Chapter 8
Rachel and I reached our street behind three police vehicles.
The front door hung open.
A window beside it was shattered.
I tried to run inside.
An officer stopped me.
“My children are in there.”
“The team is clearing the house.”
“I’m not waiting.”
Rachel grabbed my arm.
“If you go in and get shot, you won’t help them.”
Every second felt unbearable.
Then an officer called from inside.
“First floor clear.”
Another voice answered from upstairs.
“Second floor clear. No children.”
Rachel’s knees weakened.
“No.”
I ran past the officers.
The safe room door was open.
Ethan’s phone lay on the carpet.
Lily’s stuffed rabbit was beside it.
There was no blood.
No sign of a struggle.
Only a note printed on Samuel Reed’s office stationery.
Bring Eleanor’s box to Carter Construction by six.
Come alone, or the children disappear.
Rachel read it.
“He has them.”
I looked at the time.
Five twenty-three.
Mercer arrived with his arm in a sling.
“You’re not going alone.”
“He said—”
“He expects you to involve police. He’ll have surveillance.”
“I’ll take the box.”
“You’ll take a tracking device and wear a transmitter.”
“What if he searches me?”
“Then we need another plan.”
Rachel picked up Lily’s rabbit.
Its glass eye blinked.
I stared at it.
“Ethan’s camera.”
Months earlier, Ethan had built a small camera with a school robotics kit.
He hid it inside Lily’s rabbit as part of a detective game.
I opened the phone application.
The live feed appeared.
The image shook as someone carried the toy.
Lily’s frightened voice came through.
“Where are we going?”
Samuel answered, “To see your father.”
The camera showed the inside of a vehicle.
Ethan sat beside Lily.
His hands were tied.
He saw the rabbit’s blinking eye and deliberately turned Lily toward the window.
Through the glass, we saw an old water tower.
Lucas recognized it.
“That’s the southern industrial road.”
Samuel was not taking them to Carter Construction.
He was taking them toward an abandoned concrete plant owned by one of Diane’s fake companies.
Mercer sent teams in both directions.
I watched the feed as Samuel drove through a rusted gate.
He pulled Ethan and Lily into a warehouse.
A second person waited inside.
Diane’s lawyer.
The same man who had served me with guardianship papers.
His name was Graham Vale.
He had avoided arrest because he claimed he knew nothing about the forged documents.
Now he took the rabbit from Lily and placed it on a table.
“Did anyone follow you?” he asked.
“No,” Samuel said.
“Diane is talking.”
“She won’t implicate us.”
“She told the prosecutor about Vanessa.”
Samuel’s face hardened.
“Then Diane has become a liability.”
Ethan looked directly into the camera.
He had heard them.
Graham noticed.
“What are you looking at?”
“The rabbit,” Ethan answered.
Graham picked it up.
The screen went black.
“He found the camera,” Rachel whispered.
A second later, the feed returned.
The rabbit was upside down inside a trash can.
We could hear voices but see only darkness.
Mercer pointed to the warehouse map.
“Two main entrances, roof access, loading dock.”
“I’m going in,” I said.
“No.”
“He expects me at the company office.”
“Which gives us thirty minutes before he realizes you aren’t coming.”
“He could hurt them before that.”
Mercer looked at me.
“What do you suggest?”
I remembered playing at the plant when Lucas and I were children.
Our father stored equipment there before the property changed ownership.
“There’s a drainage tunnel under the loading floor.”
Mercer sent officers to locate it.
I insisted on going with them because I knew the layout.
He objected until Rachel spoke.
“Let him help you find the entrance. Then keep him outside.”
We reached the drainage tunnel behind an overgrown embankment.
The opening was narrow and filled with cold water.
An officer crawled first.
I followed despite Mercer’s order.
We emerged beneath the warehouse floor.
Above us, Samuel was shouting.
“Where is your father?”
Ethan answered, “He’s smarter than you.”
A slap cracked through the building.
Lily screamed.
I started toward the stairs.
The officer pulled me back.
We needed positions.
We needed patience.
I had none left.
Graham said, “Call Adam.”
Samuel dialed my number.
I answered quietly.
“Where are you?”
“At Carter Construction.”
“You’re lying.”
