Chapter 3
"Tell me she's lying."
I stared at Evelyn.
She looked as though the ground had opened beneath her feet.
"Nia..."
I stepped backward.
"Tell me Vanessa is lying."
Evelyn's eyes filled.
"She isn't telling you the whole truth."
My stomach tightened.
"Then tell me the part she's leaving out."
Vanessa laughed from behind the officers.
"Go ahead, Evelyn."
I turned toward her.
"Be quiet!"
For the first time, Vanessa looked startled.
I faced Evelyn again.
"I nearly died tonight. I deserve answers."
Evelyn nodded slowly.
"You're right."
A detective approached from the driveway.
She introduced herself as Detective Angela Brooks.
She asked whether I needed immediate medical attention.
I wanted to refuse.
But my teeth were chattering.
My hands were numb.
And every breath hurt.
An ambulance had arrived behind the police vehicles.
Evelyn insisted I be examined.
I agreed on one condition.
"She stays where I can see her."
I pointed toward Vanessa.
Detective Brooks nodded.
"Ms. Price won't be leaving until we've spoken with her."
Vanessa began protesting.
But I barely heard her.
A paramedic guided me toward the ambulance.
Evelyn walked beside me.
For several minutes, nobody spoke.
Then I asked quietly, "Why did she say you waited thirty-two years?"
Evelyn looked down.
"Because there were things I didn't tell the police when you disappeared."
I stopped walking.
"What things?"
She swallowed.
"Daniel's family had threatened me."
I stared at her.
"Your husband's family?"
She nodded.
"Harold said I would lose everything if I challenged the estate arrangements."
I frowned.
"What arrangements?"
"After Daniel died, Harold tried to convince me to transfer your inheritance into a family-controlled trust."
I felt my stomach twist.
"And you refused?"
"Yes."
Evelyn's expression darkened.
"Then strange things started happening."
She described missing documents.
Threatening letters.
Anonymous phone calls.
And a break-in at her home.
I listened in silence.
"Why didn't you tell the police?"
"I did tell them about some of it."
She paused.
"But I didn't tell them everything."
My chest tightened.
"Why not?"
She looked ashamed.
"Because Harold threatened to expose something from my past."
I stared at her.
"What?"
Evelyn hesitated.
"Before I married Daniel, I worked with his father."
I frowned.
"Doing what?"
"Financial management."
She took a breath.
"I discovered questionable transactions. I copied confidential records because I feared they would be destroyed."
I waited.
"Harold threatened to accuse me of stealing company secrets."
My stomach tightened.
"So you stayed quiet?"
"About some documents, yes."
I shook my head.
"And because of that, nobody found me?"
Evelyn's face crumpled.
"I don't know whether speaking sooner would have changed what happened."
Tears streamed down her cheeks.
"But I have asked myself that question every day."
I looked away.
Part of me wanted to hold her.
Another part wanted to scream.
Thirty-two years.
Thirty-two birthdays.
Thirty-two years of wondering why I wasn't wanted.
I couldn't simply make that pain disappear.
At the hospital, doctors confirmed that I was suffering from exhaustion, mild hypothermia, and bruising.
My hands were scraped.
My shoulder was strained.
But I was alive.
Evelyn waited outside while I changed into dry clothes.
A nurse brought me warm tea.
I sat alone on the hospital bed.
For the first time since leaving the lake, the room was quiet.
I looked at my reflection in the dark window.
I looked like the same woman.
But I no longer knew who I was.
Nia Carter?
Nia Whitmore?
The daughter of a woman who abandoned her?
Or the daughter of a woman who had searched for her?
My phone had been recovered from the dock.
The screen was cracked.
But it still worked.
I opened my contacts.
Then I called the only person who had ever felt like family.
Mrs. Carter.
She answered immediately.
"Nia, sweetheart!"
Her voice nearly broke me.
"Mrs. Carter..."
"Baby, what's wrong?"
I started crying.
She had raised me from the age of six until I turned eighteen.
She wasn't wealthy.
She wasn't perfect.
But she had loved me.
She had taught me to cook.
She had attended school meetings.
She had sat beside my bed when I was sick.
And she had never once made me feel unwanted.
"Nia?"
I swallowed.
"I found my mother."
Silence.
Then she whispered.
"Oh, Lord."
I covered my mouth.
"Mrs. Carter, I don't know what to do."
Her voice softened.
"First, tell me where you are."
I explained what happened.
When I mentioned the lake, she gasped.
"Somebody tried to hurt you?"
"Yes."
Her voice became firm.
"Stay where you are. I'm coming."
I almost smiled through my tears.
She lived nearly two hours away.
But I knew she meant it.
Before hanging up, she said something I'll never forget.
"Nia, finding your birth mother doesn't mean you lose me."
I closed my eyes.
"I know."
"And whatever those people did, you didn't deserve it."
I started crying again.
"I love you."
"I love you too, baby."
After the call, Detective Brooks entered.
She asked whether I felt strong enough to give a statement.
I nodded.
I told her everything.
Vanessa's invitation.
The promise of information about my necklace.
The argument at the dock.
The shove.
The crowbar.
The words Vanessa shouted while I fought to survive.
Detective Brooks listened carefully.
Then she asked, "Did Vanessa mention any documents?"
I frowned.
"She said I took something that belonged to her."
The detective nodded.
"Anything else?"
I hesitated.
"She said I should have stayed away from her family."
Detective Brooks wrote it down.
Then she looked at me.
"Ms. Carter, we recovered the crowbar."
My stomach tightened.
"We're preserving it as evidence."
I nodded.
"Will she be arrested?"
"The investigation is ongoing, but she's being questioned regarding the assault."
I looked down.
For the first time, I realized how close I'd come to dying.
My hands began shaking again.
Detective Brooks noticed.
"You did the right thing by surviving long enough for help to arrive."
I swallowed.
"How did Evelyn know where I was?"
The detective paused.
"That's something we're verifying."
I frowned.
"What do you mean?"
"Evelyn's security team received an emergency location alert."
My heart accelerated.
"From whom?"
Detective Brooks studied me.
"Someone had been monitoring your movements."
I felt cold.
"Monitoring me?"
She nodded.
"Your phone's location was shared through an account you may not have known about."
I stared at her.
Vanessa had asked to use my phone earlier that afternoon.
She claimed hers had died.
I'd handed it over without thinking.
My stomach twisted.
"Vanessa touched my phone."
Detective Brooks wrote something down.
"That could be relevant."
I looked toward the door.
Evelyn was standing outside.
Watching me.
Her face was filled with worry.
I didn't know whether to trust her.
But I knew one thing.
Somebody had been watching me before the attack.
May you like
And that meant the lake might not have been the beginning of the danger.
It might have been the final step in a much larger plan.
