Chapter 2
Caleb stared at the message until the words blurred.
Sarah saw his expression.
“What is it?”
He locked the screen.
“Nothing.”
She stepped closer.
“Caleb, please.”
He moved Jamie behind him.
“You don’t get to ask me for trust.”
Sarah stopped immediately.
The hurt on her face made him angry.
He did not want to feel sorry for her.
He had spent eight years mourning her.
He had imagined what his life would have been if she had survived.
He had blamed himself for forgetting the sound of her laugh.
Now she was standing in front of him, and everything inside him felt wrong.
Judge Carter entered with two sheriff’s deputies.
“The building is secure. Vanessa is gone, but officers are searching for her vehicle.”
Caleb slipped his phone into his pocket.
The judge noticed.
“Did someone contact you?”
“No.”
Sarah watched him carefully.
Judge Carter did not look convinced.
Before she could ask again, a technician arrived with DNA kits.
Caleb allowed the woman to swab the inside of his cheek.
Jamie did the same.
Sarah’s hand shook when her sample was taken.
The technician sealed all three tubes.
“Emergency processing will take several hours.”
Several hours felt like another lifetime.
The judge arranged for Caleb and Jamie to wait in a protected family room at the courthouse.
Sarah was allowed to remain in the same building but not alone with them.
Mara sat beside her.
Two deputies stood outside.
At noon, sandwiches arrived.
Jamie refused to eat.
Caleb opened a packet of crackers for him.
Sarah watched from across the room.
“He doesn’t like mustard,” she said softly.
Caleb looked up.
“What?”
“He never liked strong smells as a baby. I know that may have changed.”
Jamie opened his sandwich.
Mustard covered the bread.
He pushed it away.
Sarah picked up her untouched turkey sandwich.
“No mustard on mine.”
She placed it on the table and moved back.
Jamie looked at Caleb.
Caleb examined the sandwich, then handed it to him.
Jamie took a small bite.
Sarah turned her face away to hide her tears.
Caleb hated how easily hope entered the room.
He took out his phone and read the threatening message again beneath the table.
No new messages had appeared.
He wanted to show the judge.
He also feared that doing so would place Jamie in protective custody somewhere he could not reach.
Sarah leaned toward him.
“Grant used to send messages like that.”
Caleb’s head snapped up.
She nodded toward his pocket.
“You keep touching your phone whenever you’re afraid.”
“I’m not afraid.”
“You did the same thing with the hem of your shirt when you were little.”
“You don’t know me now.”
“No,” she whispered. “But I want to.”
The door opened before Caleb could answer.
Vanessa’s attorney, Richard Sloan, entered with a court officer.
Sloan wore a dark suit and a silver tie.
His smile did not reach his eyes.
“I’m here to speak with my clients.”
“Vanessa ran away,” Caleb said.
“I mean you and Jamie. The Reed family retained me to protect your interests.”
“You represent Vanessa.”
“I represent the family.”
Sarah stood.
“Get out.”
Sloan glanced at her.
“You have no legal authority here.”
“She’s our mother,” Jamie said.
Everyone looked at him.
Jamie lowered his eyes.
“I mean, maybe.”
Sloan placed a folder on the table.
“Your Honor should see this.”
Judge Carter opened it.
Inside were copies of psychiatric evaluations describing Sarah as delusional, violent, and dangerous to children.
Sarah’s face went pale.
“These are false.”
“They carry your fingerprints and signature,” Sloan said.
“I was drugged.”
“You attacked two nurses.”
“They were tying me to a bed.”
“You set fire to a treatment room.”
“I triggered the smoke alarm so Mara could open the locked ward.”
Sloan’s smile sharpened.
“You admit committing arson during your escape?”
“There was no fire.”
Mara stood.
“I was there. The report is a lie.”
Sloan turned to Judge Carter.
“A former patient and the nurse who helped her flee are hardly reliable witnesses.”
Caleb looked at Sarah.
“Did you attack anyone?”
She faced him.
“I fought people who were holding me down.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
“One nurse hit Mara. I pushed him away.”