“So are you.”
Silence.
Then he laughed.
“You found the camera.”
“You have my children.”
“I have insurance.”
“What do you want?”
“The music box, the documents, and every digital copy.”
“The police have them.”
“Then your children will pay for your carelessness.”
Ethan shouted in the background.
“Dad, don’t give him anything!”
Samuel hit him again.
I heard my son fall.
Something wild rose inside me.
But Eleanor’s words returned.
Remember that when you look at your own anger.
I forced myself to think.
“Samuel, Diane told the prosecutor everything.”
“That’s not true.”
“She said you killed Vanessa.”
He stopped breathing for a second.
“She has no proof.”
“She gave them the motel key.”
This was a guess.
Mercer had never mentioned a key.
Samuel believed me.
“That stupid woman.”
Graham’s voice sharpened.
“You said Diane would stay loyal.”
“She was supposed to.”
“We need to leave.”
Their argument grew louder.
The tactical officers moved into position.
Samuel shouted into the phone.
“You’re responsible for what happens.”
“No. For once, you are.”
I ended the call.
Mercer gave the signal.
Officers entered from three sides.
Samuel grabbed Lily.
Graham grabbed Ethan.
I saw them through gaps in the loading floor.
Samuel held his gun near Lily’s head.
“Back away!”
Officers froze.
Graham dragged Ethan toward a side door.
Ethan kicked backward.
Graham lost his balance.
Ethan twisted free and ran.
An officer tackled Graham.
Samuel fired.
The bullet struck a metal beam.
Lily screamed.
I climbed through an opening in the floor.
Samuel saw me.
His gun turned toward my chest.
“You never could follow instructions.”
“Let her go.”
“Bring me the evidence.”
“It’s over.”
“It’s never over while someone is willing to pay.”
“For what?”
“Fear.”
His finger tightened on the trigger.
Lily bit his wrist.
The gun fired into the ceiling.
I rushed him.
We hit the floor.
The weapon slid away.
Samuel punched my injured back.
Pain nearly blinded me.
He reached for the gun.
I grabbed his ankle.
He kicked my face.
Then Ethan appeared.
He pushed the gun into Mercer’s reach with a broken piece of wood.
Mercer secured it.
Officers pulled Samuel away.
I crawled to Lily.
She wrapped her arms around me.
“You came.”
“Always.”
Ethan stood several feet away.
A red mark covered his cheek.
I opened my arms.
He ran into them.
Rachel entered after the building was secured.
She fell to her knees and held all three of us.
No one spoke for a long time.
At the police station, Graham asked for a deal.
He provided recordings of Samuel ordering Vanessa’s death and discussing my planned murder.
He also admitted Diane created the first plan to gain control of Lily’s trust.
But according to Graham, the shed had not been part of that plan.
“That was Diane’s decision,” he said. “She was supposed to collect evidence that Adam was unstable. She became angry when the children found her searching his office.”
“So she locked them inside,” Mercer said.
“She believed fear would make Ethan reveal where Thomas hid the box.”
“She left them for hours.”
Graham shrugged.
“Diane often lost control.”
I wanted to cross the table and hit him.
Instead, I stood and left.
Ethan watched me from the hallway.
“You wanted to punch him.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because wanting to do something doesn’t mean I should do it.”
He thought about that.
“Was it wrong to lock Grandma in the shed?”
I knelt in front of him.
“Yes.”
“But she locked us in first.”
“That explains why I was angry. It doesn’t make everything I did right.”
“Do you wish you didn’t save us?”
“Never.”
“Do you wish you didn’t call the police?”
“No.”
“Then what do you wish?”
“I wish I had opened the door after you were safe and waited for the police without trying to frighten her back.”
Ethan nodded slowly.
“Grandma always says people deserve what she gives them.”
“I don’t want to become like her.”
“You’re not.”
“How do you know?”
“Because you can say you were wrong.”
I hugged him.
Across the hallway, Rachel listened with tears in her eyes.
Our family was still broken in places.
But broken did not mean finished.
Then Naomi approached with news from the jail.
Diane wanted to testify against Samuel, Robert, and Graham.
May you like
In exchange, she wanted one thing.
She wanted to see Ethan alone.
