Chapter 6 - RACHEL WAS ALIVE
The breakthrough came from the stale bread.
Not the bread itself.
The wrapper.
Ella had kept half a roll wrapped in paper from a bakery in Roanoke, Virginia.
One hundred and fifty miles from the cabin.
A social worker noticed the logo.
Detectives checked purchases.
The bakery’s cameras showed Thomas buying food there four days earlier.
But he was not alone.
A woman sat in the passenger seat of his truck.
Dark hair.
Thin face.
Baseball cap pulled low.
Rachel Wade.
Alive.
The image stunned everyone.
Thomas had told police he had not seen Rachel in fourteen months.
Now he had been driving with her four days earlier.
Why?
His lawyer stopped answering questions.
Detectives traced the truck.
Traffic cameras placed it near an abandoned motel outside Wytheville.
Police found Rachel there.
Alive.
Weak.
Drugged.
Terrified.
But alive.
She had been moved repeatedly between properties controlled by Thomas’s subcontractors.
She said Thomas found her three weeks after she originally fled.
He did not kill her.
He forced her back into isolation.
Why keep her alive?
Bank access.
Rachel remained co-owner on several accounts Thomas needed.
Her biometric authorization was required for a refinancing package.
He needed signatures.
Passwords.
Cooperation.
She refused.
So he used the twins.
Rachel told police:
“He said if I didn’t sign, I’d never see them again.”
Ethan sat outside the interview room while she spoke.
When Rachel finally saw Emma and Ella through the glass, she collapsed.
The twins ran to her.
Their crying filled the hallway.
Ethan turned away.
Because suddenly Olivia’s secret made sense.
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She had not been hiding a scandal.
She had been trying to keep a mother and two children alive.
