Chapter 2 - The Daughter Victor Thought He Lost
Three years earlier, Victor had watched Catherine leave their Maryland home with Annie asleep in the back seat.
At least, that was the story Maris told him.
Victor had been in Chicago closing the largest business deal of his career.
When he returned, Catherine’s clothes were gone.
So were Annie’s favorite stuffed rabbit and the small yellow suitcase she used on family trips.
A letter waited on his desk.
Victor,
I cannot live under your family’s control anymore. Do not contact us. Annie deserves a life away from this house.
Catherine’s name appeared at the bottom.
Victor called her.
The number had been disconnected.
He emailed.
Every message bounced back.
Maris sat with him through the night.
“I warned you she was unstable,” she said softly.
Victor refused to believe it.
For months, he searched.
He hired investigators.
He contacted Catherine’s friends and relatives.
No one claimed to know where she had gone.
Then a family attorney produced divorce papers supposedly filed by Catherine in another state.
The documents demanded no property.
No support.
No contact.
Only distance.
Victor signed nothing.
He sent money anyway.
Every month, he transferred $8,000 into an account Maris claimed Catherine’s attorney had established for Annie.
“Even if Catherine hates me,” Victor said, “my daughter will never go without anything.”
Maris promised to oversee the payments.
She sent Victor occasional updates.
Annie is healthy.
Annie started school.
Catherine does not want you involved.
The updates became shorter.
Then they stopped.
Victor’s work consumed him.
He told himself the money proved he had not abandoned Annie.
But money was not a phone call.
It was not a bedtime story.
It was not a father standing at a school gate.
That guilt never left him.
On the afternoon of Maris’s birthday celebration, Victor stepped away from the ballroom to take a business call.
Near the hotel service corridor, he heard a child crying.
A little girl sat on the floor behind a catering cart.
Her dress was stained.
Her face was dirty.
She clutched discarded bread and cake in both hands.
Victor almost walked past.
Then she looked up.
He recognized Catherine’s eyes.
“Annie?”
The bread fell from her hand.
She stared at him as if seeing a ghost.
Then she whispered the words that destroyed everything he believed.
May you like
“Grandma said you didn’t want me.”
👉 Annie believed Victor had abandoned her—and the reason she was at Maris’s party was even more disturbing than the lie itself.