“Did he get hurt?”
“He fell.”
Sloan closed the folder.
“This woman cannot have access to two vulnerable children.”
Jamie stopped eating.
Sarah sat down slowly.
Judge Carter studied the records.
“We’ll need an independent evaluation.”
“How long?” Caleb asked.
“Possibly several days.”
“Where do we go tonight?”
Before the judge answered, Sloan placed another document on the table.
“Vanessa Reed filed an emergency petition before this morning’s hearing. She has a home, financial stability, and a close biological relationship with the boys.”
“She escaped through a window,” Sarah said.
“My client became frightened after being confronted by an unstable woman.”
“She ran because she knows the truth.”
Sloan ignored her.
“The Reed estate is prepared to place both boys in Vanessa’s home.”
Caleb laughed without humor.
“Yesterday she only wanted Jamie.”
Sloan’s face remained calm.
“That was a misunderstanding.”
“She told me I was almost an adult and should learn to survive alone.”
Judge Carter’s expression hardened.
“Is that true?”
“Yes.”
Sloan began to answer, but the courthouse phone rang.
A clerk picked it up.
Her eyes widened.
She handed the receiver to the judge.
Judge Carter listened for less than a minute.
Then she looked at Sloan.
“Your client’s vehicle was found abandoned near the interstate.”
Sloan’s confidence flickered.
“There was blood on the driver’s door.”
Sarah stood so quickly that her chair fell.
“Grant found her.”
Caleb’s phone vibrated again.
He pulled it out before he could stop himself.
A photograph filled the screen.
Vanessa was tied to a chair.
Blood ran from her forehead.
The message beneath the image said:
SHE TALKED TOO MUCH.
Sarah saw the picture.
“Oh, God.”
Caleb tried to hide the phone, but a deputy took it.
Within seconds, the room changed.
Officers called the state police.
The courthouse entered lockdown again.
Sloan demanded to see the image.
When he did, his face turned gray.
“Who sent this?”
Caleb looked at Sarah.
“My father.”
Jamie dropped the sandwich.
“Dad is alive?”
Caleb immediately regretted the words.
Jamie’s lower lip trembled.
“If he’s alive, why didn’t he come get us?”
No one answered.
Jamie looked around the room.
“Why doesn’t anybody want us?”
Sarah crossed the space between them before the officers could react.
She knelt in front of him.
“I want you.”
Jamie began sobbing.
Sarah did not touch him.
She waited.
After several seconds, Jamie fell into her arms.
The sound that came from Sarah was half cry, half gasp.
She held him as if the whole world were trying to pull him away.
Caleb watched them.
He remembered standing beside an empty coffin.
He remembered Grant telling him that crying was weakness.
He remembered hiding in the bathroom so Jamie would not see him break.
Sarah looked over Jamie’s head.
“I wanted both of you every day.”
Caleb turned away.
At three in the afternoon, the DNA results arrived.
Judge Carter read them twice.
Then she removed her glasses.
“The probability that Sarah Reed is the biological mother of Caleb and Jamie Reed is greater than 99.99 percent.”
Sarah closed her eyes.
Jamie clung tighter to her.
Caleb felt nothing at first.
Then his legs became weak.
He sat down.
His mother was alive.
The fact did not repair anything.
It only made every lost year more real.
Judge Carter ordered temporary supervised placement in a protected apartment arranged through the county.
Sarah could stay in the apartment next door while completing an independent medical assessment.
Mara would remain as an approved supervisor.
Deputies would guard the building.
Sloan objected.
Judge Carter ignored him.
At sunset, they left through an underground courthouse entrance.
Two unmarked police cars escorted them.
Caleb sat beside Jamie in the back seat.
Sarah and Mara rode in the second vehicle.
The city passed in streaks of light.
Jamie leaned against Caleb.
“Mom smells like cinnamon.”
Caleb stared out the window.
“She used to.”
“You remember?”
“Yes.”
“Do you love her?”
Caleb swallowed.
“I don’t know her.”
“But do you?”
“I don’t know.”
Jamie became quiet.
