October turned out to be cold. The dampness penetrated everywhere, creeping under my jacket, forcing me to wrap myself in an old wool scarf. I was returning from the farmer’s market, where I had bought the last apples of the season for jam.
My old Chevy, a faithful assistant for fifteen years, hummed with effort on the broken dirt road. In the thick twilight of the autumn evening, the road was barely visible, but I knew every pothole, every turn. These places had been my home all my life.
I am Ruby Vance: a widow, a mother, and a grandmother. Many people in our county know me. I worked as a nurse at the rural hospital and retired five years ago. Now I tend to my garden, bake pies for my grandchildren, and make preserves for the winter.
The ordinary life of an ordinary woman. Although, people rarely called me ordinary. With my black hair, hardly touched by gray even at fifty-six, my dark skin, and my deep, dark eyes, I always stood out here in the rural backwoods.
“Bad blood,” they whispered behind my back—sometimes with admiration, more often with caution. And they were right. My grandmother was a proud Black woman who married a white man, my grandfather, against her family’s will. This story was passed down in the family like a legend about a great love that conquered prejudice.
The phone in my jacket pocket erupted with a shrill ring, making me startle. It was an old push-button device, reliable, with a powerful battery that didn’t fail even in freezing temperatures. An unfamiliar number flashed on the screen.
“Hello?” I pressed the phone to my ear, slowing down on a particularly bumpy stretch.
“Ruby Vance?” A male voice, unfamiliar and out of breath.
“Yes, that’s me.”
“You need to come urgently. The woods behind the old quarry—do you know where that is?”
My heart skipped a beat. “I know.”
“I’m Sam, a hunter. I live across the river. I found your daughter. She’s in bad shape, very bad. She has her ID on her. Your number is listed as an emergency contact.”
The ground fell out from under my feet. I braked sharply, and the car skidded on the wet clay.
“What’s wrong with her? What happened?”
“Beaten badly. She’s conscious but barely speaking. I called 911, but it’ll take them a long time to get out here. Hurry.”
I turned the Chevy around right in the middle of the road, almost driving into the ditch. My hands were shaking, but my head was working clearly. The old quarry. That was about seven miles north along a logging road.
Only one thing was spinning in my head: Olivia, my baby girl, just hold on.
My daughter is thirty-two years old. Beautiful, smart, stubborn. At twenty-four, she married Gavin, the heir to a large construction company, and moved to the state capital into a luxurious mansion. She rarely called and visited even less.
She always answered my questions about her life evasively. “Everything is fine, Mom, don’t worry.” And I pretended to believe her, although my mother’s heart sensed it. Not everything was smooth in her golden cage.
The road to the quarry wound between thinning aspens and birches. The car shook over the potholes. I could barely manage the steering, but I didn’t slow down. Thoughts raced through my head. Who could have beaten Olivia? A robbery? It couldn’t be.
Gavin always seemed calm, polite. True, his mother, Lucille Sterling, looked at me like empty space and viewed our family and our race as a stain she wanted to wipe off her precious son.
Around the bend, the old quarry appeared, an abandoned sandy pit overgrown with young pines. A battered pickup truck stood on the shoulder with its doors open. A middle-aged man in a camouflage jacket was shifting from foot to foot nearby.
I braked, jumped out of the car, forgetting to turn off the engine.
“Where is she?” My voice cracked.
“There.” He waved his hand toward the tree line. “About a hundred yards. I put my jacket under her and left a thermos of tea. I wanted to carry her, but I was afraid. What if there are fractures?”
I rushed in the indicated direction. My feet got stuck in the soil soaked after the rain. Branches whipped my face. I stumbled, fell, got up, and ran again. Something light appeared between the trees.
At first, I didn’t recognize her. Her hair was matted with blood and dirt, her face swollen. There was a huge bruise under her eye. Her light coat from an expensive designer had turned into dirty rags. She lay on her side, curled up, just as she did in childhood when she was sick.
“Olivia, baby.” I dropped to my knees beside her, afraid to touch.
She opened her eyes slightly. One was almost completely swollen shut. The other looked cloudy, unfocused. Her lips trembled in a weak smile, immediately replaced by a grimace of pain.
“Mom…”
“I’m here, honey, I’m here.” I gently stroked her head, avoiding the obvious injuries. “The ambulance is already coming. Just hold on, little one.”
She tried to sit up but groaned in pain. I noticed one arm was twisted unnaturally—a fracture, without a doubt.
“Who did this?” My voice sounded unexpectedly firm.
She licked her split lips and coughed. I helped her take a sip from the thermos the hunter had left. The warm tea seemed to give her strength.
“Lucille Sterling,” she whispered so quietly I could barely hear.
“Your mother-in-law?” I couldn’t believe my ears.
Olivia nodded, wincing in pain. “She said… my dirty blood… a disgrace to their family.”
