Chapter 3 - My Wife Was Missing
I called Emily.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Sophia looked at me.
“Mommy went to get medicine.”
“When?”
“This morning.”
My chest tightened.
“What medicine?”
“For her stomach.”
Victoria interrupted.
“She’s always sick.”
I turned so fast she stepped back.
“Do not speak.”
That surprised her.
Good.
Maya checked staff logs.
Emily left the hotel at 9:12 a.m.
She never returned.
The front desk had no room registered in her name.
Of course not.
My mother owned the hotel.
She could erase a guest without deleting a person.
I called police.
Victoria objected.
“This is a private family situation.”
“No.”
I looked at Sophia’s missing shoe.
“It stopped being private when my child ate from a garbage cart.”
Detective Luis Ramirez arrived.
He listened to Maya.
Reviewed the footage.
Then asked Sophia simple questions.
“Where do you usually sleep?”
“With Mommy.”
“Here?”
Sophia nodded.
“Sometimes the laundry room.”
My hands curled into fists.
“Who gives you food?”
“Maya.”
She pointed toward the manager.
“And Mr. Tom from the kitchen.”
“Does Grandma give you food?”
Sophia looked at Victoria.
Then whispered:
“She says hungry children learn manners.”
The detective’s face changed.
Victoria said:
“She is six. Children exaggerate.”
Sophia began shaking.
I knelt beside her.
“You don’t have to answer anything else.”
Ramirez nodded.
He asked me about money.
I showed him the transfers.
Then he asked the question I should have asked months ago.
“Why were you sending support money directly instead of sharing accounts with your wife?”
I felt ashamed.
Because after our marriage became strained, Victoria convinced me Emily was irresponsible.
She said separate finances would protect the family.
I believed her.
I sent five thousand dollars monthly and assumed that was enough.
I never checked whether Emily could access it.
Money sent was not the same as help received.
Then Ramirez’s phone rang.
He listened.
His face tightened.
“What?”
He looked at me.
“Your wife was admitted to St. Catherine’s Hospital this morning.”
I stood.
“Why?”
“She collapsed outside a pharmacy.”
Sophia started crying.
I carried her toward the elevator.
Victoria followed.
I turned.
“No.”
She froze.
“You stay here.”
“I am your mother.”
“And Emily is my wife.”
Her face hardened.
“She won’t be for long.”
I stopped.
“What does that mean?”
Victoria smiled.
May you like
Then she said:
“She already signed the divorce papers.”
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(1048x378:1050x380)/Jenna-Bush-Hager-100223-c94955eb572d47ea815a340c18c6e771.jpg)
