Chapter 4 - VANESSA'S SECRET
Vanessa disappeared.
By evening, police couldn't locate her.
Her apartment was empty.
Her car was gone.
But she had left something behind.
A laptop.
Daniel Reed spent hours examining it.
Then he called Detective Morris.
They found emails.
Hundreds of them.
Most were between Vanessa and David.
The messages began with ordinary flirting.
Then they became financial.
Once she's gone, we sell immediately.
The insurance money will cover everything.
My mother says we need to make it look accidental.
Then one message stopped me cold.
It wasn't from David.
It was from Vanessa.
What about the baby?
David's reply was brutally simple.
There won't be a baby.
I closed my eyes.
For months, I had wondered whether David ever loved our unborn child.
Now I knew.
He had never seen the baby as a child.
Only as an obstacle.
Then Daniel discovered a folder labeled:
PROJECT CLEAN SLATE
Inside were photographs of our house.
Bank statements.
Insurance documents.
My medical records.
And a pregnancy timeline.
They had documented every stage of my pregnancy.
They knew exactly how far along I was.
They knew when the baby would be viable.
They knew when I had appointments.
They even knew my doctor's schedule.
Someone had been feeding them information.
I looked at Detective Morris.
“My medical records were confidential.”
She nodded.
“We're investigating the hospital access logs.”
Then Daniel found another file.
A list of names.
Three doctors.
Two nurses.
One insurance agent.
And one hospital administrator.
My entire life had been turned into a criminal operation.
Then the door opened.
A nurse walked in.
She looked nervous.
“Mrs. Carter?”
“Yes?”
“I need to tell you something.”
She closed the door behind her.
“I wasn't supposed to say this.”
“What?”
She leaned closer.
“Your husband came to this hospital two days before the garage incident.”
I stared at her.
“Why?”
“He asked how much longer your baby would need to survive outside the womb.”
Silence.
The nurse continued.
“He also asked what medications could make a pregnant woman unconscious.”
Detective Morris immediately stood.
“Are you certain?”
The nurse nodded.
“I remember because the questions frightened me.”
I felt my blood turn cold.
May you like
The garage hadn't been the beginning.
It had been the final step.
