Chapter 10 - The Woman Who Was Still Alive
The photograph showed Emily lying in a hospital-style bed.
Her hair was shorter.
Her face was thinner.
But she was alive.
Yesterday.
Not three years ago.
Yesterday.
I stared until the image blurred.
Noah climbed onto the chair beside me.
“Is that Mommy?”
Nobody answered quickly enough.
He touched the screen.
“Daddy?”
I forced my voice to work.
“Yes.”
“Is Mommy alive?”
I looked at Grace.
Then Rebecca.
No parent should promise a child something uncertain.
But I could no longer lie either.
“I think she might be.”
Noah began crying.
Not loudly.
He simply leaned into me and whispered,
“I knew she didn’t leave me.”
That sentence nearly destroyed me.
Federal investigators traced details in the photograph.
A medical monitor showed a serial number.
The manufacturer identified the unit.
It had been sold to a private rehabilitation facility in northern Vermont.
The facility had closed two years earlier.
But utility records showed continued electricity use.
Agents mobilized.
I wasn’t allowed to go.
I argued.
I threatened.
I begged.
Rebecca stopped me.
“If Emily is there, the safest thing you can do is stay with Noah.”
So I waited.
Those were the longest four hours of my life.
At 3:17 p.m., an agent called.
“We located a woman.”
I couldn’t breathe.
“Is it Emily?”
“We believe so.”
“Is she alive?”
“Yes.”
I sat down.
Grace covered her mouth.
Noah stared at me.
“She’s alive,” I whispered.
He screamed.
Then he laughed.
Then he cried.
All three of us did.
But the agent wasn’t finished.
“Mr. Hale, she is conscious, but she appears to have been heavily medicated over an extended period.”
“Can I speak to her?”
“Not yet.”
“Why?”
“She’s frightened.”
“Of me?”
The agent hesitated.
“She believes you tried to kill her.”
The joy inside me collapsed.
“What?”
“She was told the car crash was your attempt to murder her.”
“No.”
“She was also shown documents claiming you took control of her assets and abandoned Noah.”
“That’s insane.”
“We know.”
“But she doesn’t.”
I looked toward Marcus.
He had heard every word.
His face told me he understood before I did.
Bell hadn’t merely hidden Emily.
He had rewritten her world.
For three years, he had convinced my wife that I was the monster.
“Who was with her?” I asked.
“No one.”
“Where is Bell?”
“We don’t know.”
The agent paused.
“But someone left the facility less than thirty minutes before we arrived.”
My stomach tightened.
“Bell?”
“We believe so.”
A vehicle description followed.
Marcus suddenly stood.
“What?”
He grabbed his phone.
“That car.”
“What about it?”
“I’ve seen it.”
“Where?”
He looked directly at me.
“At your lake house.”
The same lake house where Victoria had taken Noah.
The same place where Bell had coached my son.
And according to estate security records, nobody was supposed to be there.
Until Grace checked the remote cameras.
May you like
One camera was still transmitting.
The image showed Dr. Robert Bell walking through the front door.
