Chapter 10 - The Cabin Above Silver Creek
Taylor’s transport tracker led to an abandoned cabin above Silver Creek.
Police found her car at the bottom of a ravine.
Empty.
A trail of blood led into the woods.
I joined the search despite orders to stay back.
At dawn, we found the cabin.
Inside were photographs of Lily from every year of her life.
Rachel had been watching from a distance.
A wall map showed Evelyn’s properties, Leonard’s clinics, and the basement beneath my house.
Rachel had spent years gathering evidence.
Then we found Taylor tied to a chair.
Alive.
Terrified.
She claimed Rachel attacked her.
But the restraints were loose.
She could have escaped.
Detective Cole noticed first.
“You tied yourself.”
Taylor began crying.
Leonard had ordered her to pretend Rachel kidnapped her.
He wanted police focused on the wrong woman.
“Where is he?” I asked.
“At the old mountain clinic.”
“With Ava?”
“Yes.”
“And Rachel?”
Taylor looked toward the bedroom.
A woman stepped out.
Thin.
Older than thirty-five.
A scar along her jaw.
Rachel.
The girl I once knew as Rae.
She looked at me for a long time.
“You came back early.”
The words echoed Taylor’s first sentence in the garage.
Only Rachel said them with relief.
I could not speak.
She held out a folder.
Every document needed to expose Evelyn and Leonard.
She had gathered them while hiding for seven years.
“Why didn’t you come to me?”
“Because your mother controlled your phone, your lawyers, and your wife.”
“You could have tried.”
“I did.”
She showed me dozens of returned letters.
Taylor had intercepted them.
My wife had hidden every attempt Rachel made to reach us.
Taylor looked down.
Rachel turned toward her sister.
“You wanted my child badly enough to pretend I was dead.”
Taylor whispered, “I loved her.”
“You loved having her.”
That distinction silenced the room.
Then Rachel looked at me.
“Leonard took Ava because she knows where the original embryos are stored.”
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“Why does that matter?”
“Because Lily and Ava are not the only children.”
