Chapter 7
Detective Cole identified the red barn before dawn.
It belonged to an abandoned horse farm Diane’s parents had owned decades earlier. The property had been transferred through several companies, but the taxes were still paid from an account connected to Diane.
Police approached quietly.
Frank’s truck was hidden behind the barn.
Officers entered the farmhouse and found him asleep near the front door with a shotgun beside him.
They arrested him before he could reach it.
But Noah was not inside.
Frank smiled when Detective Cole demanded to know where the boy was.
“Diane is the only mother he needs.”
Diane was still in jail.
At least, that was what everyone believed.
Twenty minutes later, the county discovered that Diane had been released overnight after a clerical error attached the wrong case number to her detention order.
Her attorney claimed he did not know where she had gone.
I knew exactly where she was going.
The barn.
Police searched every stall and storage room. They found a blanket, children’s books, and an empty cereal bowl.
Then an officer heard a sound beneath the floor.
A hidden door led to an old storm shelter.
Noah was curled in a corner.
He was alive.
Megan rushed to the hospital, but doctors warned her not to overwhelm him. Noah had been told his entire life that his mother was dangerous and had abandoned him.
When Megan entered the room, he turned his face toward the wall.
“She said you didn’t want me,” he whispered.
Megan collapsed beside the bed.
“I have wanted you every day of your life.”
Noah looked at her bruised cheek.
“Grandma said you hurt people.”
“Grandma lied.”
He began to cry.
After a long silence, he reached for Megan’s hand.
The reunion should have ended the nightmare.
Instead, the hospital alarm sounded.
A nurse ran into the room and ordered us away from the windows.
Diane’s car had been spotted in the parking garage.
Officers searched every level.
They found her vehicle abandoned near an elevator. On the passenger seat was a photograph of Lily with a black line drawn across my face.
Diane was inside the hospital.
The building went into lockdown.
I ran toward Lily’s room, but an officer stopped me.
“You need to remain in a secure area.”
“My daughter is upstairs!”
Two officers escorted me to the pediatric floor.
Lily’s bed was empty.
My mother lay unconscious beside the bathroom door. A nurse was calling for help.
On the floor was a syringe.
Diane had entered wearing stolen medical scrubs. She injected my mother with a sedative and wheeled Lily away beneath a blanket.
Security cameras showed her entering a service elevator.
Then she disappeared.
I could not breathe.
Detective Cole gripped my shoulders.
“We will find her.”
“She’ll drug Lily again.”
“We’ve locked every exit.”
A maintenance worker reported hearing a child crying near the hospital laundry area.
Officers rushed downstairs.
I followed despite their orders.
We found an empty wheelchair beside a loading dock. One of Lily’s shoes lay near the open delivery door.
Diane had escaped.
Outside, tire tracks led toward the highway.
A delivery driver remembered seeing a white van leaving quickly. He had captured part of its license plate on his dashboard camera.
Police issued an alert across three counties.
Megan remained with Noah while I rode with Detective Cole.
The partial plate matched a van registered to Ryan’s aunt.
Traffic cameras tracked it north.
Then the vehicle disappeared near Blackwater Lake.
The same place as Diane’s cabin.
When we reached the narrow road, smoke rose above the trees.
The cabin was burning.
Officers found the van parked behind it.
I ran toward the flames, screaming Lily’s name.
Detective Cole pulled me back.
Then I heard a child crying from the woods.
“Mommy!”
I broke free and ran.
Lily stood near the lake in her hospital gown.
I reached her seconds before Diane stepped from behind a tree.
May you like
She held a blue pill in one hand.
And a knife in the other.
