Chapter 4 - The Ghost From the Past
I stared at the glowing screen of my phone in absolute and total disbelief.
The bizarre message had to be some kind of sick joke or a clever trap set by Ethan.
"Who are you and how did you get this private number?" I quickly typed back.
The response came almost immediately and made my racing heart pound even faster.
"My name is Sarah, and I faked my own death to escape the exact same nightmare Maya is in," the text read.
I quickly showed the mysterious messages to Marcus who immediately looked highly concerned.
"This woman could be our golden ticket to completely destroying his credibility in court," Marcus whispered.
"Send me a safe address and I will meet you right now," I texted the mysterious woman.
She sent me a remote location for an abandoned diner on the foggy outskirts of the city.
I told Marcus to stay at the police station and fight the bail denial with everything he had.
I drove my car cautiously through the heavy morning fog to reach the desolate meeting spot.
A woman wearing a dark trench coat and large sunglasses was sitting quietly in a corner booth.
I sat down directly across from her and demanded to see some actual proof of her identity.
She slowly slid a faded driver's license and a series of horrific hospital records across the sticky table.
The frightening photographs showed a woman who looked exactly like her covered in severe dark bruises.
"Ethan is a professional predator who specifically targets vulnerable women from incredibly wealthy families," Sarah explained quietly.
"Why didn't you just go straight to the police with all of this concrete evidence?" I asked her firmly.
"Because his mother Beatrice aggressively pays off corrupt people inside the local justice system," Sarah revealed.
That dark fact perfectly explained why the police officers at the house had been so aggressively blind to the truth.
"I have hard evidence of his massive financial frauds and his violent history hidden in a secure safety deposit box," Sarah offered.
"I will gladly give you a million dollars for that evidence right now," I promised without a second of hesitation.
Sarah shook her head slowly and took off her dark sunglasses.
Her left eye was permanently blinded and scarred from a brutal past injury.
"I do not want your money, Eleanor, I want absolute immunity and a brand new identity," she demanded.
"I have the financial resources to make you disappear completely," I agreed instantly.
Sarah smiled weakly and reached deep into her coat pocket to retrieve the silver vault key.
Suddenly, my phone rang loudly and completely shattered the quiet atmosphere of the empty diner.
It was Marcus frantically calling me from the busy police station.
"Eleanor, you need to get to the main city hospital right this second," Marcus said with sheer panic in his voice.
"What exactly happened to my daughter?" I demanded while jumping up from the booth.
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"Maya collapsed violently in her holding cell and is vomiting up massive amounts of blood," Marcus rushed out.
"The jail doctors believe she was intentionally poisoned while in police custody," he finished breathlessly.
