Chapter 5 - THE CHILD THEY STOLE
Adrian was released on bail.
Within hours, television cameras showed him outside the courthouse.
“My wife suffered an unfortunate injury during an emotional family dispute.”
He looked straight into the cameras.
“I love Claire.”
Then the smear campaign began.
Photographs of broken furniture appeared online.
Anonymous sources called me unstable.
My employer placed me on administrative leave.
Then Reyes found the officer who had buried Lydia's case.
Thomas Vale.
A retired deputy.
A Caldwell relative.
He had classified Lydia's disappearance as voluntary.
He had also handled earlier domestic disturbance calls involving Adrian.
One involved Lydia.
The other involved a woman named Rebecca Sloan.
Rebecca had disappeared too.
That night Adrian called me.
He violated the restraining order.
I answered with Reyes recording.
“You married me for the condo,” I said.
“At first.”
“At first?”
“I didn't expect to develop feelings.”
“You don't hit someone you love with a plate.”
“You embarrassed me.”
Then he said something that changed everything.
“Where is Lydia's daughter?”
He knew.
I studied the Caldwell family photograph.
Twenty-three people.
And one girl.
Grace.
She had Adrian's eyes.
The next morning, investigators learned that Grace had disappeared from the vineyard.
Eleanor had taken her.
Or so we thought.
A photograph arrived at my condo.
Grace sleeping in the back seat of a car.
A message beneath it.
TRANSFER THE CONDO BY NOON.
WITHDRAW YOUR STATEMENT.
LYDIA DISAPPEARS.
THE CHILD COMES HOME.
The driver was Julian.
Maya went pale.
“He owns an abandoned silver mine near Reno.”
That was where the evidence was going.
May you like
And Grace was the insurance policy.
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