Chapter 9: The Duplicate Bracelet
The duplicate bracelet proved the hospital plan had never been limited to killing me.
Ryan intended to take the baby.
Vanessa refused to speak after her arrest.
The woman from the legal office, Dana Pierce, claimed she had been paid to deliver the bracelet but didn’t know what Ryan planned to do with it.
Detective Torres did not believe her.
Neither did I.
My contractions became more frequent.
Dr. Walsh warned that if the baby’s heartbeat dropped again, they would have to deliver immediately.
While doctors worked to stop labor, police searched Vanessa’s belongings.
Inside her purse was a storage-unit key.
The unit was registered under a false name.
When officers opened it, they found cash, two passports, clothes, and supplies for a newborn.
There was also a portable crib with a name embroidered across the blanket.
SOPHIA COLE.
Cole was Vanessa’s last name.
Ryan and Vanessa planned to rename my child and raise her as their own.
The storage unit contained photographs of foreign apartments and a printed route to a private airfield outside the city.
A small plane had been reserved for the next morning.
The reservation had been made through the same legal fund that paid Ryan’s bond.
Someone with money and influence was still helping him.
The fund belonged to William Mercer, a senior executive at Vanessa’s insurance company.
Mercer claimed he had authorized the payment because Vanessa told him Ryan had been falsely accused.
But phone records showed more than thirty calls between Mercer and Ryan.
Police executed a search warrant at the company’s headquarters.
They discovered several suspicious life insurance policies connected to accidental deaths.
Ryan and Vanessa had not invented the scheme.
They had joined an existing operation.
Policies were opened using forged signatures.
Medical records were altered.
Vulnerable spouses were drugged or manipulated.
Accidents followed.
William Mercer approved the payouts.
Vanessa processed the claims.
Dr. Hale created the medical histories.
Ryan had offered me as their next victim in exchange for clearing his debts.
I stared at the list of names.
“How many people died?”
“At least four cases are being reopened,” Detective Torres said.
Dad looked toward Vanessa’s interrogation room.
“She knows where Ryan is.”
“She’s still refusing to cooperate.”
Linda was brought to the station.
Detectives showed her the storage unit, the passports, and the nursery prepared for my child.
For several minutes, Linda said nothing.
Then she asked to see Vanessa.
The two women were placed in separate interview rooms divided by one-way glass.
Linda could see Vanessa.
Vanessa could not see her.
Ryan’s mother watched the younger woman sit calmly at the table wearing the sweater police had given her.
“That’s the woman he chose?” Linda whispered.
Detective Torres did not answer.
Linda’s bitterness finally became stronger than her loyalty.
“He has a hunting cabin near Lake Geneva,” she said. “It belonged to his father. It isn’t in Ryan’s name.”
Police immediately prepared to search the property.
Before leaving, Detective Torres received a call from the hospital.
My condition had changed.
The placenta had begun separating.
The baby’s heartbeat was falling.
Dr. Walsh had ordered an emergency delivery.
Dad ran from the station.
But as police vehicles raced toward the cabin, a patrol officer radioed back.
The cabin was empty.
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On the kitchen table sat a photograph of my hospital room.
It had been taken less than ten minutes earlier.
