Chapter 6
Elena collapsed beside Noah’s empty bed.
For one terrible moment, she could not breathe.
Then grief became rage.
“If Ryan hurts him, I will kill him.”
Detective Hale crouched beside her.
“We’re getting your son back, but you must let us handle this.”
“They said no police.”
“Kidnappers always say that.”
Hale formed a rescue plan.
The trust would remain at the bank.
Police photographed the ledger and placed the original inside a tracking case.
I would carry it into the lake cabin.
Officers would hide in the woods.
Elena refused to stay behind.
“He is my child.”
Hale finally agreed to let her wait in a nearby command vehicle.
At eleven forty-five, I drove alone toward the cabin.
Rain covered the windshield.
Ryan and I had spent our honeymoon there.
Now every memory felt poisoned.
A single lamp glowed inside.
I entered with the case.
Noah sat on the couch.
His hands were tied.
Ryan stood behind him.
Diane was near the fireplace holding a gun.
“You brought the ledger?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“And the trust?”
“It’s at the bank.”
Diane’s face hardened.
“That wasn’t the agreement.”
“I couldn’t remove it without a court order.”
Ryan searched me for a phone or microphone.
Hale had hidden the transmitter inside the case.
Ryan did not find it.
Noah looked at me with frightened eyes.
“Where’s my mom?”
“She’s close,” I said.
Diane pointed the gun at my chest.
“I told you to come alone.”
“She did,” Ryan said.
His voice sounded exhausted.
A bruise darkened his jaw from Elena’s purse.
He knelt beside the case and entered the security code I gave him.
When it opened, he smiled at the ledger.
“This fixes everything.”
“No,” I said. “It proves everything.”
His smile vanished.
Diane ordered me to bring the trust from the bank the next morning.
Until then, they would keep Noah.
“That was not the deal,” I said.
“You are in no position to discuss fairness.”
I looked at Ryan.
“He’s your son.”
Ryan avoided Noah’s eyes.
“I never wanted it to go this far.”
“You stole his identity. You kidnapped him. How much farther could it go?”
Noah began crying.
Ryan stepped toward him, but Diane blocked his path.
“Stop pretending to be his father,” she snapped. “You’re weak because Thomas made you weak.”
Something changed in Ryan’s face.
For the first time, I saw hatred directed at his mother.
“You said nobody would get hurt.”
Diane laughed.
“And you believed me?”
Outside, thunder shook the windows.
Through my hidden earpiece, Hale whispered that officers were moving closer.
Then Ryan noticed the tiny green light inside the case.
He ripped out the transmitter.
“Police!”
Diane fired toward the window.
Glass exploded.
Officers shouted outside.
Ryan grabbed Noah and dragged him toward the back door.
Diane seized my hair and pressed the gun against my neck.
“If they enter, she dies!”
Everything stopped.
Hale ordered his team to hold.
Ryan opened the back door.
Elena was waiting in the darkness.
She had left the command vehicle.
She struck Ryan across the face with a tree branch.
Noah fell free and ran toward her.
Ryan grabbed Elena’s coat.
She twisted away and pushed Noah behind her.
Inside, I drove my elbow into Diane’s ribs.
The gun fired into the ceiling.
I grabbed her wrist.
We crashed against the fireplace.
The ledger fell from the case, and pages scattered near the flames.
Diane screamed and reached for them.
That gave me enough time to pull away.
Officers burst through the front door.
Ryan ran into the woods.
Diane dropped the gun and raised her hands.
Hale chased Ryan while another officer arrested Diane.
Elena held Noah tightly.
We had saved him.
But ten minutes later, Hale returned alone.
Ryan had reached a boat tied behind the cabin.
He escaped across the lake.
As officers searched the shore, Noah pulled something from his pocket.
“My dad gave me this,” he said.
It was one of the missing photographs.
On the back, Ryan had written an address.
Ruth recognized it.
Thomas’s old accounting office.
Below the address was a warning.
The proof is under the floor.
May you like
Diane knows.
She will burn everything before morning.
