Chapter 8
Beth screamed Allison’s name.
Allison looked toward the camera.
Her green eyes filled with tears.
“Beth?”
Ryan pulled the phone away before she could say more.
“No police,” he warned.
Detective Greene signaled for everyone to remain quiet while technicians began tracing the call.
I kept Ryan talking.
“You staged the blood in your car.”
“Very smart.”
“Where are you?”
“You don’t get to ask questions.”
“Then why call me?”
“Because you have something I need.”
“The ledger is with the police.”
His smile disappeared.
“I don’t believe you.”
“You should. We opened the box with a warrant.”
Ryan looked offscreen.
He had not expected that.
For the first time since the wedding, his plan had moved ahead without him.
“Get it back,” he said.
“I can’t.”
“You’ll find a way.”
“Allison is your sister.”
His expression became blank.
Beth made a broken sound beside me.
Ryan glanced toward Allison.
“Linda always loved surprises.”
“Did you know before you married her?”
“No.”
Allison whispered, “He learned six weeks afterward.”
Ryan squeezed her shoulder.
“Be quiet.”
“You could have helped her,” I said.
“I tried.”
“You stole her home.”
“I needed money to get away from Linda.”
“You gave Linda part of it.”
“She controlled the accounts.”
“Stop pretending you had no choices.”
His eyes hardened.
“You know nothing about my life.”
“I know you threw a rag at me fourteen hours after our wedding because you thought you owned me.”
“That was a mistake.”
“No. That was the first honest thing you did.”
Ryan leaned toward the camera.
“You think you’re strong because Daniel and your lawyers stand around you. But when people learn what your father did, they’ll leave.”
“What did my father do?”
“He paid Allison to disappear.”
Allison shook her head.
“No.”
Ryan pulled her backward.
“He paid her to protect you. He knew she was my wife and never told you.”
“He tried to.”
“After he used her.”
Beth shouted, “Let my sister speak!”
Ryan ignored her.
“Midnight tomorrow,” he said. “Bring the ledger to the old Mercer property outside Bowling Green.”
“Where exactly?”
“You’ll receive directions.”
“If you hurt her—”
“You kicked me in the face, Emma. Don’t lecture me about violence.”
The call ended.
Technicians traced it to a cellular tower north of the city, but the location was too broad.
Greene immediately alerted Kentucky authorities.
Beth demanded to join the search.
This time, no one tried to tell her to remain calm.
Allison had been missing for six years.
Now we knew she was alive and in danger.
The Mercer property belonged to Linda’s late uncle.
Public records showed an abandoned farmhouse and seventy acres of woodland.
Police began preparing surveillance.
Ryan had asked for the ledger, but investigators would never release the original.
They created a copy.
The plan was for an undercover officer to make the delivery.
Ryan anticipated that.
A message arrived the next afternoon.
EMMA COMES ALONE. IF I SEE POLICE, ALLISON DIES.
The message included a live image of Allison holding that day’s newspaper.
She looked exhausted.
A bruise darkened her cheek.
“I’m going,” I said.
Greene shook his head.
“No.”
“He won’t accept anyone else.”
“It is too dangerous.”
“You can follow from a distance.”
“He expects that.”
“Then hide a tracker.”
“He may search you.”
Beth stepped forward.
“I’ll go.”
“No,” I said.
“She is my sister.”
“And he asked for me.”
Daniel opposed the entire idea.
Margaret did too.
But every delay gave Ryan more time to move Allison.
Eventually, Greene approved a controlled operation.
I wore a tiny tracking device sewn inside the heel of my shoe.
A microphone rested beneath a button on my blouse.
The copied ledger went inside a canvas bag.
Officers would monitor the property from hidden positions.
I drove alone.
The road outside Bowling Green narrowed until pavement became gravel.
Trees crowded both sides.
Near sunset, a message directed me toward an abandoned gas station.
I parked beside a rusted pump.
No one was there.
My phone rang.
“Get out,” Ryan said.
“Where is Allison?”
“Walk behind the building.”
I followed the instructions.
A motorcycle waited near a broken fence.
Beside it stood Marcus, the man arrested at the house.
He should have been in custody.
He had been released after posting bond.
“Give me the phone,” he said.
I handed it over.
He searched my coat and bag.
Then he pointed at the motorcycle.
“Get on.”
“I’m not going anywhere without seeing Allison.”
Marcus lifted his jacket enough to reveal a gun.
“Get on.”
The tracking team expected me to remain in the vehicle.
This changed the plan.
I climbed onto the motorcycle.
Marcus drove through a narrow trail into the woods.
My phone and the tracker inside it remained at the gas station.
But the device inside my shoe continued transmitting.
At least I hoped it did.
We rode for nearly fifteen minutes.
The Mercer farmhouse was not our destination.
Instead, Marcus stopped at an old hunting cabin hidden among the trees.
Ryan stood on the porch.
Linda was beside him.
Allison sat in a chair near the doorway with her wrists tied.
She saw me and began shaking her head.
“You shouldn’t have come.”
Ryan descended the steps.
“The bag.”
“Let her go first.”
He laughed.
“You still think you’re negotiating.”
Linda searched the ledger.
Her eyes narrowed.
“This is a copy.”
“It’s all I could get.”
“You’re lying.”
“The original is evidence.”
Linda slapped me.
My face snapped to the side.
Ryan watched without reacting.
Fourteen hours after our wedding, I had kicked him because something inside me snapped.
Now I forced that part of myself to remain still.
The microphone had to capture everything.
Linda grabbed my chin.
“Your mother stole Henry from me.”
