Chapter 11 - Cynthia Runs
Cynthia disappeared that night.
Not officially.
Officially, she was “unavailable for comment.”
Unofficially, Rebecca’s investigator found that her Buckhead apartment had been emptied, her luxury SUV was gone, and three wire transfers had moved through accounts connected to shell vendors Jeffrey’s office had paid for months.
Jeffrey called Madeline at 1:13 a.m.
This time, she answered.
His voice was ragged.
“Did you know?”
Madeline stood by the hotel window, watching Atlanta glow beneath a humid summer sky. Behind her, Liam slept curled in the center of the bed, surrounded by pillows because the psychologist said enclosed softness might help him feel safe.
“Know what?” she asked.
“About Cynthia.”
“That she lied to you? No.”
Silence.
Then Jeffrey said, “Don’t sound so satisfied.”
Madeline closed her eyes.
“I’m not satisfied. Our son is traumatized. A child who did nothing wrong is caught in the middle. Your company is under investigation. There is nothing satisfying about any of this.”
“She stole from me.”
Madeline almost laughed at the sheer blindness of it.
“That is what finally hurts you?”
“She used Austin.”
“You all did.”
He breathed hard into the phone.
“I loved that boy.”
Madeline looked toward Liam.
“No. You loved what he gave you. A clean story. A second chance. A child who didn’t remind you of responsibility.”
Jeffrey went quiet.
For a moment, she heard the man she had married somewhere underneath the wreckage. Younger. Smaller. Afraid.
Then he said, “I didn’t know it had gone that far with Liam.”
Madeline’s fingers tightened around the phone.
“You were in the house.”
“I was working.”
“So was I.”
That landed.
He had used that excuse for two years. Now it sounded as pathetic in his mouth as it had always been cruel in hers.
“I can help fix this,” Jeffrey said.
“No.”
“Madeline—”
“You don’t get to fix Liam as a strategy.”
He inhaled sharply.
“Then what do you want from me?”
“The truth.”
Another silence.
Then, barely audible, he said, “My mother hated how much Grandfather loved Liam.”
Madeline turned from the window.
“Why?”
“Because Grandfather changed the trust after Liam was born. Before that, I controlled everything eventually. Then Liam became the future. Not me. Not my mother. Liam.”
“And you let her punish him for it.”
“I didn’t think—”
“No,” Madeline said. “You didn’t.”
Jeffrey’s voice cracked. “Cynthia told me Austin was mine. My mother said Liam was unstable. She said if we didn’t manage him, he’d embarrass the family and lose everything anyway.”
“And you believed them because it was convenient.”
He had no answer.
By dawn, Cynthia’s face was on every business gossip page.
FORMER SECRETARY AT CENTER OF HALE SCANDAL MISSING AMID FINANCIAL QUESTIONS
Madeline did not share the news with Liam. His world needed to shrink before it could safely grow.
Pancakes.
Clean pajamas.
Bath time with no locked doors.
A small toothbrush.
A therapist who brought puppets.
That was his world now.
But Cynthia’s flight mattered.
Because desperate people made mistakes.
At 9:30 a.m., Rebecca entered the suite holding her phone.
“They found Cynthia.”
“Where?”
“Private air terminal. She was trying to leave with Austin.”
Madeline stood.
“Is Austin safe?”
Rebecca nodded. “With authorities for now.”
Madeline exhaled slowly.
She hated Cynthia.
But Austin was three years old.
He did not deserve to become another child punished for adult sin.
Rebecca hesitated.
“There’s more. Cynthia claims Jeffrey knew Austin wasn’t his months ago.”
Madeline looked toward the bedroom where Liam slept.
The truth kept getting uglier.
And somewhere inside all that ugliness, two little boys had been used as pieces on a board.
Madeline picked up her coat.
“Where are you going?” Rebecca asked.
“To make sure Austin has a lawyer.”
Rebecca blinked.
“Madeline, he’s Cynthia’s son.”
Madeline’s voice softened.
May you like
“He’s a child.”
And after what she had seen under her own coffee table, Madeline would never again leave a child alone with monsters simply because he carried the wrong person’s name.
