the back was a date.
The day after my father supposedly disappeared.
He had been alive.
Beatrice had lied.
Pierce found another clue.
A receipt from a bus station.
Destination: Duluth.
Departure: 9:40 p.m.
We were running out of time.
At the station, officers searched every platform.
Then a child cried.
I turned.
Penelope was standing beside a bench.
Beatrice was gone.
I ran.
“Mommy!”
I dropped to my knees.
She threw herself into my arms.
I held her so tightly she squeaked.
“Are you okay?”
She nodded.
“She wasn't mean.”
“Where is she?”
Penelope pointed toward the parking lot.
“She said she had to get something.”
“What?”
“The book.”
“What book?”
“The one Daddy wanted.”
I looked toward the lot.
A car started.
Pierce ran after it.
But it was too late.
Beatrice escaped.
Then Penelope whispered,
“Mommy?”
“Yes?”
“Grandma said something before she left.”
“What?”
“She said Daddy was never supposed to marry you.”
My blood ran cold.
“Why?”
May you like
Penelope looked at me.
“She said you were only supposed to be the woman who owned the house.”
