Chapter 9 - Anna Was Supposed to Disappear Voluntarily
Evan’s van contained a duffel bag that belonged to Anna.
Inside:
Clothes.
Toiletries.
Cash.
Prescription bottle.
Bus timetable.
Printed directions to a women’s shelter in St. Louis.
And a handwritten note.
I’m sorry. I can’t be a mother right now. Matthew should have the children. Please don’t look for me.
Anna had not written it.
A document examiner would later support that conclusion.
The note was not meant to convince police forever.
Only long enough.
Judith’s messages filled in more.
LEAVE HER WITH PHONE AND CASH AFTER SHE WAKES.
Evan:
SHE’LL REPORT IMMEDIATELY.
Judith:
THEN BY THEN MATTHEW FILES.
The plan was becoming visible.
Take Anna and children.
Move them across state lines.
Separate Anna.
Leave her with enough money and belongings to make departure look voluntary.
Submit emergency custody papers before she reached authorities.
Use the existing story:
Anxious mother.
Unstable.
Trying to isolate children from father.
Then layer on:
She disappeared.
Abandoned them.
Needed treatment.
The alias “Emma” would reduce the chance that casual hotel clerks or roadside employees recognized Lily if a missing-child notice circulated quickly.
But something still did not fit.
Why Emma specifically?
Any false name would work.
Why had Judith drafted it months earlier?
Then Anna’s attorney found a custody-planning email attached to a message between Matthew and Judith.
The subject line:
SCHOOL OPTIONS
A private elementary school outside Springfield, Missouri.
Enrollment forms.
Emergency contact sheet.
Medical information.
Student:
Emma Foster.
Created five months before Walmart.
Lily was already enrolled elsewhere.
Anna had never agreed to Missouri.
This was not an alias invented during a panicked abduction.
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It belonged to a future the Foster family had begun constructing long before they hired Evan Sloan.
Part 10 began there.
