Chapter 10 - THE EMPTY BED
Nathan answered the hospital call while holding Sarah against him.
A security officer spoke.
“Dr. Pierce, Lily Carter is missing.”
Nathan could not process the words.
“What happened?”
“A nurse received instructions to take her for imaging.”
“Who gave the instructions?”
“The order appeared under Dr. Bennett’s authorization.”
“Nora did not order imaging.”
“We know that now.”
“Where are Owen and Ethan?”
“Secure.”
“Rosa?”
“She was found unconscious in the family waiting room.”
Sarah’s body shook.
“He took her.”
Nathan pressed the phone to his ear.
“Lock down the hospital.”
“We already have.”
“Review every camera.”
“The imaging transport exited through the south garage eleven minutes ago.”
Elena heard enough.
She began issuing orders.
Nathan carried Sarah into the living room and examined her injuries.
She had a deep cut above her eyebrow, bruised ribs, and abrasions around both wrists.
Her pupils were equal.
Her pulse was fast but strong.
“How did Marcus free you?”
Sarah struggled to sit upright.
“Victor ordered him to move me from the lodge.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“Marcus stopped near the estate tunnel.”
“He unlocked one chain.”
“He told me to run.”
“Did he say he took Lily?”
“No.”
Sarah looked toward the phone.
“Victor must have used someone at the hospital.”
Elena received a call from the surveillance team.
“The transport van was found near Interstate 90.”
“Empty?”
“Yes.”
“Any tracks?”
“Two vehicles left the area.”
Nathan looked at Sarah.
“Why would Victor take Lily?”
“Because she knows things.”
“What things?”
“I taught her everything I could.”
Sarah’s voice broke.
“Names.”
“Places.”
“The route to your house.”
“The location of the ledger.”
Nathan felt cold.
“Lily knows where the time capsule is?”
“She knows how to open it.”
“I thought you had to open it.”
Sarah shook her head.
“Mom designed the locking mechanism.”
“She taught me the sequence.”
“I taught Lily.”
Nathan turned toward Elena.
“Victor does not need Sarah anymore.”
Sarah caught his arm.
“He still needs my thumbprint for the charter vault.”
“What vault?”
“The original voting seals are beneath the foundation lodge.”
She closed her eyes against the pain.
“Without those seals, the charter can be challenged.”
Elena spread the property plans across the table.
“Victor needs three things.”
“The ledger from the estate.”
“The seals from the lodge.”
“And Sarah’s authorization.”
Nathan looked toward the snow-covered garden.
“He has Lily to force Sarah’s cooperation.”
Sarah’s face crumpled.
“I sent her into that storm to save her.”
“You did save her.”
Nathan knelt beside the couch.
“She reached me.”
“And now he has her again.”
“We will bring her home.”
Sarah looked at him.
“You said that before.”
Nathan knew what she meant.
When they were children, he had promised their dying mother that he would always protect Sarah.
Then he had told Sarah to leave.
“I failed before.”
“Yes.”
Sarah’s honesty struck harder than anger.
“I waited for you.”
“I know.”
“I wrote until I started believing Victor.”
Nathan lowered his eyes.
“He showed me the order with your signature.”
“I signed a stack of hospital papers without reading them.”
“I know that now.”
“But then?”
Sarah wiped tears from her face.
“I thought my brother had decided I was insane.”
Nathan sat beside her.
“I thought you chose Marcus.”
“He controlled every phone.”
“He moved us whenever I found help.”
“He told Lily you were dangerous.”
“Why did she come to me?”
“Because she heard me say your name when I dreamed.”
Sarah managed a broken smile.
“She asked who Nathan was.”
“I told her you were the person I should have trusted.”
Nathan looked at the old bracelet.
“How did you keep this?”
“A nurse at Cedar Vale gave it back when she helped me escape.”
“Miriam Cole?”
Sarah nodded.
“She hid the patient list inside.”
“Where is she now?”
“Working for Victor.”
Nathan stared at her.
“Willingly?”
“No.”
“Her daughter is sick.”
“Victor controls the insurance fund paying for treatment.”
Elena checked hospital personnel records.
“Miriam Cole is employed at Evergreen.”
Nathan remembered the nurse who had whispered about Ethan.
The nurse who had access to Lily’s room.
“She took Lily.”
Sarah shook her head.
“She may have been forced.”
“That does not change what happened.”
“No.”
Sarah looked at Nathan.
“But it may tell us where Victor went.”
Elena tracked Miriam’s employee badge.
It had last been used in a service elevator leading to the south garage.
Her home address was empty.
Her daughter, Grace, had been admitted to a private cancer center owned by a Pierce subsidiary.
Victor could stop the treatment with a phone call.
Nathan called the center and ordered immediate independent protection for Grace.
Then he sent Miriam a message.
YOUR DAUGHTER IS SAFE.
VICTOR CAN NO LONGER CONTROL HER TREATMENT.
HELP US FIND LILY.
Five minutes passed.
Ten.
No response came.
Nathan’s phone finally rang from an unknown number.
Miriam’s voice trembled.
“I did not know they wanted the child.”
“Where is she?”
“They told me it was a legal transfer.”
“Where did they take her?”
“I drove her to the south garage.”
“A man put her in another car.”
“Who?”
“I did not see his face.”
“Miriam.”
Nathan fought to control his anger.
“A five-year-old child walked barefoot through a blizzard.”
“She survived her father.”
“She survived Victor.”
“Do not become the person who helps them finish what they started.”
Miriam began crying.
“The car had foundation plates.”
“Which property?”
“I heard the driver mention the gala.”
Nathan looked at Elena.
Victor was taking Lily to Cascade Ridge.
“He is already coming here.”
Elena ordered every officer to search the estate.
Sarah stood despite the pain.
“The tunnel.”
“We have sensors.”
“He knows the system.”
Nathan helped her toward the security room.
The north-garden camera showed nothing.
The wine-cellar sensor remained inactive.
Elena checked the hospital footage again.
A final image showed Lily inside the transport van.
She appeared frightened but alert.
She pressed one hand against the rear window.
Something had been drawn on her palm.
Nathan enlarged the image.
Three numbers.
“Mother’s chapel box.”
Sarah whispered.
“Why would Lily write that?”
Nathan remembered what else had been inside box 604.
The original cassette.
The trust document.
The photograph.
Elena had removed everything.
Or so they thought.
Sarah looked at the bracelet.
“The box had a false bottom.”
“What was inside?”
“A second key.”
“To what?”
Sarah’s face lost color.
“The family crypt.”
Nathan stared at her.
Their parents had been buried in a private stone mausoleum below the estate’s north garden.
Victor was not coming only for the time capsule.
Something had been buried with Margaret and Robert Pierce.
“What did Mom hide in the crypt?”
Sarah whispered the answer.
“The only living witness who could prove Victor murdered them.”
A noise came through the security speakers.
A child was crying somewhere beneath the garden.
Nathan recognized Lily’s voice.
“Uncle Nathan.”
The camera feed changed.
Victor appeared inside the Pierce family crypt.
He held Lily against his side.
A gun rested beneath her chin.
“Midnight has arrived early.”
May you like
Victor smiled into the camera.
“Bring Sarah.”
