Chapter 6 - The JournalAva didn't sleep that night.
She couldn't.
Every time she closed her eyes, she imagined someone reading her journal.
Not just the words.
The dates.
The names.
The pieces of memory she had struggled to keep straight.
Her mother sat beside her on the hotel bed.
"Whatever they read, it doesn't change what happened."
Ava stared at the window.
"I know."
"You don't sound like you know."
Ava turned.
"I'm scared they'll make me look crazy."
Elena's voice broke.
"They won't."
"What if they do?"
"Then I'll stand beside you."
Ava looked at her.
"You shouldn't have to."
"I'm your mother."
Ava's eyes filled.
"That's what I needed all those years."
Elena reached for her.
This time Ava leaned into the embrace.
For the first time since the police arrived, she allowed herself to cry.
Then her phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
One message.
PAGE 47.
Ava froze.
Elena saw it.
"What?"
Ava showed her the screen.
"Page forty-seven?"
"I don't know."
She remembered the journal.
She remembered there were 112 pages.
Forty-seven wasn't random.
It contained one entry.
One she had written when she was fifteen.
She had forgotten it existed.
Detective Hale was called immediately.
Twenty minutes later, they were looking at a scanned copy of the journal from police records.
Page forty-seven contained a single sentence.
He said I wasn't the first girl.
Hale looked at Ava.
"Do you remember writing this?"
Ava nodded slowly.
"Yes."
"Who did you mean?"
"I didn't know."
"What does that mean?"
"He said something once. About another girl."
Elena's face tightened.
"What girl?"
Ava shook her head.
"I thought he was trying to scare me."
Hale scanned the page.
"Did he give a name?"
"No."
Rebecca, sitting nearby, suddenly spoke.
"Maybe he did."
Everyone turned.
Rebecca was pale.
"I know who."
Ava looked at her.
"Who?"
Rebecca answered quietly.
"His first daughter."
Elena stared at her.
"What?"
"Daniel had another child."
Hale stood.
"That isn't in any of the records."
"Because she disappeared."
Ava's stomach tightened.
"How?"
Rebecca hesitated.
"Her name was Claire."
"When did she disappear?"
"Seventeen years ago."
Hale immediately reached for his phone.
"How old was she?"
"Sixteen."
Ava felt the room tilt.
Sixteen.
She looked at her mother.
Then at Rebecca.
"My age."
Rebecca nodded.
"Exactly."
A silence fell.
Hale looked at the journal.
"He used the same pattern?"
Rebecca answered:
"Isolation. Control. Fear."
Elena whispered:
"Why didn't anyone say anything?"
"Because the family said she ran away."
Ava stood.
"She didn't?"
Rebecca shook her head.
"No."
"What happened to her?"
"I don't know."
"Then how do you know she didn't run away?"
Rebecca looked at Hale.
"Because Victor found something."
The detective stepped closer.
"What?"
"A photograph."
"Of Claire?"
Rebecca nodded.
"Taken three days after she supposedly disappeared."
Ava's pulse began racing.
"Where?"
Rebecca looked toward the door.
"At one of Daniel's properties."
Hale's phone rang.
He answered.
"Detective Hale."
A pause.
His face hardened.
"Send me the address."
Another pause.
"Do not enter."
He hung up.
Elena stared.
"What?"
Hale looked at Ava.
"The police department just received an anonymous tip."
"About Claire?"
"No."
He swallowed.
"About your father."
Ava's heart pounded.
"What did they say?"
Hale looked toward the window.
"There's a storage unit."
"Where?"
"Ten miles outside the city."
"What is inside?"
"We don't know."
"Then why are we going?"
Hale's expression was grim.
"Because the person who reported it left one instruction."
Ava waited.
May you like
He continued.
"Do not let Daniel's lawyer get there first."
