Chapter 10 - THE WAITER KNEW WHERE MY MOTHER WAS
Daniel Ruiz nearly ran when Maeve appeared at his apartment.
Then he saw her.
Stopped.
“You found out.”
“Where is she?”
His eyes filled.
“Safe.”
Maeve nearly collapsed.
“Where?”
Daniel hesitated.
Leo stepped backward deliberately.
Letting Maeve own the conversation.
Smart.
Maeve said:
“Daniel, she’s my mother.”
“I know.”
“Please.”
He gave the address.
A farmhouse near Galena.
Owned by his grandmother.
Elizabeth Sullivan was sitting at the kitchen table when Maeve entered.
Alive.
Older.
Thin.
But alert.
Maeve stopped in the doorway.
Her mother looked up.
For one second, nothing happened.
Then:
“Maeve.”
That was enough.
Maeve crossed the room.
She did not remember falling to her knees.
Only her mother’s hands on her face.
“My girl.”
Maeve cried like nineteen had returned.
Caroline arrived an hour later.
She stopped at the door.
Elizabeth looked at her.
“Caroline.”
Caroline began sobbing before she reached the table.
Then Elizabeth said:
“Where’s Charlotte?”
Both daughters froze.
Their mother remembered everything.
Enough, anyway.
The medication had caused long periods of cognitive impairment.
When doses reduced, clarity returned.
Vale’s people moved her repeatedly to keep her unstable.
Daniel discovered her during a delivery.
He recognized her from an old photograph in Maeve’s office.
Maeve kept one picture of Elizabeth beside the payroll computer.
Daniel risked his job and possibly his life to help her.
“Why didn’t you call me?” Maeve asked.
Elizabeth touched her cheek.
“I did.”
“When?”
“Eleven months ago.”
No call reached Maeve.
Then Elizabeth looked at Caroline.
“I called you too.”
Caroline’s face crumpled.
“I never got it.”
Someone had intercepted communications.
Most likely Richard or Vale.
Elizabeth had remained hidden because Daniel feared she would be taken again.
She gathered evidence.
Copies.
Names.
Medical records.
Then she revealed the final piece.
Arthur Vale did not merely run Bellweather.
He owned a secret majority interest in Sullivan Floral through debt Richard had hidden.
Maeve frowned.
“How much?”
“Enough to seize it if the sale failed.”
The Argent transaction was never really a sale.
Argent Hospitality was controlled through a Vale investment fund.
Arthur planned to buy Sullivan Floral from Richard using a company he indirectly controlled.
He would own both sides.
Clean old money.
Erase evidence.
Then close the warehouse.
Maeve understood.
The gala was not only a closing dinner.
It was a funeral.
For the company.
For the evidence.
For Elizabeth’s legacy.
Then her mother handed her a flash drive.
“What is this?”
“Everything they couldn’t find.”
Bank records.
Audio.
Medical orders.
Vale’s instructions.
Richard’s signatures.
Vincent’s payments.
Enough to finish it.
But Elizabeth warned:
“Arthur knows Daniel helped me.”
Maeve’s stomach tightened.
“Where is Daniel?”
They called.
No answer.
Then Leo’s security chief reported Daniel’s apartment empty.
May you like
His phone found smashed in an alley.
Arthur Vale had taken the one young man who chose kindness over fear.
