Chapter 6 - THE WOMAN WHO DISAPPEARED
Police found Maria Santos in a women’s shelter in Pennsylvania.
She had been living under her sister’s name.
Dominic had not killed her.
He had made her believe he could.
Maria returned to New York under police protection.
She entered the hospital carrying a small red backpack.
Leo recognized it before he recognized her.
He crawled from the bed and reached for it.
“My dinosaurs.”
Maria began crying.
She knelt several feet away.
“Hello, little lion.”
Leo froze.
That had been her name for him.
He moved toward her slowly.
Then he placed his forehead against her shoulder.
Maria did not touch him until he lifted both arms.
When she hugged him, he made a sound I had never heard.
Not a cry.
Not a word.
A release.
Maria told me what happened after I left.
At first, Dominic remained attentive.
Then Brooke moved into the guest wing.
Victoria dismissed Leo’s developmental therapist.
She claimed he needed discipline instead of support.
When he cried for me, she locked him in dark rooms.
When he refused food, she forced him to eat from the floor.
When he tried to sit beside Liam, Brooke pushed him down.
Dominic watched.
Sometimes he participated.
Maria documented everything.
She recorded videos on an old phone.
Dominic discovered it.
He threatened to report her undocumented sister to immigration authorities.
He also threatened Maria’s teenage son.
She fled only after copying the recordings to a memory card.
“Where is it?” Detective Reyes asked.
Maria opened Leo’s red backpack.
She removed the lining.
The card had been sewn inside.
The videos were worse than the photographs.
Victoria pulling Leo from a dining chair.
Brooke laughing as he crawled after a piece of bread.
Dominic ordering him to bark before receiving water.
One recording showed Leo trying to stand.
Dominic pushed him down.
“You stay where you belong.”
I stopped the video.
My stomach turned.
Maria took my hand.
“I tried to reach you.”
“I know.”
“Brooke answered your phone.”
“She told me you did not want to hear problems.”
I closed my eyes.
“They used my ambition against him.”
“No,” Maria said.
“They used their cruelty.”
“You were working for your child.”
“They chose to hurt him.”
Her distinction mattered.
Guilt could become another way to center myself.
Leo needed me responsible.
Not destroyed.
The memory card also contained a conversation between Dominic and Victoria.
The life insurance policy was not merely financial planning.
They intended to trigger an accident.
Victoria said Leo’s sedative could be increased.
Dominic suggested the swimming pool.
Brooke objected.
Not because she cared about Leo.
Because she feared the investigation would delay access to the company.
Then Dominic said something that changed the case.
“Clara’s plane lands Friday.”
“It has to happen before she sees him.”
May you like
I had returned on Wednesday.
Two days early.
