Chapter 10 - Forty-Eight Hours
By midnight, Isabella was asleep in Rachel's guest room.
Ethan sat at the kitchen table with a police report, a child services case number, three cups of untouched coffee, and the growing realization that he did not know the woman he had married.
Rachel stood across from him, arms folded.
"How long has this been going on?"
"I don't know."
"That isn't an answer."
"It's the only one I have."
Rachel's anger softened. "Ethan, I'm not trying to punish you. I'm trying to understand how nobody saw it."
He looked toward the hallway where Isabella slept.
"I saw what Beatriz wanted me to see."
Perfect report cards. Clean clothes. Smiling photos. Short video calls.
A child could disappear in plain sight if the picture around her stayed pretty enough.
The next afternoon a family court judge granted Ethan temporary sole physical custody while the investigation continued. Beatriz was ordered to have no unsupervised contact with Isabella.
It should have felt like victory.
It didn't.
When Ethan told Isabella, she asked, "For how many days?"
"Until it's safe."
"How many is that?"
He had no answer.
That evening Rachel brought in a small laundry basket from the car.
"This was in Bella's backpack."
Inside were two shirts, a toothbrush, the stuffed rabbit, and a blue metal lunchbox Ethan had never seen.
Isabella sat up.
"Don't open it."
Ethan stopped.
"Why?"
She looked embarrassed. "It's not food."
"Okay. What is it?"
"Things I wasn't supposed to have."
She unlocked it with a tiny key hidden in the rabbit's seam.
Inside were a broken phone, three photographs, a flash drive, and an envelope with Sofia's handwriting on the front.
ETHAN - IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO ME.
Ethan's hands went numb.
Sofia had been dead for two years.
He had never seen the envelope.
"Where did you get this?" he whispered.
May you like
Isabella pointed toward the backyard in the direction of their house.
"I found it in the trash bag Beatriz made me carry."
