Chapter 2 - Caroline Vale
I knew the name Vale.
Not immediately.
Fear makes memory stupid.
I stood there with my mother’s phone in one hand and Odelia clinging to the back of my shirt while my mind searched.
C. Vale.
Then it landed.
Caroline’s married name.
Caroline Fairmont had become Caroline Vale eighteen months earlier when she married Thomas Vale.
My ex-wife.
Odelia’s mother.
I looked at Morwenna.
“Caroline?”
She said nothing.
That was confirmation enough emotionally.
Not legally.
I handed the phone back instead of continuing to search it.
That decision probably saved me trouble later.
It was not my device.
I had seen the open conversation because it was already displayed.
I had not been authorized to conduct a private forensic search.
I was furious, not stupid.
Mostly.
I pulled out my own phone.
“What are you doing?”
Morwenna asked.
“Calling Caroline.”
“Don’t.”
Interesting.
I called.
Caroline answered on the fourth ring.
“Hey.”
“Did my mother send you videos of Odelia crying?”
Silence.
Not:
What?
Not:
Why would she?
Silence.
“Caroline.”
“Where are you?”
“At Ashford Green.”
“Is Odelia with you?”
“Yes.”
“Is she okay?”
“She just got yanked backward by her grandmother, her lunch was thrown into the trash, and she told me Mom records her crying.”
Morwenna said:
“You’re twisting—”
I held up one finger.
Caroline asked:
“Put Odelia somewhere she can’t hear us.”
Good instinct.
I took my daughter to a bench about twenty yards away.
“Sweetheart, sit here.”
“Are you leaving?”
“No. I’m standing right there.”
I pointed.
“See me?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
Then I walked far enough that she could not hear ordinary conversation.
“What did you receive?”
Caroline exhaled.
“Videos.”
“How many?”
“I don’t know.”
“Try.”
“Maybe eight.”
My stomach tightened.
“For how long?”
“Six weeks.”
“And you said nothing to me?”
“Leander—”
“Why?”
“Because I didn’t know how she was getting them.”
“She’s creating them.”
“I did not know that.”
“Did you ask?”
“I asked what was happening.”
“And?”
“She said Odelia was having increasingly severe episodes when you weren’t home.”
“What episodes?”
“Crying. Panic. Saying she didn’t want to stay with people. Saying she missed me.”
I looked at Morwenna.
She watched me.
Arms folded.
Caroline continued:
“She said you were working later and Odelia was deteriorating.”
“Did you believe her?”
“I believed some of it.”
“Why?”
Another silence.
Then:
“Because Odelia tells me she misses me.”
“She is allowed to miss you.”
“I know.”
“Then why are you collecting videos?”
Caroline’s answer changed everything.
“My lawyer told me to preserve anything relevant to the relocation petition.”
Relocation.
I felt cold.
“What relocation petition?”
“You haven’t been served yet?”
May you like
No.
Not yet.
