Chapter 7 - His Sister’s Voice
I had never seen a powerful man cry before.
Not in a movie. Not in a photograph after a funeral.
In a hallway, with one hand braced against the wall because his legs no longer trusted him.
Adrian bent his head while Detective Alvarez spoke.
He asked where Elise was.
Whether she was hurt.
Whether he could see her.
Then he listened for so long that I thought the call had ended.
When he finally lowered the phone, his face was wet.
“They found her.”
I covered my mouth.
“She’s at a hospital. She asked about Leo.”
“Does she know he’s safe?”
“Yes.”
He looked toward the stairs.
“I need to go.”
“Then go.”
“What do I tell him?”
We stood with that question between us.
Too much had been hidden from Leo in the name of protecting him.
But we had no right to rush him into a reunion neither he nor his mother was ready to manage.
“Tell him she’s been found,” I said. “Tell him doctors are helping her. Then let someone who understands children help with the rest.”
Adrian nodded.
They spoke with a child psychologist by video before telling him.
Leo sat between us on the sofa.
His fox rested in his lap.
Adrian took a breath.
“Your mother has been found.”
The child did not move.
“What?”
“She’s alive, Leo.”
I watched his small face try to arrange itself around the words.
“No.”
Adrian’s voice broke.
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“At a hospital. She’s getting help.”
“Was she in the water?”
“We’re still learning what happened.”
“Did she leave me?”
The question came so quietly that I almost missed it.
Adrian leaned forward.
“No. She did not leave you.”
“Then why didn’t she come home?”
“Someone stopped her.”
Leo looked at me.
I nodded, tears slipping down my face.
He stared at his fox.
Then he began shaking.
Not crying at first. Just shaking.
I held his shoulders while Adrian moved closer.
“I knew,” Leo whispered.
Neither of us corrected him.
“I knew she made a new song.”
Adrian pressed his forehead against the child’s hair.
“I should have heard it sooner.”
For the next hour, the psychologist guided us through questions we could answer and questions we could not.
Leo wanted to call his mother immediately.
The hospital arranged a short conversation.
When her face appeared on the tablet, I barely recognized the woman from the photographs in Cain House.
Her hair was shorter. Her cheeks were thinner.
But when she saw her son, her expression changed so completely that every photograph became unnecessary.
“My little fox.”
Leo made a sound I will remember for the rest of my life.
“Mom?”
She pressed her fingers to the screen.
“I’m here.”
He touched the glass.
Adrian turned away.
I stayed because Leo had one hand locked around my wrist.
Elise did not try to explain everything.
She told him she loved him.
She told him none of it was his fault.
She asked whether Pepper was still stealing things.
At that, Leo laughed through his tears.
“Socks.”
“Oh, that sounds serious.”
“The cake was worse.”
“I heard.”
She looked beyond him, searching.
“Adrian?”
He moved back into view.
For several seconds, brother and sister simply looked at each other.
Then Elise said, “You came.”
His mouth trembled.
“I’m sorry it took so long.”
Later, after he left for the hospital, I took Leo into the garden.
He needed air and movement more than another conversation.
We threw a ball for Pepper until the puppy became distracted by a leaf.
“Is Mom coming here?” Leo asked.
“When the doctors say she can.”
“Will she look different?”
“She might.”
“Will she still like pancakes?”
I smiled through a fresh ache in my chest.
“That seems likely.”
He nodded.
Then he reached for my hand.
“Will you still be here?”
I squeezed his fingers.
“For now, yes.”
I could promise that much.
Inside, my phone rang.
Adrian.
His voice was strained.
“June, listen carefully. The security team is bringing you inside.”
I straightened.
“What happened?”
“Victor isn’t where investigators expected him to be.”
My hand tightened around Leo’s.
At the gate, a car slowed.
The driver’s window lowered.
Victor looked toward us.
Even from across the garden, I recognized the pleasant smile.
He lifted one hand.
I did not wave back.
“Come on, Leo,” I said.
My voice sounded calm.
May you like
I was proud of it later.
Right then, I was simply grateful he believed me.
