Chapter 10 - GRANDMA'S RECORDINGGrandma Eleanor arrived before the convoy reached the house.
She stepped out of her car holding her blue-and-white watch.
Everyone froze.
She looked at Vanessa.
“I told you to leave this family.”
Vanessa cried.
“I was trying to protect her.”
Grandma shook her head.
“No.”
She pressed the button on her watch.
A recording began.
Vanessa's voice.
Seven years younger.
“I can't let them take my baby.”
Then another voice.
A man's voice.
“Then give us the other child.”
Vanessa answered:
“I won't.”
The man replied:
“Then your entire family disappears.”
I looked at Grandma.
“Who was that?”
She didn't answer.
The recording continued.
Then came Daniel's voice.
“I'll help you.”
My heart broke.
Daniel had been involved from the beginning.
But then the recording revealed something else.
Daniel said:
“Harper can never know.”
I looked at him.
He lowered his head.
“I was trying to save you.”
“No.”
I shook my head.
“You were deciding what I was allowed to know.”
Then Grandma said something that silenced everyone.
“The man in that recording is dead.”
May you like
She looked toward the black SUVs.
“But his son isn't.”
