Chapter 4 - The guest house
Emily was medically cleared to remain in the hospital overnight.
Ethan was removed from the room.
Security kept Margaret and Brandon outside while investigators took preliminary statements.
I sat beside Emily.
“Tell me everything.”
She looked ashamed.
That broke my heart more than the bruises.
“It started small.”
Of course it did.
Control rarely begins with locked doors.
Ethan criticized her friends.
Then her clothes.
Then her work.
Then money.
Then he insisted they move into the Prescott estate “temporarily” while renovating their townhouse.
Temporary became eighteen months.
Margaret controlled the household.
Brandon controlled family businesses.
Ethan controlled Emily.
“Why didn’t you call me?”
“I tried.”
My stomach tightened.
“What?”
“Three times.”
“I never got anything.”
Emily looked toward the door.
“They took my phone afterward.”
She had first called me six weeks earlier.
The call never connected.
A second attempt ended when Ethan walked in.
The third happened the previous night.
That one reached voicemail.
I checked.
Nothing.
Deleted remotely?
Possible.
Then Emily told me about the guest house.
Not a guest house.
A renovated carriage building behind the estate.
No interior deadbolt.
One camera inside.
One outside.
When Emily threatened to leave Ethan after discovering hidden accounts on his computer, he locked her there overnight.
Margaret brought food.
Brandon took her phone.
Ethan visited in the morning.
“What did he want?”
“For me to sign papers.”
“What papers?”
“I don’t know.”
She started crying.
“They said if I signed, everything would calm down.”
I hated the phrase.
Calm down.
Make peace.
Stop embarrassing us.
All versions of obey.
“Did you sign?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
Emily reached for the necklace recorder.
“Because one page had your name.”
My blood went cold.
“My name?”
She nodded.
“Victoria Hart.”
Then she whispered:
“And underneath it… Fort Bragg.”
Not Fort Liberty.
Fort Bragg.
The old name.
May you like
The name used twenty years ago.
Whoever drafted that paper was working from records old enough to remember the base before it changed names.
