Chapter 7 - Rosebridge:
Mia wanted to strike Elias.
Chloe grabbed her arm before she reached him.
“He wants you angry,” Chloe whispered.
Elias smiled.
“Your sister always was the smarter one.”
Hale pulled him to his feet.
“You can explain everything at the station.”
“You’ll never get me there.”
Elias’s confidence disturbed Mia.
Two officers escorted him outside.
Moments later, an explosion shook the front entrance.
The windows shattered.
Hale ran toward the doors.
The transport vehicle burned in the rain.
One officer lay injured beside it.
The second crawled across the gravel.
The rear door stood open.
Elias was gone.
Someone had placed a small explosive device beneath the police vehicle.
The blast had been triggered remotely.
Jonathan was no longer hiding his power.
By dawn, Richard arranged private protection for Nora, Chloe, and Sister Margaret.
Mia refused protection for herself.
She wanted to go to Rosebridge Clinic.
The facility stood behind iron gates in the Berkshire hills.
Its public website described it as an exclusive recovery center for wealthy patients.
The walls told a different story.
They were too high.
The windows opened only a few inches.
Richard, Mia, and Hale arrived with a search warrant.
The clinic director, Dr. Malcolm Ross, met them in the lobby.
He was thin, silver-haired, and perfectly composed.
“We have no record of Laura Vance,” he said.
Hale placed the photograph on his desk.
“You said the same thing six years ago.”
“And I was correct.”
Richard showed him the Lena Ward file.
“Jonathan Mercer signed her admission papers.”
Dr. Ross glanced at the document.
“Records can be fabricated.”
“Then you won’t object to us searching the facility,” Hale said.
Dr. Ross smiled faintly.
“You already have a warrant.”
The search lasted three hours.
Room 217 had been repainted.
The mattress had been replaced.
Medical files had been removed from the cabinets.
Mia found deep scratches inside the closet door.
Someone had carved four names into the wood.
NORA.
MIA.
CHLOE.
ROSA.
Beneath the names was a date from three months earlier.
Laura had been there.
A nurse watched Mia from the hallway.
She was in her late sixties and wore a blue cardigan over her uniform.
When Hale approached, she walked away.
Mia followed her into the laundry room.
“You knew Laura.”
The nurse continued folding sheets.
“My name is Esther Lane.”
“I didn’t ask your name.”
Esther stopped.
“Laura told me you had your mother’s eyes.”
Mia’s chest tightened.
“Where is she?”
“Which woman?”
“Both.”
Esther locked the laundry room door.
“Laura was brought here under heavy sedation six years ago.”
“Dr. Ross changed her name to Lena Ward.”
“Jonathan paid for everything.”
“Evelyn visited once a month.”
“What did they do to her?”
“Drugs.”
“Isolation.”
“Treatment records claiming she suffered violent delusions.”
“Whenever she insisted she was Laura Vance, they increased her medication.”
“Why didn’t you call the police?”
“I did.”
“Three officers came.”
“One of them was Elias Crane.”
Mia understood.
“Laura escaped three months ago.”
Esther nodded.
“Rosa helped her.”
“Then my mother is alive.”
“She was when they left.”
“Was she working for Jonathan?”
Esther’s expression sharpened.
“Rosa spent six years pretending to work for him.”
“She became a cleaner at one of his private offices.”
“She sent us information.”
“She paid staff to protect Laura.”
“She waited until she knew where Jonathan kept the foundation records.”
“Why didn’t she contact us?”
“Because Jonathan had people watching you.”
“The moment Rosa called you, he would know.”
Mia remembered the strange jobs that had ended without explanation.
The landlord who suddenly evicted them.
The foster parent who searched their belongings.
Elias had followed them for years.
“Where did Laura and Rosa go?”
Esther removed a postcard from beneath a stack of sheets.
It showed an abandoned seaside chapel.
A message had been written on the back.
WHEN THE BELL RINGS TWICE, COME ALONE.
“Laura left this for Richard.”
Richard entered the laundry room behind Hale.
He read the card.
“I know the chapel.”
“It’s near the coast where her boat was found.”
Dr. Ross appeared in the doorway.
“You should not be in here.”
Hale showed him the warrant.
“You should not have imprisoned a woman under a false identity.”
Ross looked at Esther.
“You have always been sentimental.”
“Sentiment is not a crime,” Esther said.
“What you did is.”
Ross stepped backward.
Richard blocked the hallway.
“Where is Laura?”
“I have no idea.”
“Where is Jonathan?”
“I am a physician.”
“You are a criminal.”
Ross’s calm expression finally broke.
He reached inside his coat.
Hale drew his gun.
“Hands where I can see them.”
Ross removed a small remote control.
He pressed the button.
Fire alarms erupted.
Metal doors dropped across the hallway.
Sprinklers released a white chemical fog.
Esther screamed.
Mia covered her mouth.
Hale tackled Ross.
Richard kicked the remote away.
The fog thickened.
Mia’s vision blurred.
She felt someone grab her from behind.
A cloth pressed across her face.
May you like
Before darkness took her, she heard Dr. Ross shouting.
“Jonathan said the girls were never supposed to find out which one belonged to Richard.”
