Chapter 3: Shadows at the Gate
By the third day, the cramped safety of Clara’s house began to feel like a cage. Ethan was teething, fussy and clinging to my skirts whenever I moved toward the kitchen. Clara tried her best to keep our spirits up, baking blueberry muffins and playing old records on her turntable, but the news report on the local station shattered whatever illusion of peace we had left.
“...authorities are searching for twenty-six-year-old Lily Vance, former nanny to the Blackwood family, following an unauthorized departure from their estate with fourteen-month-old Ethan Blackwood. A family spokesperson insists there is no danger to the child...”
I clicked the small television off with the remote, my hands shaking. Serena was spinning the narrative. She wasn't calling the police immediately because that would invite an investigation into the household—an investigation she couldn't afford. Instead, she was using private channels, painting me as unstable to protect her immaculate public image.
“Lily, look,” Clara murmured from the kitchen window, parting the lace curtains with two fingers.
A sleek silver sedan idling by the curb three houses down. No local plates. Tinted windows rolled up tight against the muggy afternoon air. It sat there for ten minutes before slowly rolling away without turning on its headlights.
Panic surged hot and sharp in my throat. They were already looking in the wrong neighborhoods, but it was only a matter of time before they tracked Clara’s old utility bills or my credit card usage at the local pharmacy. I had left my primary purse in the trunk of the Honda, untouched since the night we fled.
May you like
My phone vibrated on the formica table. The screen lit up with an incoming call from an unknown, encrypted number. I stared at it for three long seconds, my breath hitching, before pressing accept.
“Pack a bag,” Victor’s voice came through the speaker, low, steady, and devoid of background noise. “They found the Honda’s toll record near exit fourteen. You have twenty minutes before my wife’s team realizes the car belongs to a friend from your hometown, not you.”
