Chapter 3 - What Ava Was Afraid to Say
Paramedics examined Ava, Eli, and Gray near the patrol cars.
The children were cold, dehydrated, and exhausted, but physically stable. Gray had cuts on his paws, an empty stomach, and old scars beneath his fur. He refused food until Ava and Eli had eaten.
Rachel sat beside Ava beneath an emergency blanket.
“You won’t go back anywhere until we understand why you left.”
Ava clutched Gray’s neck.
“They won’t believe me.”
“I believe what I can see.”
The girl stared at the patrol lights flickering through the trees.
“Aunt Cynthia said nobody would believe kids who ran away.”
Rachel waited.
Ava finally explained that Cynthia had been receiving survivor benefits meant for both children. She sold their mother’s jewelry, canceled Eli’s therapy, and stopped buying school lunches after learning their parents had left money in a protected trust.
When Ava asked why they could not use the money for Eli’s medication, Cynthia slapped the table and accused her of being ungrateful.
Then Ava found an envelope from the trust administrator hidden inside Cynthia’s desk.
The account contained more than six hundred thousand dollars.
Cynthia could not access the principal while the children remained under court supervision. But she could request reimbursements for housing, education, and medical care.
“She made fake receipts,” Ava whispered. “I saw them.”
“What kind?”
“Doctors we never went to. Camps we never attended. A private school in another city.”
Ava photographed the papers using an old tablet.
Cynthia caught her.
She threatened to separate the children, send Eli to a residential facility, and tell authorities Ava was violent.
The night they disappeared, Cynthia packed two school bags and drove them to the edge of the drainage field.
“She said we wanted to run away,” Ava said. “Then she told us to get out.”
Rachel’s chest tightened.
“She left you here?”
May you like
Ava nodded.
“She said she would call police later and tell them we escaped.”
