Tessa’s eyes darted quickly down the hallway like prey waiting to find boots.
“Guardianship documents. Hospital forms. He said that if the children seemed unstable and Rosa disappeared, he could say that you had had a violent episode and left.”
The room seemed to narrow.
Not metaphorically.
Physically.
As if the air itself could not withstand the architecture of what I had just described.
Vanessa was not only cruel.
He was preparing to erase me.
I had hidden a witness, terrorized my children, attacked Rosa, coordinated with a man I recognized, and constructed a narrative in which I would be portrayed as the unstable person.
“How long have you been here?” I asked.
Tessa swallowed, stared at the duvet, and said, “I don’t know exactly. Maybe three weeks. Maybe more. He takes away my phone. He locks me up. He says no one believes me anyway.”
Her voice cracked on the last sentence, and something inside me shifted from panic to a pure, murderous clarity I had never known before.
The main door opened on the ground floor.
I heard it clearly.
Then, steps.
Two games.
Vanessa had returned.
And Adrian was with her.
For a split second, everyone in that room froze according to their role in the nightmare: Tessa out of fear, me out of calculation, the house out of anticipation.
So I moved.
I cut the tape off Tessa’s ankle with the bathroom scissors, put one arm over her shoulders, and stood her up.
She almost fainted.
The hallway was no longer an option.
Low, irritated voices could be heard coming up the stairs.
Vanessa said, “He never checks anything without me. We still have time.”
Adrian replied, “Then move it.”
I took Tessa to the bathroom, locked the door, and tucked the laundry basket under the handle just as I heard footsteps on the guest room landing.
I grabbed my phone and texted Daniel: “UPSTAIRS NOW. TWO SUSPECTS. POSSIBLE FORGERY/KIDNAPPING.” Then I realized Daniel hadn’t replied because he was probably already running this way with the sirens blaring.
