Chapter 4 - The Man Who Hurt Me Offered to Return My Mother for One Signature
Preston called before dawn.
I recognized his voice immediately.
"Miss Bennett. You made a terrible mistake."
My fingers shook around the phone.
"Where is my mother?"
"Safe enough. For now."
Damon stood beside the kitchen window.
He did not interrupt.
Preston wanted a signed statement.
I would say my injury was accidental.
I would withdraw any accusation against him.
I would also declare that Damon threatened me.
"Why involve him?" I asked.
"Because he's always been involved."
Preston gave me a meeting place.
A closed chapel near the waterfront.
I agreed to come alone.
Then I hung up.
"You're not going alone," Damon said.
"I know."
For the first time, I had a plan.
Evelyn had given me my mother's old phone.
It contained a recording application.
We prepared a second device for the meeting.
Matteo positioned officers from a trusted investigative unit nearby.
Damon called a prosecutor he had known for years.
"No private revenge," I told him.
"Not this time."
He looked at me for a long moment.
"You think that's what I want?"
"I don't know what you want."
"I want you alive."
At the chapel, Preston arrived carrying a folder.
He smiled at my sling.
"Still making a scene?"
I asked about my mother.
He pushed the statement toward me.
"Sign first."
I opened the folder.
Beneath the false confession was another document.
It transferred ownership of my mother's home.
The buyer was a company called Bluebird Holdings.
Then I noticed the witness signature.
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It belonged to Eleanor Blackwell.
Damon's grandmother.
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