Chapter 3 - Blood and BetrayalThe room spun. I had to grip the edge of the metal table to keep from sliding off my chair.
“Elena?” My voice was barely an audible squeak. “No. That’s impossible. Elena loves Kayla. She helped pick out her prom dress! She paid for the corsage!”
“Elena Adams was deeply in debt to Robert Vance’s illegal gambling operation,” Detective Miller explained coldly, showing me financial records attached to the dossier. “She owed over two hundred thousand dollars. When she couldn't pay, Robert Vance offered her a deal: secure access to your home, help Steven maintain control over Kayla, and feed them information about your husband's business finances so they could blackmail him.”
I stood up so fast my chair crashed backward against the floor.
David sprang up, his face twisted in horror. “Elena?! My sister was helping them ruin my daughter?!”
“She wasn't just helping them,” Miller corrected sharp as a razor. “She was directing them. Elena knew that if Steven got Kayla pregnant, your families would be forced into a permanent legal union, effectively shielding Robert Vance’s money laundering operations behind your family's clean corporate assets.”
A wave of nausea washed over me. My own sister. The woman who came over for Sunday dinners, who braided Kayla’s hair when she was little, who brought Reese ice cream when she was sick—she had sold my oldest daughter into a living nightmare just to cover her own gambling debts.
“Where is she?” I growled, a fury rising inside me so hot it felt like pure acid. “Where is Elena?!”
“We sent a squad car to her apartment twenty minutes ago,” Detective Miller said, pulling out her radio. “She wasn't there. Her car is missing. She knew Steven was busted, and she’s running.”
Just then, Miller’s radio chirped with static.
“Control, this is Unit 4. We have a visual on the suspect’s vehicle. Black Honda Civic, heading west on Route 9 toward the state line. She’s driving recklessly.”
Before the officer on the radio could finish his sentence, another voice broke through the static, urgent and alarmed:
“Unit 4, cancel pursuit! Suspect has turned around! Repeat, suspect has turned around and is heading back toward the Adams residence on Maple Street!”
My heart plummeted into my stomach.
“My house,” I gasped, grabbing Miller’s arm. “My kids!”
“Your children are here in the precinct, Mrs. Adams!” Miller reassured me quickly.
“No!” I screamed, horror dawning on me like a physical blow. “Reese left her pink tape recorder in her room! She told me earlier she wanted to go back and get the secondary tapes! She thought she lost one!”
David’s face went deadly pale. “Oh God... Sarah, when we were in the lobby earlier, Reese said she needed to use the restroom... I thought she went into the hall!”
I didn't wait for the police. I turned and bolted out of the interrogation room, slamming through the heavy double doors into the precinct lobby.
Kayla was sitting on the bench, holding her hood tight around her head, crying quietly.
May you like
Beside her, the seat was empty.
Reese was gone.
