Chapter 10 - Grandmother
Marianne didn't take Leo and Maya.
She could have.
Instead, she walked into their hospital room disguised as a family attorney and sat beside them.
That frightened me more.
She wanted us to know she could reach them.
Police detained her before she left.
Too easily.
When I arrived, Marianne was sitting inside an interview room.
Seventy-one.
Silver hair.
Cream suit.
Calm eyes.
Rebecca looked terrified when she saw her mother through the glass.
“Don't underestimate her.”
“I don't.”
Marianne smiled when I entered.
“Thomas Moretti.”
“Where's Ava?”
“Safe.”
“Where?”
“With someone who loves her.”
“Name.”
“No.”
I sat.
“You hurt Leo?”
“No.”
“Rebecca?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
Marianne tilted her head.
“You still think this is about cruel women and innocent Moretti men.”
I didn't answer.
She slid a photograph across the table.
Ethan.
Years earlier.
Standing outside St. Catherine.
Beside Malcolm Voss.
“What is this?”
“Your brother discovered my network much earlier than he admitted.”
“How much earlier?”
“Seven years.”
Before Leo was born.
Marianne claimed Ethan had initially helped her.
Not with children.
With extracting mothers and children from dangerous households.
Marianne's network had begun as something almost noble.
Secret relocations.
Emergency funds.
False addresses.
Protection from powerful abusers.
Then money entered.
Wealthy clients began paying for different outcomes.
Custody manipulation.
Inheritance control.
Medical declarations.
Marianne said she refused.
Others didn't.
“Who?”
She smiled.
“The man your brother trusted.”
Dominic?
Voss?
No.
Marianne pushed another photograph toward me.
Ethan and my attorney.
Charles Bennett.
My father's attorney before mine.
Seventy-four years old.
The man who wrote the Moretti family trust.
My stomach tightened.
Charles knew every inheritance clause.
Every asset.
Every weakness.
“He corrupted the network?”
Marianne nodded.
“And Rebecca?”
“My daughter thought she could outsmart him.”
Rebecca had infiltrated the operation to gather evidence against Charles.
Then became addicted to the control and money herself.
Victim became participant.
Participant became abuser.
Nothing excused what she did to Leo and Maya.
But the monster had layers.
“Where is Charles?”
Marianne's smile disappeared.
“I don't know.”
“Where is Ava?”
“I told you.”
“With someone who loves her.
Then Ethan entered behind the observation glass.
He stared at Marianne.
She looked almost sad.
“You survived.”
“Disappointed?”
“No.”
Then Ethan said:
“Tell Thomas who Ava is with.”
Marianne remained silent.
Ethan struck the glass with his palm.
“Tell him.”
Finally, Marianne looked at me.
“Ava is with her grandfather.”
“My father is dead.”
“I didn't say yours.”
Ethan's face changed.
Caroline had told us Ava's biological father was Ethan.
That meant her grandfather—
Caroline's father.
Except Caroline had always claimed she grew up in foster care.
I turned.
She wasn't in the hallway anymore.
Caroline was gone.
Then Dominic called.
He had searched Caroline's temporary room.
Inside her bag was a second phone.
And dozens of messages to Charles Bennett.
May you like
Caroline wasn't simply Ava's frightened mother.
She had been reporting our every move.
