Chapter 8 - Why Maya Emptied the Refrigerator
I watched my wife carry food out of our kitchen.
Bag after bag.
Formula.
Fruit.
Broth.
Medicine.
My first reaction was disbelief.
Then anger.
Then I noticed how she moved.
She was barely walking.
Why would an eleven-day-postpartum woman deliberately empty her own refrigerator?
I showed Maya.
She closed her eyes.
“I was waiting for you to find that.”
“Explain.”
“I was moving it.”
“Where?”
“Apartment 3B.”
Our downstairs neighbor, Mrs. Alvarez.
Maya had discovered Eleanor was photographing the refrigerator every morning.
Why?
To create evidence.
Eleanor intended to claim Maya had plenty of food, medicine and baby supplies—and was mentally unstable for saying otherwise.
So Maya hid what she could with Mrs. Alvarez.
“Then why was everything gone when I arrived?”
“Your mother found out.”
Mrs. Alvarez confirmed it.
Eleanor had returned the next afternoon with Mark.
She demanded everything back, claiming the supplies belonged to her son.
Mark had helped carry the bags upstairs.
He had conveniently omitted that.
Another liar.
But Maya admitted something worse.
She intentionally stopped eating the final day.
Not to hurt herself.
To make one piece of evidence impossible to manufacture.
A blood test.
“If they claimed I was being cared for, the hospital could prove I wasn’t.”
I stared at her.
“You risked your life.”
“I thought they were trying to take Liam.”
“They were.”
“I know.”
Her voice cracked.
“I didn't know who else to trust.”
Including me.
That was the part I couldn't escape.
The conspiracy had become possible partly because everyone knew one thing:
David would believe his family until evidence became unbearable.
My phone rang.
Chloe.
She had reached a police station.
She was ready to turn over Ethan’s laptop and Eleanor’s documents.
But Ethan wasn’t with her.
“Where is he?”
“I thought he was with you.”
Then Maya suddenly sat upright.
“David.”
“What?”
“Ethan visited me before you left for Germany.”
“When?”
“Three weeks ago.”
“What did he want?”
“He asked whether I trusted you.”
My chest tightened.
“What did you say?”
“I said yes.”
“And?”
“He told me that was dangerous.”
Then Maya remembered something else.
Ethan had asked an apparently meaningless question.
If something happened to David, who becomes Liam’s guardian?
We looked at each other.
The entire scheme had been focused on Maya.
Or so we thought.
What if Maya was only half the target?
I called my attorney.
“Pull my estate documents.”
He did.
Then stopped speaking.
“What?”
“David... somebody amended your life insurance beneficiary twelve days ago.”
“To whom?”
“Not Maya.”
“Liam?”
“No.”
May you like
The new beneficiary was Ethan Cross.
For $8 million.
