Chapter 2 - Safe House and Steel Walls
By 6:00 a.m., we were no longer in our apartment. Detective Harmon didn't let us pack bags; she had two plainclothes officers escort us out through the building's basement laundry room into an unmarked SUV.
We were taken to a secure safe house located thirty miles outside of Dayton—a nondescript, brick ranch home surrounded by high pine trees and a gravel driveway that crunched loudly whenever a vehicle approached. The windows were reinforced with ballistic glass, and a dynamic security detail was stationed at the perimeter.
Sienna woke up during the drive. She didn't cry when she realized we weren't home. Instead, she quietly accepted a pair of soft socks from Deandra and sat at the kitchen table of the safe house, her eyes tracking the shadows of the pine trees outside.
"Mommy," she said, her voice small as she stirred a bowl of oatmeal I had made her. "Are the police going to give Milo his allergy medicine now?"
"Yes, baby," I said, sitting across from her and gently tucking a stray lock of hair behind her ear. "The doctors at the hospital are taking care of all of them. Because of you, they have warm beds and good food today."
She nodded slowly, then looked down at her lap. "Grandpa told Carl that I was the smartest one. He said that’s why I had to stay in the regular room upstairs until the buyers arrived. He said if I was good, he’d buy me a real pony." Her lower lip trembled. "I didn't want a pony, Mommy. I just wanted my old room back."
The sheer, calculated coldness of my biological father made me physically sick. Roland Vance had always been a man of status and power. When my mother died ten years ago, he used his wealth to control everyone around him. When I went broke after my divorce, he tried to buy my obedience. I had thought his cruelty was just arrogance; I never imagined it was monstrousness.
Deandra walked into the kitchen, her face pale as she looked at her phone. "Vera, you need to see this. The news is breaking, but they're spinning it."
I stood up and walked over to the small television mounted on the wall. A local news anchor was standing outside the county courthouse.
"Prominent Dayton philanthropist and real estate mogul Roland Vance was arrested early this morning in what authorities are calling a high-level conspiracy. However, Vance's legal team has already issued a statement claiming the allegations are a politically motivated smear campaign, asserting that the children found on his property were part of an unauthorized foster-care charity extension run by his staff without his knowledge..."
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"An unauthorized charity?" I hissed, my hands clenching into fists. "He had a steel door behind his furnace!"
"They're trying to build a wall of plausible deniability before the formal arraignment," Deandra said, her voice grim. "They have millions of dollars, Vera. They can buy the best lawyers in the country. If they discredit Sienna, or if they make you look like an unstable, vengeful daughter... they might actually walk."
