“I just needed you to sleep! I needed one weekend. Vanessa said if you were calm, nothing would happen.”
My heart beat slowly.
Painfully.
“You drugged me so I couldn’t stop you from leaving.”
“I thought you’d wake up!”
“I was bleeding.”
“I thought you were exaggerating!”
“No,” I said. “You hoped I was.”
Ryan sobbed.
For the first time, I heard no performance in him.
Only terror.
“Emma, please. Help me.”
I closed my eyes.
There it was.
The moment some wounded part of me had once imagined.
Ryan begging.
Ryan needing me.
Ryan finally understanding what helplessness felt like.
But it did not taste sweet.
It tasted like ashes.
“Tell the police where you are,” I said.
“I don’t know!”
“Then tell them everything.”
A long silence followed.
When Ryan spoke again, his voice sounded smaller.
“I searched the inheritance laws.”
Detective Bennett straightened.
“I found the trust documents. I knew your mother left money. I was angry. I thought you’d leave me after the baby came. Vanessa said you were going to take everything.” Mother-in-lawgifts
My eyes burned.
“You were going to divorce me.”
“I didn’t want to be trapped.”
“So you trapped me in my own body.”
Ryan made a sound as if he had been struck.
Then another voice came onto the call.
Female.
Calm.
Almost amused.
“Very touching.”
Vanessa.
Daniel’s hand tightened around the phone.
“Vanessa,” Bennett said, stepping closer. “This is Detective Laura Bennett.”
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