Chapter 8 - Helen’s Secret
Police searched Helen’s house while Michael stood in the kitchen remembering every time his mother had defended Sophia.
“She’s impulsive.”
“She means well.”
“She needs you.”
How many excuses had they all built around her?
Reese found Helen’s phone under the couch.
The last outgoing call was to Emily.
Emily checked her phone. “She never reached me.”
The call had lasted four seconds.
A voicemail existed.
Emily played it on speaker.
At first there was only breathing.
Then Helen whispered, “Don’t trust Victor. The folder proves Thomas changed the trust. Sophia knows. I should have told Michael years ago.”
A crash sounded.
Helen gasped.
Then a woman’s voice said, “Mom, give me the phone.”
Sophia.
The message ended.
Michael leaned against the counter.
“She has our mother.”
Reese raised a hand. “We don’t know that.”
“We heard her.”
“We heard Sophia in the house. That is not the same as a kidnapping. Let us work.”
Michael hated that she was right.
A forensic technician called from the garage.
Helen’s car was missing.
Traffic cameras picked it up heading north.
Toward the lake.
Again.
Emily’s monitor began beeping faster.
Michael turned. “You need to rest.”
She gave him a flat look. “Do not tell me what I need.”
He nodded. “Right.”
The correction was small, but she noticed it.
Reese received another call.
Helen’s car had been found abandoned near an old church outside Millbrook.
No Helen.
No Sophia.
Only blood on the passenger door.
Michael’s face drained.
Emily reached for his wrist before thinking.
Then she let go.
Reese said, “Stay here.”
Michael shook his head. “That’s my mother.”
“And Emily is your wife. Mason is your son. Pick where you’re useful.”
The words landed.
Michael stayed.
Three hours later Reese returned.
Helen was alive.
She had been found walking along a service road, dazed and bleeding from a cut on her forehead.
Sophia was gone.
Helen asked for Michael.
When he reached her room, she looked twenty years older.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“For what?”
“For teaching you that protecting Sophia was the same thing as loving her.”
Michael sat down.
Helen began to cry.
“Your father didn’t die because Sophia hated him.”
May you like
She looked toward the door.
“He died because I signed something I never should have signed.”
