Chapter 3 - THE GAP IN THE STORY
Morning came gray and heavy. Caleb was still asleep when I slipped out of bed, but I left the door open and checked on him three times before I made coffee. Every instinct screamed that I needed to keep him close. Safe.
I sat at the kitchen table with my coffee and pulled up every detail I had about Vanessa. Her full name—Vanessa Marie Hale. Her phone number. Her email. Everything I had filed away months ago when she moved in.
And then I pulled out Claire’s old medical file. The one I kept locked in the bottom drawer, the one I had never been able to bring myself to read twice.
Claire had been diagnosed with advanced heart failure. It was fast. Aggressive. The doctors had given her six months, and she had lived exactly five. She died in the ICU, under constant observation, with me holding her hand. There was no mystery. No unanswered questions.
So why did that text message say to ask Vanessa about that night?
I pulled up the security app once more and went through every single camera feed from the past week. I needed to know when that camera cable behind the shed had been cut. I needed to know if the shadow had been there before last night.
The shed camera had gone offline four days ago. Exactly at 11:42 PM.
Four days ago. Vanessa had been home that night. She had been sitting on this very sofa, telling me how lucky we were, how happy she was that Caleb was finally warming up to her.
Had she slipped out while we all slept? Walked to the shed with wire cutters in her hand? And why? What was she hiding back there?
I pulled up the main patio camera from that same night—the one that still worked. At 11:41 PM, I saw her. She came out the back door, walked casually toward the shed, and vanished from view. At 11:45 PM, she walked back. Hands empty. Expression calm. And she went straight upstairs.
No one else appeared on any camera. She had gone alone.
But then who was the man in the shadows last night?
I grabbed my jacket, wrote a note for Caleb’s babysitter—an old family friend named Marta who had known Caleb since birth—and told her I had urgent business but would be back soon. I promised myself I would be back within an hour.
I drove to Vanessa’s apartment. The one she still kept, the one she told me she only used for storage. I didn’t know what I expected to find. I only knew that I couldn’t let this go. Not after that text. Not after what she did to Caleb.
Her car was parked out front.
I walked up the steps and knocked. Silence. Then footsteps. Then the door swung open.
Vanessa stood there. She looked tired. Pale. Her eyes were red, like she hadn’t slept. When she saw me, she stepped back sharply, one hand flying to her chest.
“I told you—” she started.
“Who is he?” I cut in.
She blinked. “Who?”
“The man standing behind my shed last night. The one watching while you chained my son.”
Vanessa’s face went sheet white. She swayed slightly, as if the floor had tilted beneath her. For a long moment she said nothing at all. Then her lips parted, and she whispered:
“You saw him.”
It wasn’t a question.
My stomach dropped. “You know him.”
She stepped back, gripping the doorframe. “You need to leave, Adrian. Right now.”
“I’m not leaving until you tell me what’s going on.” I stepped forward, and she flinched. “Why was he there? Why was he watching? And what did you mean last night—when you said Claire left us?”
Vanessa stared at me. Her eyes were wide, terrified. And then she did something strange. She glanced quickly over my shoulder, down the street, as if she expected someone to be standing there. Watching.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” she said, her voice shaking. “I was angry. I said a terrible thing. It wasn’t true.”
“It sounded rehearsed,” I said. “And then this morning—someone texted me. Told me to ask you about the night Claire died.”
Vanessa made a small, strangled sound. She reached out, caught my arm with cold fingers. “Delete it. Right now. Delete the message and forget you ever saw it.”
“Tell me why.”
“Because,” she whispered, tears spilling over now, “if they know you’re asking… they’ll kill you. They’ll kill Caleb. And then they’ll come for me.”
The words hung in the air, sharp and terrible.
“Who?” I demanded. “Who is ‘they’?”
She pulled back, shaking her head frantically. “Go. Please. Before anyone sees you here. Just go home and pretend you never looked at that video. Pretend you never got that text. It’s the only way you stay safe.”
“Vanessa—”
“Go!” She practically shoved me back onto the porch, her eyes wild. “I’m sorry about Caleb. I am. But if you keep digging… you’re going to wish you hadn’t. Now leave. And don’t come back.”
She slammed the door in my face. I heard the lock click. Then the deadbolt. Then the chain across the inside.
I stood on her porch for a long time. I knocked again. Called her name. Nothing. She wouldn’t open the door.
I walked back to my car slowly, my mind racing. She wasn’t acting. That fear was real. Someone had terrified her. Someone had power over her. And whatever it was… it connected back to Claire.
I got into the car and pulled out my phone. I called the hospital where Claire died. I asked for her discharge summary—death summary, rather. I told them I needed a copy for family records.
The receptionist on the line hesitated. “Sir… there’s already been a request for this file.”
I frowned. “From who?”
“Submitted online three days ago. Approved by next of kin.”
My blood turned cold. “I am next of kin. I never requested it.”
“The name on the approval form… it’s a Vanessa Hale.”
The world seemed to tilt. Vanessa had requested Claire’s death file. Three days ago. The very same night she had cut the camera cable behind my shed.
She was looking into Claire’s death too.
And then, the receptionist said something else that stopped my heart.
“Sir? There’s… there’s a note attached to the file. It says: Cause of death pending further review. File sealed by order of the medical examiner.”
I gripped the steering wheel until my knuckles turned white.
Pending further review?
Sealed?
Claire died of heart failure. Everyone knew that. I watched her fade away. I held her hand while her heart gave out. There was nothing to review. Nothing to seal.
Unless… unless I hadn’t known the whole truth.
Unless the doctors had told me one thing, but written something else entirely.
I ended the call and drove home slowly, every mile heavier than the last. Vanessa was terrified. Someone was threatening her. She had cut my camera to hide them. She had requested Claire’s file. And someone had texted me warning me not to trust anyone.
May you like
When I pulled into my driveway, Marta came hurrying out the front door before I even turned off the engine. Her face was pale. Her hands were shaking.
“Adrian,” she said, breathless, before I could even step out. “Caleb’s gone.”
