Chapter 15 - The Lowest Point
Natalie disappeared before police could reach her.
Her car was found at an airport parking garage.
No sign of her.
No confirmed flight.
No useful camera footage.
At the same time, Peter filed motions blaming Grant for everything.
He portrayed himself as another victim of forged paperwork.
The company board removed me as CEO.
Banks froze several of my accounts while investigators traced the stolen money.
For one terrible afternoon, a child services investigator even questioned whether Ellie and Owen should return home while the criminal case remained active.
I sat alone in Megan’s guest room afterward.
No company.
No wife.
No children sleeping down the hallway.
No certainty that I would ever know how Laura spent her final hours.
For the first time, I understood why people stopped fighting.
Not because they stopped caring.
Because exhaustion could make defeat look like peace.
Then Owen knocked on the door.
Megan had brought the children back from their interview.
He sat beside me.
“You look sad.”
“I am.”
“Are we losing?”
I looked at my son.
“No.”
He watched me.
“You said that too fast.”
Despite everything, I almost smiled.
He sounded exactly like Laura.
I told him the truth.
“I don’t know.”
Owen nodded.
Then he took something from his pocket.
A tiny plastic star.
“What’s that?”
“It fell out of the bluebird.”
We opened the toy again.
Deep inside the stuffing was a small memory card.
I called Ruiz.
The card contained one video.
Laura.
She was sitting inside the Greenwood house.
Her face was pale.
Natalie sat beside her.
“I’m recording this because Natalie says she can get me out tonight.”
Natalie looked directly at the camera.
“If we fail, Peter will blame Grant.
He has documents ready.
He has documents to blame Daniel too.”
Laura asked.
“Where will you take me?”
“To someone Peter doesn’t control.”
“Who?”
Natalie answered.
“Dr. Samuel Reed.”
Ruiz immediately searched the name.
Dr. Samuel Reed had been Laura’s childhood physician.
He had died two years earlier.
May you like
But his daughter was alive.
And she still ran his old medical practice.