“My father chose her.”
“He promised me that promotion.”
“You were fired for stealing.”
Her eyes widened.
Dad’s recording had told me the exact wound.
I pressed it.
“He knew what you were.”
Linda struck me again.
Behind her, Allison twisted her wrists against the rope.
Ryan grabbed his mother’s arm.
“Stop. We need Emma alive.”
“For what?” I asked.
He looked at me.
“To correct the documents.”
“You want me to sign the company over.”
“I want what your father owed us.”
“My father owed you nothing.”
Ryan stepped closer.
“He treated my mother like trash.”
“She committed fraud.”
“He humiliated her in front of everyone.”
“So you married me?”
“At first, yes.”
The words still hurt.
Even though I knew.
Even after everything.
“At first?”
His face softened.
“I did fall in love with you.”
Allison laughed bitterly.
“He said that to me too.”
Ryan turned.
“I told you to stay quiet.”
“You loved my house,” Allison said. “You loved Emma’s company. You love anything you can own.”
Linda walked toward her.
Allison did not flinch.
“Hit me again,” she said. “Let everyone hear.”
Linda stopped.
Her eyes dropped toward my blouse.
She saw the microphone.
“Search her.”
Ryan grabbed me.
I fought him, but Marcus pinned my arms.
Linda tore the microphone from my shirt and crushed it beneath her shoe.
“You brought police.”
“They already have the ledger.”
Linda struck me in the stomach.
I doubled over.
Ryan caught my shoulders.
“Where are they?”
I struggled to breathe.
“I came alone.”
“Liar.”
He shoved me into the cabin.
Marcus dragged Allison inside too.
Linda began gathering bags.
“We leave now.”
“Where?” Ryan asked.
“The airfield.”
“You said the plane wasn’t ready.”
“It is now.”
A private airfield.
They intended to leave the country.
Marcus tied my wrists.
Ryan searched my shoes but missed the tracker inside the heel.
Linda paced near the window.
“We should never have brought her.”
“We needed the ledger,” Ryan said.
“We needed the original.”
“She could have accessed it.”
“She gave it to the police because you lost control.”
Ryan grabbed his mother’s arm.
“You are the one who hit her on camera.”
“You were the one stupid enough to post videos from the house.”
They blamed each other while Allison slowly moved her chair closer to mine.
Something sharp touched my fingers.
A broken metal spring protruded from the back of her chair.
I began rubbing the rope against it.
Outside, an engine approached.
For one hopeful second, I thought police had found us.
Then Jonathan entered the cabin.
He carried my father’s wooden box.
I stared at him.
“What are you doing?”
He avoided my eyes.
Linda smiled.
“You finally remembered who pays you.”
Allison went pale.
“You betrayed Henry.”
Jonathan placed the box on the table.
“I’m finishing what he asked me to do.”
He opened it.
Beneath the voice recorder was a hidden compartment I had not discovered.
Inside lay a second ledger.
The original.
Linda reached for it.
Jonathan pulled it away.
“Release them first.”
Marcus aimed his gun.
“That wasn’t the agreement.”
Jonathan looked at me.
“Your father knew the bank box might be found. The ledger in Kentucky was incomplete.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?”
“Because someone inside the investigation was leaking information.”
Detective Greene’s caution returned to my mind.
A retired officer had received payments.
But what if the corruption was not retired?
Linda smiled at Jonathan.
“You were always too dramatic.”
“And you were always too certain everyone had a price.”
A red light appeared through the window.
Then another.
Laser sights.
Police surrounded the cabin.
Jonathan dropped to the floor.
I pulled the loosened rope from my wrists and threw myself over Allison.
Officers shouted from outside.
“Put down the weapon!”
Marcus fired through the wall.
The cabin erupted.
Glass shattered.
Linda screamed.
Ryan ran toward the back door.
A flash-bang struck the floor.
The explosion filled the room with light and sound.
I could not hear anything.
I saw shapes moving.
Officers entered.
Marcus fell under two of them.
Jonathan raised his hands.
Linda crawled beneath the table.
Ryan reached the back door and disappeared into the trees.
I freed Allison’s wrists.
She clung to me.
“Beth,” she gasped. “Is Beth here?”
“She’s waiting for you.”
Officers carried us outside.
Beth broke through the line and ran toward her sister.
The sound returned just as they collided.
Their screams became sobs.
Six years of grief collapsed into one embrace.
Linda emerged in handcuffs.
She glared at Allison.
“You ungrateful little coward.”
Beth tried to lunge at her.
Greene held her back.
Allison looked at Linda calmly.
“You gave birth to me.”
Linda smiled cruelly.
“And giving you away was the smartest thing I ever did.”
Allison’s face crumpled.
I stepped between them.
“No. The smartest thing you ever did was document your own crimes.”
Jonathan handed the hidden ledger to Greene.
Every payment was recorded.
Every forged deed.
Every official.
Every threat.
Linda stopped smiling.
But Ryan was still gone.
Officers searched the woods throughout the night.
They found his jacket near a creek.
His footprints continued toward the road.
At dawn, a truck driver reported picking up an injured man two miles from the property.
The man asked to be taken toward Nashville.
Greene ordered officers to watch the house, company, hospital, and airport.
I knew Ryan would not run immediately.
He needed something.
Or someone.
At 7:12 that morning, Aunt Rebecca called.
Her voice was barely audible.
“Emma, he’s here.”
“Who?”
“Ryan.”
I stood.
“Where are you?”
“At my house.”
“Lock yourself in a room.”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
May you like
She began crying.
“Because he has Daniel.”
