Chapter 16 - THE WITNESS
Hope arrived from an unexpected place.
A woman called the police station. She had seen Vanessa’s photo on the news and recognized her. She worked as a housekeeper at a hotel just fifteen miles outside town. Vanessa had been staying there under a false name for the past week.
The police moved fast. They surrounded the hotel. They went to her room. But when they opened the door… it was empty. She had checked out less than an hour earlier.
However, she had left something behind. Tucked beneath the mattress, wrapped in plastic… was a journal. Her personal journal.
When the police brought it to me, I hesitated before opening it. I didn’t want to read her words. I didn’t want to understand her thoughts. But I had to know what she was planning.
I opened it. Page after page of rage. Grievances written in tight, angry handwriting. Every insult she had ever suffered. Every slight. Every moment she had felt abandoned.
And then… the final entry. Written just hours earlier.
*“They think they’ve won. They think the police can protect her. But I know where she goes. I know what she does. Tomorrow is the anniversary of the day Rachel told me she loved me but couldn’t give me what I was owed. Tomorrow is the day everything changes. Tomorrow I take Mia. And then Adrian will know exactly how it feels to lose everything he loves.”*
Tomorrow.
May you like
I looked at the date at the top of the page.
Tomorrow was the anniversary of the day Rachel had died.
