Chapter 12 - The Woman They Tried to Erase

Anika brought coffee and a list of attorneys willing to help.

“None of them need your money,” Elena said.

“Good. Roman would probably insult them by trying to pay anyway.”

“Roman is in jail.”

“He is. Which makes this the worst possible time to accept Victor's version of anything.”

They called a family-law attorney, Priya Lin, who confirmed that the removal request had been logged but no court had approved taking Maisie. The report falsely claimed the child had been left unattended in a hazardous workplace for several nights.

“That's a lie,” Elena said.

“Then we document it,” Priya answered. “Every school pickup, every text, every person who saw where she was.”

Anika pulled up the estate security roster. Elena had spent the previous nights in the service chamber, while Maisie stayed in the supervised family quarters until she slipped out to find help. The official roster said Elena had voluntarily quit three days earlier.

“Who signed this?” Priya asked.

“Victor,” Anika said. “He signed everything.”

Elena noticed a small notation on the time sheets: B-12. The same marking appeared on the workers' false receipts.

“It's not just a location,” she said. “It's an account code.”

Anika opened the company's public filings. Under a subsidiary named Birch Twelve Services, Calder Shipping had paid enormous consulting fees over eighteen months. The directors included a city procurement official and a woman Elena recognized from the mansion.

“Simone Greer,” Elena whispered. “The head housekeeper.”

Simone had been the one who told Maisie her mother was away visiting relatives. The same woman who quietly pushed food under the nursery door, then locked it again from outside.

“Why would she feed my daughter and lie to her?” Elena asked.

“Maybe because she wasn't willing to let a child starve,” Anika said, “but she was willing to be paid to stay quiet.”

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Elena took out the grease-stained paper from the maintenance closet. She held it beneath the window and saw faint pressure marks on the blank margin.

A second message, invisible until the light hit sideways, said: ASK SIMONE WHAT HAPPENED TO DANNY.