Chapter 6 - THE RETURN
Three days passed. No word from Vanessa. No calls. No texts. No emails.
I had reported everything to the police—the switched medication, the DNA request, the evidence from the bus camera. They had taken the report and promised to investigate, but without Vanessa in custody or a formal charge filed, there was only so much they could do.
I had also filed for emergency custody protection and a restraining order. The paperwork was filed. The judge had been clear: if Vanessa came within five hundred feet of Mia, she would be arrested immediately.
Mia stayed home from school. I kept her close. I explained simply that Vanessa had gone away for a while and that things would be different from now on. She accepted it with a quiet seriousness that broke my heart. She didn’t ask many questions. She just held my hand a little tighter and watched the door a little more closely.
Ethan moved into the guest room. “Just in case,” he said. “I can help keep watch.”
On the fourth day, the lawyer called.
“Adrian,” Eleanor said, her voice grim. “Vanessa has filed a petition.”
I gripped the phone. “For what?”
“Custody of Mia.”
My blood turned to ice. “On what grounds?”
“That you are unfit. That you have endangered Mia’s health. That you allowed a dangerous situation to occur. And that she—Vanessa—is the child’s biological aunt and closest living relative.”
“She is not Mia’s aunt,” I said, standing up. “She is her half-sister. And she is dangerous.”
“Which we will prove,” Eleanor said. “But she has also filed to have herself recognized as Rachel’s daughter and therefore entitled to a share of the estate. She’s claiming everything—your assets, the house, custody of Mia.”
“She can’t do that.”
“She can try. And she’s using the incident at the school as proof that you cannot be trusted with Mia’s safety. She’s twisting everything—claiming you were negligent, that you allowed the medication to be tampered with, that you sided with a stranger over your own wife.” Eleanor paused. “And she’s demanding a hearing. In three days.”
“So soon?”
“She wants to move fast. Before we can gather evidence. Before we can prove who she really is.”
“She doesn’t know we have the DNA results from Hale,” I said. “She doesn’t know we know she’s Rachel’s daughter.”
“Which means we hold an advantage,” Eleanor said. “But we must be careful. If we reveal that in court… everything changes. The judge will see her as a biological relative. He may be sympathetic to her claim.”
“Even after she tried to hurt Mia?”
“She will say it was all a misunderstanding. She will say she was trying to protect Mia. She will twist the story until it’s unrecognizable.” Eleanor took a breath. “We need proof. Proof of her intent. Proof of her threats. Proof that Rachel feared her.”
“I have Rachel’s journal,” I said. “Or most of it.”
“Bring it. Everything. We need to be ready.”
“I will.”
I hung up and walked to the bookshelf. I pulled down Rachel’s journals, the ones I had found earlier. I flipped through the pages, searching for the entries from the months before she died.
I found them. Pages filled with her handwriting. Entries about Vanessa. About the daughter she had found. About the fear that had grown with every meeting.
*“Vanessa came today. She demanded money again. She says she is entitled to what my parents left me. I told her I would help her get established, but that I would not simply hand over thousands of dollars. She became angry. She told me I would regret choosing my husband and my new daughter over her.”*
*“I gave her a key to the house. A mistake. She came in while I was sleeping. She stood by the bed and watched me. When I woke up, she said she was just checking on me. But her eyes… her eyes were cold. She told me I should be more careful about who I let into my home.”*
*“I am afraid. She watches Mia. Too closely. She asks questions about her health. About her food. About her allergies. I told Adrian I wanted to change doctors, to keep better records, to be more careful. He thinks I am being paranoid. But I know what I saw. Vanessa touched Mia’s bottle. She stood over her crib. And then she smiled at me. A smile that said she knew something I did not.”*
My hands shook as I read. Rachel had known. She had tried to warn me. And I had been too busy loving her, too busy trusting the woman I had married, to listen.
I turned the page. The final entry was dated two days before she died.
*“I have written a letter. I have told her everything. If anything happens to me, the truth is in the envelope. I have hidden it where she will not look. Where only Adrian will find it. I have told him everything about Vanessa. About the threats. About the way she looks at Mia. About the things she whispers when she thinks no one is listening. I pray it is not needed. But if it is… I pray he finds it in time.”*
I turned the page. And then another.
May you like
That was where it ended.
The letter Rachel had mentioned… was missing.
