Chapter 7 - The Sister Who Never Left
The photograph was old.
Marcus proved it in seven minutes.
"The wallpaper pattern was discontinued eighteen months ago," he said. "And Elena's wearing the watch you gave her before she moved."
Emilio stared at the screen.
"So they're bluffing."
"Maybe."
Mara shook her head. "Or they're telling you she was never in Madrid."
That possibility hurt worse.
Emilio had spoken to Elena every few months. Short calls. Busy calls. She always blamed time zones.
He searched his email.
Every message from her came through the same encrypted forwarding service.
Marcus called a contact in Spain.
No apartment lease.
No Spanish tax ID.
No employment record.
Elena Vega had vanished from public life after Lucia died.
Ava wandered into the room holding Bunny.
"Daddy?"
Emilio closed the laptop.
"Hey."
She climbed into his lap.
"Are we hiding?"
"For a little while."
"Because Uncle Calvin is bad?"
Emilio hesitated.
Children deserved truth, but not every ugly detail.
"Because some adults made dangerous choices."
Ava looked at Bunny.
"Mommy said Aunt Elena was brave."
Emilio froze.
"When did Mommy say that?"
"Before the crash."
"Do you remember anything else?"
Ava nodded slowly.
"She said if she had to go away, Aunt Elena knew where the orchard was."
Mara and Emilio looked at each other.
The orchard.
Lucia's unfinished sentence on the video had not been a person.
It had been a place.
Emilio owned no orchard.
Lucia's family did.
An abandoned citrus property outside Ojai that had belonged to her grandfather.
They drove there before sunset with Pike and two trusted agents.
The farmhouse was empty.
Dust covered everything.
But behind a false wall in the pantry they found a narrow room.
A cot.
Medical supplies.
Three years of newspapers.
And photographs of Ava.
Hundreds of them.
School pickup.
Birthday parties.
The beach.
Emilio's house.
Ava asleep beside a window.
He felt physically ill.
Someone had been watching his daughter.
Then a floorboard creaked upstairs.
Marcus raised his weapon.
"Elena?"
No answer.
They climbed.
The bedroom door opened.
A woman stepped out holding a kitchen knife.
Thin.
Pale.
Terrified.
"Elena," Emilio whispered.
His sister's eyes filled with tears.
"You weren't supposed to find me."
He moved toward her.
She backed away.
"Don't."
"It's me."
"I know."
"Then why are you afraid?"
Her grip tightened around the knife.
"Because if Calvin knows you found me, he'll finish what he started with Lucia."
Emilio stopped.
May you like
Elena swallowed.
"And this time he won't use a car."