Something snapped inside me. A rage I had never experienced before flooded my entire being. I knew Lucille despised us, despised Black people, but to beat a defenseless woman, her own daughter-in-law?
“Mom.” Olivia grabbed my hand. “No hospital. They have people everywhere. Home.”
“What are you saying, honey? You need medical help.”
“No.” There was panic in her eyes. “He will cover for her. Gavin is always on her side.”
I froze. Her husband wouldn’t protect her from his own mother? But this was madness. Then I remembered Grandpa Nick, my father’s father. A Vietnam vet, a man with an iron will and a piercing gaze. He often said: Ruby, if a situation seems insane, look for what isn’t visible on the surface.
At that moment, the wail of a siren was heard somewhere in the distance. The ambulance. I had to decide immediately.
“What happened, Olivia? Why did she do this?”
My daughter swallowed, wincing from pain. “I found documents in Gavin’s safe. She’s stealing money from the charity foundation. Millions meant for sick children.”
Every word was difficult for her.
“I asked her directly,” Olivia continued. “She turned pale, then suggested we drive out of town to look at a new plot of land, said she would explain everything.”
The picture was gradually coming together. Olivia had discovered something compromising, likely by accident. And Lucille Sterling, the director of a large charity foundation, a respected lady in the city, decided to get rid of an inconvenient witness.
“By whose hands? Mercenaries or herself?” I asked.
“Herself,” Olivia whispered, as if reading my thoughts. “She drove me here in her SUV, said it didn’t matter. No one would believe me, not with my background.”
The siren was getting closer. The medics would be here soon. The “right” thing would be to send my daughter to the hospital, call the police, file a report. But if her husband’s family really had such connections, if he was on his mother’s side, they could silence Olivia forever.
The decision came instantly, as if a switch flipped in my head.
“Did the hunter see who brought you?” I asked.
“No, she left. She thought I would die here from the cold and injuries.”
I got to my feet and ran back to the road. The hunter was still there, smoking, leaning against his truck.
“Sam, right?” I approached him. “Did you see who dropped her off?”
“No.” He shook his head. “I was hunting mushrooms. Stumbled upon her by accident. It was already getting dark.”
“Listen.” I spoke quickly, afraid the ambulance would arrive before I could explain everything. “My daughter is in danger. This is a family matter. I’m taking her home. I’ll provide aid myself. I’m a medic.”
He frowned, looking at me doubtfully. “Lady, she needs serious help. She might have internal injuries.”
“I know.” I lowered my voice. “Her mother-in-law did this. She has connections everywhere, including the hospital. If Olivia ends up there, they will silence her or worse.”
His eyes widened in surprise. Then understanding appeared in them. “You want me to…?”
“Tell the medics it was a false alarm. That you made a mistake. And I’ll take my daughter.”
He looked at me for a long time, then nodded. “I feel you aren’t lying.”
“But if she gets worse…”
“I’m a nurse with thirty years of experience,” I repeated. “And I am a mother.”
He nodded once more, then started brushing off his jacket. “Go to your daughter. I’ll handle the ambulance.”
I squeezed his hand in a silent thank you and ran back to Olivia. The wail of the siren was becoming louder.
“Let’s go, honey.” I carefully helped her sit up. “We’ll get to the car now.”
“And the ambulance?” She could barely hold her head up.
“I canceled the call. I lied. We’ll handle it ourselves.”
She didn’t argue. I gently helped her up, threw her healthy arm over my shoulder. Olivia groaned in pain but moved forward, leaning on me. We walked slowly to the road, avoiding the spot where the hunter remained.
Through the trees, the flashing lights of the ambulance were already visible. We reached my Chevy. I settled my daughter into the front seat, fastened the seatbelt, trying not to touch her injured arm. I went around the car, got behind the wheel, and quietly pulled away.
I didn’t turn on the headlights until we had driven a sufficient distance from the quarry.
“That’s it,” I said when we drove out onto a more decent paved road. “Home now.”
Olivia closed her eyes, leaning back against the seat. In the dim light of the dashboard, her face looked gray.
“Mom, they won’t stop,” she whispered. “Now I know too much.”
“We’ll come up with something.” I tried to make my voice sound confident, although inside everything was shaking with fear and rage. “The main thing is you’re alive.”
Olivia suddenly grabbed my hand, forcing me to loosen my grip on the steering wheel for a moment. “Mom, I have proof,” she said unexpectedly firmly.
“The documents?”
“I managed to photograph them on my phone before she… before we drove off.”
My heart leaped. “Where is the phone?”
“In my bag.”
She didn’t take it? Apparently, she decided it would look like a robbery. I nodded. My thoughts were working with crystal clarity. We needed to hide Olivia where they wouldn’t look for her, treat her wounds, and contact someone who could help deal with this situation.