Chapter 10 - THE FIRE
Smoke poured into the hallway.
“Move!”
Officers grabbed Lily.
I grabbed Lily back.
“No. She stays with me.”
The lights flashed red.
Guests flooded the stairwell.
Cole shouted into his radio.
The alarm panel showed smoke on the sixth floor.
We were on the fifth.
“Use the south stairs!”
Halfway down, Lily cried:
“My bunny!”
“Forget the bunny.”
“But Mommy gave it to me.”
Rachel had given her that stuffed rabbit.
The original one.
I stopped.
“Ryan!” Cole shouted.
“I’m going back.”
“No, you’re not.”
“Thirty seconds.”
“Ryan!”
I handed Lily to a female officer and ran.
Smoke had reached our floor.
I covered my mouth.
Entered the hotel room.
Found the rabbit beside the bed.
Then I noticed something taped underneath it.
A blinking red light.
Tracker.
I ripped it off.
That was how they found us.
The rabbit.
Someone had planted a tracker in Lily’s toy before we left my parents’ house.
I smashed it with a lamp.
Then heard the door click shut behind me.
Vanessa stood there.
Hair pulled beneath a baseball cap.
Face pale.
“You always were sentimental.”
My body locked.
“How did you get in here?”
“Housekeeping uniforms are easy to buy.”
I moved toward the door.
She held up a knife.
“Don’t.”
“Where’s Diane?”
“Mom.”
“She’s not my mother.”
“She should have been your mother.”
“Vanessa, this is over.”
“It was over before it started.”
She laughed softly.
“You know what the funny part is? I didn’t know.”
“What?”
“That we were related.”
I stared at her.
“Not at first.”
Her eyes filled with something almost like shame.
“Mom told me your father abandoned us. Told me the Carter family stole everything from us. She showed me pictures of you for years.”
“Why Rachel?”
“Because Rachel had you.”
“That’s insane.”
“I know that now.”
“Did you kill her?”
Vanessa’s face tightened.
“I wanted her gone.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“My mother touched the car.”
My heart stopped.
“What did she do?”
“She damaged the brake line.”
A roaring sound filled my ears.
Vanessa continued.
“She said Rachel would have time to react. That it would look like a mechanical failure.”
“She died.”
“I know.”
“You knew?”
“Afterward.”
“And then you married me.”
Tears spilled down Vanessa’s cheeks.
“I thought if I had your life, maybe everything Mom said would finally make sense.”
“You abused my daughter.”
“I hated the way she looked at me.”
“She’s a child!”
“She has Rachel’s eyes!”
I took one step forward.
“Put the knife down.”
Vanessa shook her head.
“I can’t go to prison.”
“You should’ve thought about that before hurting Lily.”
Sirens screamed below.
Vanessa backed toward the window.
“We could still disappear.”
I stared at her.
“What?”
“You. Me. Lily.”
“You think I’m going anywhere with you?”
“She needs a mother.”
“She had one.”
That hit her.
Her face twisted.
Then she charged.
I grabbed her wrist.
The knife sliced my forearm.
We crashed into the table.
She screamed.
I slammed her hand against the wall until the knife dropped.
The door exploded open.
Police tackled her.
As they dragged Vanessa away, she twisted toward me.
“Ryan!”
I pressed a towel against my bleeding arm.
“You’ll never understand!”
“Understand what?”
She smiled through tears.
“Rachel knew about your father.”
I froze.
May you like
“She was going to tell you everything the night she died.”
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