Chapter 7
I called the police.
The message said not to.
I didn’t care.
Ryan had spent years teaching me that obedience prevented disaster.
It never did.
It only delayed the next attack.
Naomi contacted the detective assigned to the storage-unit case.
Robert sent guards to every property the family owned.
There were three lake houses.
One in Wisconsin.
One in Michigan.
One outside Lake Geneva that Diane had received in the divorce.
“That’s where they took her,” Claire said.
“How do you know?”
“Diane used to take Ryan there when he was a child. She called it the only place Robert couldn’t control.”
Robert arranged a helicopter.
Police refused to let us go with them.
I refused to stay behind.
“She is my daughter.”
“You could become another hostage,” the detective said.
“Then keep up.”
Naomi argued until he agreed to let us follow at a distance.
The drive felt endless.
I sat beside Claire in Robert’s SUV.
“What happened to Helen?” I asked.
“I don’t know.”
“She was someone Naomi trusted.”
Claire glanced toward the front seat.
“So was I.”
Naomi turned.
“What does that mean?”
“Maybe trust is the problem.”
Naomi stared at her.
“You think I gave them the address?”
“Only four people knew it.”
“Five,” I said.
Everyone looked at me.
“Lily knew.”
Robert frowned.
“She wouldn’t tell Ryan.”
“Not willingly.”
I remembered something from the previous night.
Lily had used my tablet while we waited for dinner.
The tablet was connected to our family account.
Ryan may have tracked it.
I called the detective.
He confirmed it within minutes.
The device had transmitted its location until shortly before Lily disappeared.
I had led Ryan to her.
Guilt crushed the air from my lungs.
Claire grabbed my hand.
“This is not your fault.”
“I should have checked.”
“You were trying to survive.”
“She needed me to think.”
“You are thinking now.”
Police reached the lake house first.
The building appeared empty.
No cars.
No movement.
The front door stood open.
Inside, they found Helen unconscious in a bedroom.
She was alive.
Lily was gone.
On the kitchen table lay one of her pink hair ribbons.
The detective found fresh tire tracks behind the house leading toward an old boat launch.
We followed.
A mile down the road, the tracks split.
Police took the wider path.
I noticed something hanging from a branch along the narrow one.
A second pink ribbon.
“Stop!”
The driver braked.
I jumped out.
Another ribbon appeared fifty yards ahead.
Lily was leaving us a trail.
The narrow road led to an abandoned summer camp owned by a Carter Development subsidiary.
Robert stared at the rusted gate.
“I forgot this place existed.”
“Ryan didn’t,” Claire said.
Police surrounded the property.
The detective ordered us to stay in the vehicle.
Then my phone rang.
Ryan.
I answered on speaker.
“Where is she?”
“You ignored the message.”
“I’m not bringing you anything.”
“Then Lily stays with me.”
“Let me hear her.”
A pause.
Then Lily’s voice came through.
“Mommy?”
“I’m here, baby.”
“I left my ribbons.”
“I found them.”
Ryan took the phone.
“She’s smart. Too smart for her own good.”
“If you hurt her—”
“I would never hurt my daughter.”
“You terrified her.”
“You did that when you tore apart our family.”
Robert leaned toward the phone.
“Let her go, Ryan.”
“Hello, Dad.”
“What do you want?”
“The trust revoked.”
“It can’t be revoked.”
“Then sign the transfer papers.”
“They won’t be valid.”
“They will be valid long enough.”
“For what?”
“To sell the company.”
Robert went silent.
Ryan continued.
“There’s a foreign buyer ready to close. Once the money moves, none of you can touch me.”
“You would destroy three thousand jobs.”
“I would finally take what you owe me.”
“I gave you everything.”
“You gave me your name while keeping your blood for Claire.”
Claire flinched.
Ryan knew.
Diane must have told him.
Robert closed his eyes.
“I raised you as my son.”
“And all those years, you looked at me like a debt.”
“That isn’t true.”
“You protected Claire. You sent her away. You paid her.”
“I protected you from prison.”
“You protected the company.”
Robert’s voice broke.
“I loved you.”
Ryan laughed.
“Bring the documents.”
The call ended.
Police had traced it.
He was inside the camp’s main lodge.
The tactical team moved toward the building.
Then Diane stepped onto the porch with Lily in front of her.
She held one hand on Lily’s shoulder.
No weapon was visible.
“Stay back!” Diane shouted.
I opened the car door.
The detective grabbed me.
“Emily, don’t.”
Lily saw me.
“Mommy!”
Diane pulled her backward.
I tore free and walked toward them.
“Let her go.”
“You ruined everything,” Diane said.
“I didn’t create this.”
“You turned Robert against his own child.”
“Ryan did that himself.”
Diane’s face twisted.
“You think you’re special because your daughter inherited his company?”
“I don’t care about the company.”
“Then sign it away.”
“I’ll sign whatever you want after Lily comes to me.”
Ryan appeared in the doorway.
He carried a folder.
“You sign first.”
Police shouted for him to show his hands.
Ryan raised the folder.
“No weapons. Just a family agreement.”
Lily looked at me.
Her fear disappeared for one second.
She glanced down.
Then she stomped hard on Diane’s foot.
Diane cried out.
Lily twisted free and ran.
Ryan reached for her.
Claire rushed from behind the police line.
“Ryan!”
He looked toward her.
That hesitation gave Lily enough time.
I ran forward and caught her.
Police surrounded Ryan and Diane.
But Ryan backed into the lodge and slammed the door.
An engine started behind the building.
“He has another car!” Robert shouted.
Officers ran around the lodge.
A dark truck crashed through a wooden fence and sped into the trees.
Ryan had escaped.
Diane remained on the porch with her hands raised.
As police handcuffed her, she looked at Robert.
“You still don’t understand.”
“Understand what?”
“Ryan didn’t plan this.”
She smiled through her tears.
“I did.”
At the station, Diane refused to answer questions.
Police charged her with kidnapping and conspiracy.
Helen regained consciousness.
She remembered opening the apartment door after hearing Naomi’s voice.
But Naomi had been in court with us.
Someone had played a recording.
Lily sat in my lap while a doctor examined her.
She had not been physically hurt.
She told police that Ryan and Diane argued at the camp.
“Grandma said Daddy was weak,” she whispered.
“What else did she say?” the detective asked.
“She said she fixed Grandpa’s pills, Claire’s fall, and Daddy’s papers.”
Claire leaned forward.
“What did she say about my fall?”
Lily thought for a moment.
“She said, ‘You couldn’t even push Claire right.’”
Claire’s face went white.
Diane had been there that night.
She had not simply helped conceal what happened.
She may have caused it.
Then Lily pulled a folded piece of paper from her shoe.
“I took this from Daddy.”
It was a list of bank transfers.
Beside each transfer was the same name.
Naomi Price.
We all turned toward our attorney.
Naomi stared at the paper.
“I have never seen those accounts.”
May you like
Robert rose slowly.
“Then why has my son been sending you money for three years?”
