Chapter 8 - SARAH'S MOTHER WAS PART OF THE NIGHTMARE|
Sarah Collins had spent nine years believing her mother abandoned her.
At sixteen, she had come home from school to find an empty apartment and a note on the kitchen table.
The note said her mother needed to leave Chicago.
It said Sarah would be safer without her.
And it ended with four words that had haunted Sarah ever since.
“Please don't look for me.”
Sarah had looked anyway.
She called hospitals.
She contacted distant relatives.
She even filed a missing-person report.
But nobody found her mother.
Eventually, Sarah stopped searching.
She married Michael.
She had Lily.
And she built a life around the painful belief that some people simply chose to leave.
Now Luca Moretti was standing in her apartment holding a photograph that threatened to destroy that belief.
“Where did you get this?” Sarah whispered.
“From my uncle Thomas.”
Sarah stared at the image.
Her mother's dark hair was pinned neatly behind her head.
She wore pale blue medical scrubs.
And she was standing beside Antonio Moretti.
“Her name is Rebecca Collins,” Sarah said.
Luca nodded.
“Thomas remembers her as Rebecca.”
Sarah looked up sharply.
“She was a nurse?”
“Apparently.”
“My mother told me she worked in a medical billing office.”
Luca sat across from her.
“Sarah, I don't know what happened to her. But Thomas believes she was present shortly before my father's death.”
Sarah shook her head.
“No.”
“I'm not accusing her.”
“She wouldn't hurt anyone.”
“I believe you.”
“You don't understand.”
Sarah's voice broke.
“My mother used to work double shifts so I could have school supplies. She volunteered at free clinics. She brought food to neighbors who couldn't afford groceries.”
Luca listened quietly.
“She wasn't perfect,” Sarah continued. “But she wasn't a murderer.”
“I haven't said she was.”
Sarah looked down at the photograph.
“Then why was she there?”
Luca took a breath.
“That's what we need to find out.”
Detective Brooks arrived shortly afterward.
She examined the photograph and requested a copy.
Then she asked Sarah about her mother's disappearance.
Sarah explained everything she remembered.
The note.
The empty apartment.
The unanswered calls.
The years of silence.
Brooks listened carefully.
“Do you still have the note?”
Sarah nodded.
“It's in a box with my school things.”
She retrieved it from the closet.
The paper had yellowed around the edges.
The handwriting was unmistakably Rebecca's.
Brooks read it slowly.
Then she turned the page over.
A faint indentation was visible near the bottom.
“Was this written on top of another sheet?” she asked.
Sarah frowned.
“I don't know.”
The detective held the paper beneath a light.
“There may be impressions from something written above it.”
She placed the note inside an evidence sleeve.
“We can examine it without damaging the original.”
That evening, Sarah visited Evelyn at the hospital.
The older woman was sitting upright, her injured arm supported in a sling.
When she saw Sarah, her expression changed.
“You know.”
Sarah stopped in the doorway.
“About my mother?”
Evelyn closed her eyes.
“Oh, sweetheart.”
Sarah felt her anger rising.
“You knew her?”
“Yes.”
“For how long?”
“Several years.”
“And you never told me?”
Evelyn looked toward the window.
“I wanted to.”
“Then why didn't you?”
“Because I made a promise.”
Sarah's eyes filled.
“To whom?”
“Rebecca.”
Sarah stepped closer.
“Where is she?”
Evelyn began crying.
“I don't know where she is now.”
Sarah stared at her.
“Is she alive?”
“I believe so.”
“You believe?”
Evelyn reached for her hand.
“Your mother saved Antonio's life once.”
Sarah froze.
“What?”
“Richard had arranged for his medication to be altered. Rebecca noticed the symptoms and warned Antonio.”
Luca, standing near the door, went still.
“Then why did Father die?”
Evelyn's voice trembled.
“Because Richard discovered Rebecca had told him.”
Sarah looked from Evelyn to Luca.
“What happened?”
“Rebecca tried to gather proof,” Evelyn explained. “She recorded conversations and copied medical records.”
“Did she succeed?”
“Yes.”
“Then why did she disappear?”
Evelyn swallowed.
“Because Richard threatened you.”
Sarah's knees weakened.
“Me?”
“You were sixteen. He knew where you went to school. He knew your friends. He told Rebecca that if she testified, you would pay the price.”
Sarah began shaking.
“So she left to protect me?”
Evelyn nodded.
“She agreed to disappear while Antonio arranged a safe place for her.”
Luca frowned.
“But Father died shortly afterward.”
“Yes.”
“And Rebecca never came back?”
Evelyn's tears fell.
“No.”
Sarah stepped away from the bed.
For nine years, she had hated her mother for leaving.
Now she learned that Rebecca might have sacrificed everything to keep her alive.
Sarah pressed her hands against her face.
“Why didn't she contact me after Richard stopped looking?”
Evelyn looked frightened.
“Because he never stopped.”
At that moment, Detective Brooks called Luca.
Her voice was urgent.
“We've recovered the writing impressions from Rebecca's note.”
Luca switched to speakerphone.
“What did they say?”
Brooks paused.
“It appears Rebecca wrote an address on a sheet above the goodbye letter.”
Sarah held her breath.
“Where?”
The detective answered.
“A small town in Wisconsin.”
Then she added:
“AND SARAH, THERE'S A MESSAGE BENEATH THE ADDRESS.”
Sarah whispered, “What message?”
May you like
Brooks read it aloud.
“IF MY DAUGHTER EVER FINDS THIS, TELL HER I NEVER STOPPED LOVING HER.”
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