The protected apartment was on the third floor of an old brick building.
There were two bedrooms, a small kitchen, and locks on every window.
A deputy checked each room.
Mara made soup.
Sarah remained near the door, afraid to move too close.
Jamie carried his bowl to the couch.
Caleb did not eat.
He stood by the window, watching the street.
Sarah approached slowly.
“Show me the messages.”
“The police have my phone.”
“Then tell me what Grant said.”
Caleb faced her.
“He told me to bring Jamie to him or he would kill you.”
Sarah’s fear disappeared beneath something colder.
“He wants Jamie because of the trust.”
“Vanessa wanted it too.”
“She was following Grant’s instructions.”
“Why fake his death?”
“Because federal investigators were closing in on his company. He moved money through Jamie’s trust. He believed no one would question accounts belonging to a child.”
Caleb thought about Grant’s plane disappearing.
The memorial service.
Vanessa crying for cameras.
“Did he ever love us?”
Sarah’s eyes filled.
“In his way, perhaps. But Grant only loved people when he could own them.”
Caleb looked toward Jamie.
“He doesn’t own us.”
“No.”
Sarah’s voice strengthened.
“He doesn’t.”
A knock sounded at the door.
Every person in the apartment froze.
The deputy outside called through it.
“Food delivery. It was ordered before we arrived.”
Mara frowned.
“No one ordered anything.”
The deputy opened the outer hallway door cautiously.
A paper bag sat on the floor.
No delivery person was visible.
The bomb squad was called.
There was no bomb.
Inside the bag were two meals from Caleb’s favorite restaurant.
One contained a cheeseburger.
The other contained chicken strips for Jamie.
A note lay beneath them.
BOYS, I’M COMING HOME.
The deputies took the bag as evidence.
Jamie began to cry again.
Sarah pulled him close.
Caleb checked the locks himself.
At midnight, everyone tried to sleep.
Caleb remained awake on the couch with a kitchen knife beneath the blanket.
Shortly after two, Jamie entered the room.
“My stomach hurts.”
Caleb switched on the lamp.
Jamie’s face was swollen.
Red patches covered his neck.
He gasped for breath.
Caleb screamed for help.
Sarah reached them first.
She saw the empty cracker wrapper in Jamie’s hand.
“Peanuts.”
Jamie’s allergy had nearly killed him when he was three.
Caleb had forgotten the emergency injector at their old house.
Sarah pulled one from her coat.
She removed the cap and pressed it against Jamie’s thigh.
“Call an ambulance!”
Mara made the call.
Sarah held Jamie upright.
“Breathe, baby. Stay with me.”
Caleb looked at the wrapper.
The crackers had come from the courthouse.
The label listed no peanuts.
But a faint puncture marked the side of the package.
Someone had injected something into it.
The ambulance arrived within minutes.
Jamie began breathing more easily as they carried him downstairs.
Sarah rode with him.
Caleb followed in a police car.
At the hospital, a doctor confirmed that someone had contaminated the crackers with peanut oil.
Judge Carter ordered an investigation into everyone who had entered the family room.
Caleb sat beside Jamie’s bed until dawn.
Sarah stood on the other side, holding Jamie’s hand.
“You carried an injector,” Caleb said.
“I read his medical file before I came to court.”
“You remembered his allergy?”
“I remembered everything two years ago.”
“And you still didn’t come.”
Sarah looked down.
“I escaped three times. Grant found me every time.”
Caleb wanted to accuse her again.
Then he saw the scars around her wrists.
Thin white circles.
Marks left by restraints.
Sarah noticed him looking and pulled down her sleeves.
Caleb reached across the bed.
For the first time, he touched his mother’s hand.
She began to cry.
He did not call her Mom.
He was not ready.
But he did not let go.
A nurse entered carrying an envelope.
“This was left at the front desk for Caleb.”
There was no name on the front.
Caleb opened it.
Inside was a photograph of their old family home.
A red circle had been drawn around his bedroom window.
May you like
On the back were five words.
COME ALONE IF YOU WANT ANSWERS.
