Chapter 5 - The Woman Who Could Decide
The advocate's name was Pilar Moreno. She worked with a nonprofit that helped people leaving coercive relationships find practical and legal support. She wouldn't confirm Elise's address or the particular services she'd received. She was willing to relay a message if my sister agreed.
I wrote only three sentences.
Elise, I told the family you called because I wanted to stop the rumors. I should have asked you first. I am sorry. I will follow the boundaries you set, even when I am scared.
Pilar said she'd pass it along.
Then we waited.
Mom continued to worry about Elise's safety. I made dinner with her on Sundays, and we learned to talk about other things too. The garden needed pruning. Our uncle had finally retired. Mom wanted to replace the kitchen light that flickered over the sink. Ordinary conversation was not a betrayal of my sister. It was a way to remain steady enough to help when she asked.
Leah updated me on the legal questions. The police had taken a report about my being locked in the bedroom and were reviewing statements. An investigator had also received information regarding possible financial irregularities in Sterling's business. Leah couldn't tell me what authorities would conclude, and she warned against confusing the diary with a completed financial audit.
I asked why Sterling feared the blue folder so much.
"We don't know," she said. "And you don't need to access private client records to answer that."
I wanted a dramatic clue that would let me expose him in a room full of witnesses. Instead I had an uncertain paper trail and a sister who didn't yet trust me with her phone number.
Sterling's attorney sent a second letter asking for the diary. Leah proposed a procedure to preserve and return private property as appropriate while ensuring evidence relevant to my report wasn't destroyed. I followed her advice and avoided further direct contact with Sterling.
That week I received an email from a woman named Denise, who had worked in the accounting office of Caldwell Care. She said Elise had raised questions about unexplained adjustments on certain client invoices before leaving. Denise wasn't sure whether the entries represented errors or deliberate misconduct. She had made copies of reports through an authorized compliance channel and had already spoken to her own attorney.
I told Denise I couldn't investigate her employer for her, but I would connect her lawyer with Leah if they both agreed. The matter belonged with the people who could examine records properly, not with me circulating screenshots.
Pilar called again near the end of the month.
Elise was willing to meet me with a counselor present in a neutral office. She had one condition: I was not to bring Mom or anyone else, and I wasn't to ask where she slept.
I agreed before Pilar finished speaking.
I arrived at the office early. My hands were cold despite the warm room. The counselor explained that Elise could leave at any point and that I should let her set the pace.
Then the door opened.
My sister was thinner than when I'd last seen her, with her hair cut to her shoulders. She wore jeans and a green sweater. There were shadows beneath her eyes, but she stood straight, holding a canvas bag with both hands.
I took one step forward and stopped.
"Hi, Ana," she said.
"Hi, Elise."
She sat opposite me.
"I got your message."
"I meant it."
"I know. I'm not ready to tell the whole family anything."
"You don't have to."
She studied me for a moment.
"I thought you'd be furious I didn't call sooner."
"I was frightened. But I'm not angry that you chose a way to be safe."
Her eyes filled.
"I didn't know if you'd believe me without making me prove every detail."
"I believe you when you say you were afraid. We can work out the rest at your pace."
She reached across the table, and I took her hand. For a while neither of us spoke.
Then she asked whether I'd really found the red diary.
May you like
I nodded.
"There's one page I didn't finish," she said. "And if Sterling still has the blue folder, he may try to make the last part of my life with him look like something it wasn't."
