Chapter 6 - The Reunion with Helena
I do not remember reaching the front stairs.
I remember Dominic shouting orders.
I remember men flooding the grounds.
I remember Ethan standing barefoot at the top of the staircase, asking where Lily was.
But my mind had fixed itself on five words.
She is my granddaughter too.
My mother was alive.
And she had taken my daughter.
Dominic blocked the front door.
“You cannot go outside.”
“She has Lily.”
“We don’t know who has Lily.”
“My mother.”
“We know someone wants you to believe that.”
I shoved his chest.
“Move.”
He did not.
Then Ethan appeared behind us.
“Dad?”
Dominic turned.
His son held something in his hand.
“Lily gave me this before dinner.”
A small plastic bracelet.
Children’s beads spelled three words.
MOMMY. LILY. STAR.
I stared.
“She made that yesterday.”
Ethan opened his palm.
“She said if she got scared, I should give you the star.”
One yellow star bead was larger than the others.
Dominic examined it.
Then his eyes sharpened.
“This isn’t a bead.”
He split the plastic casing with a small tool.
Inside was a tiny electronic tracker.
I stared at it.
“I never put that there.”
Dominic looked toward the open window.
“Someone did.”
Within minutes, the security team traced the signal.
It was moving north.
A convoy left the estate.
Dominic insisted I ride with him.
Neither of us spoke until the signal stopped beside an abandoned railway depot seventeen miles away.
Dominic’s men surrounded the structure.
We entered through a rusted side door.
“Lily!”
My voice echoed through darkness.
Then I heard her.
“Mommy!”
I ran.
She sat inside an old office wrapped in a coat.
Beside her stood a woman.
Older.
Silver threaded through dark brown hair.
A scar crossed her left eyebrow.
Around her neck hung an oval silver necklace identical to mine.
I knew her before my mind could accept it.
“Helena?”
Her eyes filled.
“Maria.”
Twenty-two years of absence stood between us.
I wanted to embrace her.
I wanted to scream.
I wanted to demand where she had been every birthday, every school play, every night I had cried because I believed my mother had abandoned me.
Instead I grabbed Lily.
My daughter threw herself around my neck.
“Mommy, Grandma gave me cookies.”
I looked at Helena.
“You kidnapped my daughter.”
“I rescued her.”
“From whom?”
“Vincent.”
Dominic stepped forward.
“You were inside my house.”
“Yes.”
“You let Lily see you.”
“I needed her to.”
“Why?”
Helena’s gaze moved toward him.
“Because Lily notices what adults ignore.”
Dominic’s men searched the depot.
No Vincent.
No accomplices.
May you like
Helena slowly raised her hands.
“I am not your enemy.”
