The world stopped.
“That’s not possible.”
“I know you’re estranged, but—”
“My mother is dead, Katherine. She died six years ago.”
Silence on the other end of the line.
Then: “Amelia, I’m looking at a phone record that shows a three-minute call to a number registered under the name Claire Hayes. Your mother’s name. In Sedona, Arizona.”
My mother’s name.
My mother, who’d abandoned me when I was sixteen.
My mother, who’d shown up at my father’s funeral six years ago, demanding money.
My mother, who I’d paid two million dollars never to contact me again.
“Send me the address,” I said quietly.
“Amelia, this is a matter for law enforcement—”
“Send me the address, Katherine.”
A pause. Then: “I’ll text it to you. But please, let the FBI handle this.”
I hung up.
Dr. Reeves was watching me with concern. “Mrs. Hayes, you need rest—”
“I need a car.”
Marcus stepped forward. “Ma’am, we should coordinate with—”
“I need a car, Marcus. And I need to get to Sedona. Tonight.”
Something in my voice made him stop arguing.
Twenty minutes later, I was in the back of a black SUV, wrapped in dry clothes someone had procured, heading east toward Arizona.
My phone buzzed. The address from Katherine.
And below it, a message: Be careful. We don’t know what we’re walking into.
I stared out the window at the dark highway.
Richard thought I was dead.
But if he’d called my mother—if she was somehow part of this—
Then they were both about to learn exactly how wrong they were.
The drive to Sedona took seven hours.
I didn’t sleep.
I sat in the back of the SUV, one hand on my stomach, going over every conversation I’d had with Richard in the last year. Every decision. Every moment I’d thought he loved me.
