Chapter 3 - My Sister's Secret
I showed Dana the messages.
She read them without touching my phone.
“Don't respond yet.”
“But she's asking for help.”
“Maybe. Or somebody else has her phone.”
I hated that Dana was right.
Ryan could have written the messages.
Kate could be trying to manipulate me.
Nothing felt solid anymore.
“What happens to Paige?”
“She won't be released until we determine where she can safely go.”
“To me?”
“Possibly.”
That single word became the only thing holding me upright.
Later that afternoon, Dana interviewed me formally.
I told her everything I could remember from the previous six months.
At first, the memories seemed ordinary.
Kate canceling dinners.
Kate wearing long sleeves during summer.
Kate becoming strangely quiet whenever Ryan entered a room.
Ryan answering questions directed at her.
Ryan insisting Kate quit her job after Paige was born because “a mother belongs with her baby.”
I had disliked him for years.
But disliking someone wasn't evidence.
Then I remembered Thanksgiving.
Kate had dropped a serving dish.
Ryan had grabbed her wrist.
Not violently enough for anyone to intervene, but hard enough that Kate's face changed.
He had smiled while doing it.
“Careful, sweetheart.”
At the time, I had thought he was embarrassed.
Now I wondered whether it had been a warning.
Dana wrote everything down.
“Has Kate ever told you he hurt her?”
“No.”
“Has she ever seemed frightened of him?”
I thought about it.
“Yes.”
That answer hurt.
Because I had seen it.
I just hadn't named it.
At 4:15, Ryan walked past the interview room with an attorney.
Not some neighborhood lawyer.
Martin Bell was one of the most expensive criminal defense attorneys in the county.
“How did he get a lawyer here that quickly?” I asked.
Dana didn't answer.
She didn't need to.
People who expected trouble sometimes prepared for it.
At six, Dana told me Paige would remain overnight.
Kate had requested permission to stay with her.
The hospital refused until child protective services completed an emergency safety assessment.
Ryan became furious.
I heard him from halfway down the hall.
“This is my daughter!”
A security officer told him to lower his voice.
Ryan did.
Instantly.
That frightened me more than the shouting.
He could control himself.
He simply chose when not to.
I found Kate alone near the elevators twenty minutes later.
She looked smaller than I remembered.
“Kate.”
She flinched.
I stopped several feet away.
“I saw your texts.”
Her eyes immediately went toward the hallway.
“Don't.”
“Tell me what happened to Paige.”
“I can't.”
“Can't or won't?”
Her mouth trembled.
“Please.”
I wanted to shake her.
I wanted to hug her.
Instead I whispered, “Your daughter has three fractures.”
Kate's face collapsed.
She pressed both hands over her mouth.
That reaction answered one question.
She hadn't known about all of them.
“Three?” she whispered.
“Her ribs. Her wrist. Her leg.”
Kate slid against the wall.
“Oh God.”
“Who hurt her?”
She shook her head.
“Kate.”
“I don't know.”
I stared at her.
“You covered the bruise.”
Silence.
“Didn't you?”
Her eyes closed.
That was the answer.
“Why?”
“I thought it was just a bruise.”
“You put concealer on your baby's injury.”
“He told me she'd be taken away.”
There it was.
“He who?”
Kate opened her eyes.
Then footsteps sounded around the corner.
She immediately stepped away from me.
Ryan appeared.
His expression was pleasant.
“Everything okay?”
Kate nodded too quickly.
“Fine.”
He looked at me.
For the first time since the hospital, he smiled.
It wasn't friendly.
“Ally.”
I said nothing.
Ryan walked to Kate and rested a hand on her shoulder.
She stiffened.
Barely.
But enough.
“Come on, sweetheart.”
He guided her toward the elevator.
Before the doors closed, Kate looked at me.
She didn't speak.
She didn't need to.
Her eyes said everything.
Help me.
That night, I couldn't sleep.
I sat on my couch replaying the doorbell footage.
Again.
Again.
Again.
At 1:14 in the morning, I noticed something.
Ryan had carried the diaper bag onto my porch.
But when Kate handed it to me, the front pocket was open.
Something white protruded from it.
I zoomed in.
A rectangular plastic case.
Makeup.
I called Dana.
She answered on the third ring.
“I know it's late.”
“What did you find?”
I explained.
“Don't touch anything in that bag.”
My heart stopped.
“The bag is here.”
“Where?”
“On my kitchen counter.”
Apparently, in the chaos, I'd brought it home from the hospital after investigators had photographed its contents but before anyone realized it might matter.
Dana told me to leave it exactly where it was.
She arrived thirty minutes later with another investigator.
They photographed everything.
Then Dana opened the front pocket.
Inside was a tube of full-coverage concealer.
The shade looked identical to the coating I had wiped from Paige's thigh.
Beside it was something else.
A folded pharmacy receipt.
Dana opened it.
Children's acetaminophen.
Diapers.
Formula.
Concealer.
Purchased Friday at 8:42 p.m.
The night before Kate brought Paige to me.
“Whose card?” I asked.
Dana examined the receipt.
“Last four digits are listed.”
I recognized them.
Kate and I had once booked a vacation together, and I'd seen the card countless times.
“That isn't Kate's.”
Dana looked up.
“Whose?”
“Ryan's.”
For the first time, I felt something stronger than fear.
Rage.
But Dana wasn't finished.
She reached deeper into the pocket.
Her fingers closed around a tiny black object.
A memory card.
“What is that?”
“I don't know.”
She placed it inside an evidence envelope.
The following morning, Dana called me.
Her voice sounded different.
“Ally, do you know whether your sister has cameras inside her house?”
“No.”
“Apparently she does.”
My heart hammered.
“What was on the card?”
“We're still reviewing it.”
“Dana.”
Silence.
Then she said, “Come to the hospital.”
“Why?”
“Because your sister has finally agreed to talk.”
I grabbed my keys.
Before Dana disconnected, however, she added one more sentence.
“And Ally?”
“Yes?”
“The footage doesn't begin with Paige.”
May you like
A chill traveled down my spine.
“It begins with Kate.”
