Chapter 6 - The Maid Who Disappeared
The woman downstairs was Vanessa.
Her phone had been stolen.
She denied sending the message.
Grant believed her only after security confirmed she had been inside the bank for twelve minutes before the text arrived.
“Victoria,” Evelyn said.
Vanessa nodded.
“She came to me last night.”
“Why?”
“She wanted the ledger.”
Grant’s expression hardened.
“Did you know she was alive?”
“No.”
Vanessa looked at Evelyn.
“My father mentioned her once. He called her the woman who ruined everything.”
The three formed an uneasy alliance.
For forty-eight hours, Grant’s security team searched for Victoria.
Then Evelyn disappeared.
Her car remained at the estate.
Her phone was found beside the service gate.
Grant became frighteningly calm.
He reviewed every camera.
Every vehicle.
Every staff movement.
At 3:17 p.m., a florist’s delivery van had left the estate.
Eleven minutes later than scheduled.
Grant found a single frame showing a black maid’s shoe beneath a blanket in the rear cargo area.
He called police.
The van was recovered abandoned.
No Evelyn.
For six days, Grant barely slept.
The wedding was canceled.
Vanessa told the press there had been a family emergency.
Privately, she watched Grant disintegrate.
He blamed himself.
On the fourth night, Vanessa found him in the kitchen sitting at the same table where Evelyn had served his breakfast.
“You love her.”
Grant did not deny it.
Vanessa’s eyes filled.
“How long?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s worse.”
“I know.”
“Were you ever going to tell me?”
“I didn’t understand it until she was gone.”
Vanessa walked away.
On the sixth morning, Grant received a package.
Inside was his mother’s ring.
Mud stained the gold.
Wrapped around it was a piece of Evelyn’s white apron.
There was an address.
Thirty miles north of Manhattan.
Grant did not wait for police.
He drove.
Rain hammered the windshield.
The address led to an abandoned farmhouse.
He left the car before it stopped completely.
Inside, he heard a woman speaking.
“One last wish.”
Grant approached the room.
Through the cracked door, he saw Evelyn tied to a chair.
A rope circled her throat.
A blonde woman stood behind her.
Grant’s blood turned cold.
He pushed the door.
It would not move.
Someone had locked it from the inside.
May you like
Then Evelyn whispered a name.
“Vanessa.”
