“The Housemaid Smashed the Mansion Wall — What She Found Inside Was Horrifying!”

The address led to a narrow farmhouse thirty miles north of the city.

Its front door was painted bright blue.

Elena stopped breathing when she saw it.

"Rosa always loved blue," she whispered.

Police surrounded the property before anyone approached. The house looked abandoned, but a thin ribbon of smoke rose from the chimney.

Someone was inside.

Collins knocked.

No answer.

She knocked again.

"Police. Open the door."

A curtain moved upstairs.

Then the back door slammed.

Officers shouted.

A man ran across the field.

He made it twenty yards before a deputy tackled him into the wet grass.

Arthur recognized him from the storage-unit photographs.

One of Graham Pike's private investigators.

Inside the farmhouse, they found Rosa Ruiz alive.

Thin. Frightened. Exhausted.

But alive.

Elena dropped to her knees beside her aunt and wrapped both arms around her.

"Tía Rosa."

Rosa cried into Elena's shoulder.

"I tried to call you. They took my phone."

"Who?"

Rosa looked toward Arthur.

"The lawyer. And the blonde woman."

Arthur's face hardened.

"Victoria."

Rosa nodded.

She had discovered Sophie in the guesthouse and tried to take her to police. Blake caught them before they reached the road. Rosa was moved to the farmhouse and threatened with deportation, prison, and harm to her family if she spoke.

"What happened to Sophie?" Collins asked.

Rosa wiped her eyes.

"I helped her escape."

Everyone leaned closer.

"How?"

"There was an old laundry truck. I hid her inside and told the driver there were linens for a church shelter in Franklin. I gave Sophie the name of a priest I trusted."

Collins immediately called Franklin police.

The search took less than an hour.

Father Michael Donnelly remembered the girl.

He had placed her with an emergency foster family under a temporary name because Sophie was terrified someone would find her.

The foster family had moved to Oregon.

Sophie was alive.

Arthur covered his face.

Elena cried again, this time from relief.

Then Rosa gripped her niece's wrist.

"Elena, listen to me. Victoria wasn't the one in charge."

Elena frowned.

"What do you mean?"