Chapter 4 - THE WOMAN WHO SHOULD HAVE BEEN DEAD Lydia had survived seven years by becoming invisible.
She changed cities.
Changed names.
Avoided hospitals.
Never used credit cards.
Never slept in the same place for more than a few nights.
She had hidden beneath my building because she believed the Caldwells would never search a property they were desperate to own.
At the hospital, she finally told us why.
She had a daughter.
Grace.
Six months old when Lydia disappeared.
The Caldwells told her the baby had died.
Lydia never believed them.
“They showed me a death certificate,” she whispered.
“Was it real?”
“No.”
She reached into her coat.
Inside was a photograph of a little girl.
Grace at school.
Grace on a horse.
Grace holding a birthday cake.
Grace growing older.
“Every year, someone sent me another picture.”
“Eleanor?”
Lydia nodded.
“She wanted you to know she was alive.”
“Why?”
“So I'd understand what she could take from me.”
Lydia's voice broke.
“She wanted me afraid.”
Then came the larger truth.
The Caldwell fortune had been built through corruption.
Fourteen major properties.
Inferior steel.
Falsified inspections.
Bribed officials.
Engineers threatened into silence.
People injured.
Some killed.
And the original evidence had once been stored beneath my condo.
“The evidence is gone,” I said.
Lydia looked at me.
“Foundation Seven.”
“We found the chamber.”
“Then Julian has it.”
Before she could say more, every light in the hospital went out.
The doors automatically locked.
A man dressed as a surgical technician entered.
He held a syringe.
Lydia screamed.
Reyes tackled him before he reached the bed.
The struggle lasted seconds.
His phone was recovered.
One message appeared:
DO NOT LET LYDIA NAME THE INVESTIGATOR.
The sender was hidden.
The implication was terrifying.
The Caldwells had people inside law enforcement.
People who could erase reports.
Change records.
Move witnesses.
Maybe even kill.
Lydia looked at me.
“There's one person who can bring them down.”
“Who?”
She swallowed.
“Rebecca Sloan.”
May you like
Then the monitor beside her bed began to scream.
Someone had cut the oxygen line.
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