Chapter 6 - the meeting Nathan forgot
Nathan insisted he had no memory of Lauren Holloway.
Detective Cole did not accept memory as evidence.
He checked Nathan’s old calendars.
Seven years earlier, there was an appointment.
L.H.
Forty-five minutes.
No description.
Two days before Lauren disappeared.
Nathan stared.
“I must have met her.”
Elise asked:
“What would make you forget someone connected to this family?”
Nathan had no good answer.
Then his former receptionist found an archived voicemail.
Lauren’s voice.
“Nathan, this is Lauren Holloway. Thank you for seeing me. I found the transfer documents we discussed. I think Grant’s mother has been using Rebecca to falsify evaluations. Please call me before I go home tonight.”
Nathan covered his face.
“I remember now.”
Not everything.
Enough.
Lauren came to him frightened.
She believed Judith had obtained fraudulent assessments through Rebecca.
She believed Grant knew money was being moved through family-controlled companies.
She had found forged deeds.
Nathan advised her not to return home alone.
Lauren said she needed clothes and documents.
Then she left.
He called twice.
No answer.
The next morning Grant reported her missing.
“Why didn’t you tell police?” Elise asked.
“I did.”
Aaron checked the old file.
No statement from Nathan.
Nathan frowned.
“I spoke to Detective Wallace.”
Wallace had retired.
When contacted, he said he remembered Nathan calling.
But the report was removed from the case file after a supervisor told him Lauren’s disappearance appeared voluntary.
“Who was the supervisor?”
“Captain James Holloway.”
Grant’s father.
Elise stared.
Grant had told her his father died when he was young.
Another lie.
James Holloway had been a county police captain.
He died five years earlier.
At the time Lauren vanished, he had authority over the investigation.
Aaron’s expression hardened.
“That explains why the case collapsed.”
Mara, when questioned, confirmed her father was alive during Lauren’s disappearance.
“He told me never to say anything.”
Grant’s entire family had participated at different levels.
Judith manipulated paperwork.
James suppressed police reports.
Grant controlled Lauren.
Mara was trained to forge signatures.
Rebecca produced psychiatric narratives.
The system was larger than Elise understood.
Then Aaron found one overlooked clue.
Lauren’s bus station car.
Original police photographs showed mud on the rear tires.
Red clay.
Not common near the Holloway house.
But common near Greenhaven Recovery Center.
Had Lauren been taken there?
Greenhaven denied ever admitting her.
Yet maintenance records showed a vehicle matching Grant’s truck entered the service road the night Lauren vanished.
Three hours later, another vehicle left.
Registered to Rebecca Webb.
Nathan stared.
“My sister drove her.”
“Where?”
No one knew.
Rebecca remained missing.
Federal authorities joined the search.
They traced an old tax filing to Asheville, North Carolina.
Current employer:
Rebecca Lane.
Name changed by marriage.
Alive.
Police found her.
She did not run.
Her first statement:
“Lauren is alive.”
Elise stopped breathing when Aaron called.
“Where?”
“I don’t know now.”
Rebecca explained.
Lauren had not been abducted.
Not exactly.
Judith planned to force her into Greenhaven.
Rebecca warned her.
Then helped her escape.
“Why did you write the false evaluation?” Aaron asked.
“Judith had evidence that I stole trust funds.”
“You did.”
“Yes.”
“She blackmailed you.”
“Yes.”
“Then you helped Lauren.”
“At the end.”
Rebecca drove Lauren to a motel.
Gave her cash.
Lauren left Virginia under another name.
“Why never come forward?”
“Because James Holloway was police.”
“And Grant?”
Rebecca looked uncomfortable.
“Grant found us at the motel.”
Elise felt cold.
“What happened?”
“He let Lauren leave.”
Silence.
Grant had a chance to stop his wife.
He did not.
“Why?” Aaron asked.
Rebecca answered:
“Because Lauren told him she was pregnant.”
Elise froze.
Grant’s first wife had disappeared while pregnant.
“Was it his baby?”
“Yes.”
“Did Grant know before that night?”
“No.”
“What did he do?”
“He cried.”
“Then?”
“He told her to go.”
Elise’s understanding shifted.
Grant had not murdered Lauren.
He had helped his family abuse and trap her, then allowed her to escape once he learned she carried his child.
That did not make him good.
It made him complicated.
“Where is the child?” Elise asked.
Rebecca looked down.
“I don’t know.”
Lauren vanished.
So did the baby.
Which meant Benjamin might not be Grant’s first child.
Then Rebecca said something worse.
“Judith found out about the pregnancy two months later.”
“How?”
“I told her.”
Elise stared.
“Why?”
“She threatened Nathan.”
Nathan closed his eyes.
His sister had been protecting him.
Rebecca continued:
“After that, Judith started searching for Lauren.”
“Did she find her?”
Rebecca hesitated.
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Georgia.”
“When?”
“Six years ago.”
“And the child?”
Rebecca’s face changed.
May you like
“She took him.”
👉 Lauren escaped Grant’s family while pregnant—but Rebecca revealed Judith later found her and took the child, creating another hidden branch of the Holloway family no one had mentioned.
