Chapter 16 - The Cabin
The medicine was antibiotics.
Ordered through a telehealth account registered to Mia.
Prescription for an infected cut.
Delivery address:
A locker twelve miles from the Northstar cabin.
Someone collected it wearing a hood.
Security video couldn’t identify the face.
But height and build were consistent with Mia.
That suggested she was alive at least two days after vanishing.
It also complicated Victor’s role.
If he intended to kill her, why allow medicine?
Maybe he didn’t.
Maybe she escaped.
Maybe someone else held her.
We followed evidence.
The cabin contained traces of occupancy.
Female hair.
Food.
A blood spot on a bathroom towel.
DNA testing later matched Mia.
No restraints.
No locked interior door.
Then investigators found a handwritten grocery list.
Mia’s handwriting.
Milk.
Bandages.
Phone charger.
Harper cereal.
That last item broke me.
She was planning around Harper.
Even while separated.
Then a hidden camera was found outside the cabin.
Not inside.
Watching the driveway.
Registered to Northstar.
Victor admitted installing security months earlier.
Footage had been remotely deleted.
Of course.
But cloud backups survived on a vendor server.
The video showed Victor arriving with Mia at 11:04 a.m.
They both exited the car.
Mia was not visibly restrained.
She followed him inside.
Thirty minutes later, Victor left alone.
Mia remained.
The next morning, another vehicle arrived.
White pickup.
Driver:
Samuel Crowe.
Roman exploded when he saw it.
“You told us you were in Pennsylvania.”
Samuel’s attorney requested a break.
Then Samuel admitted the truth.
Mia called him from the cabin.
Victor had offered her a deal.
Return the list and blue notebook.
In exchange, Victor would give her evidence clearing Adrian of the worst Northstar transactions and arrange safe passage.
Mia didn’t trust him.
So she called Samuel.
Samuel came to help her leave.
“Where did you take her?”
Samuel looked at me.
“Nowhere.”
That sounded impossible.
Then he explained.
When he arrived, Mia refused to leave.
“She said Harper was still with Claire.”
“We could have gone back.”
“She thought Victor was watching the mansion.”
He was.
Mia decided to stay hidden until she could arrange Harper’s safe removal.
Samuel brought supplies.
He left.
On the third day, Mia disappeared from the cabin.
This time without telling him.
Why?
Samuel handed investigators a note she left.
One sentence:
VICTOR KNOWS ABOUT GABRIEL’S COPY. I HAVE TO END THIS BEFORE HE USES HARPER AGAIN.
Mia wasn’t merely hiding.
May you like
She had gone back on the offensive.
📖 Mia survived the cabin and chose to keep investigating, but her next target was Victor’s most protected account—and accessing it required help from inside my own family. 👇
