CHAPTER 10 : THE HOUSE IN DARKNESS
Ethan ran upstairs.
Daniel drew the licensed firearm he kept in a locked cabinet and moved toward the rear entrance.
Rachel grabbed Lucy from the crib while Emma crouched beside the bed.
“Stay behind me,” Rachel whispered.
Footsteps moved across the first floor.
Ethan reached the bedroom and locked the door behind him.
“Bathroom,” he ordered. “Now.”
Rachel carried Lucy inside. Emma followed.
Ethan pushed a dresser against the bathroom door and called 911.
No signal.
The tracker had not been the only device hidden in the nursery. Someone had installed a signal jammer outside the house.
A man struck the bedroom door.
“Give us the child!”
Emma covered Lucy’s ears.
The door shook again.
Ethan looked toward the window.
The bedroom was on the second floor, but the roof over the porch sat only several feet below.
He opened the window.
“Rachel, take Emma.”
“No.”
“Do it.”
Rachel climbed out first, then helped Emma onto the roof. Ethan handed Lucy through the opening.
The bedroom door splintered.
Ethan climbed outside and closed the window behind him.
They crossed the roof toward a large oak tree. Daniel had installed an emergency ladder after Emma began spending weekends at the house.
Rachel lowered it.
Emma climbed down first.
As Ethan reached the ground, two men emerged through the side door.
Daniel appeared behind them.
“Federal agents are coming!” he shouted.
One man ran toward a waiting vehicle.
The other charged at Daniel.
Ethan pushed Rachel and the children behind the garage while Daniel fought the intruder. Sirens approached from the main road.
The attackers fled without Lucy.
Police later found the abandoned vehicle several miles away.
Inside were forged child-custody documents claiming Adrian Cole was Lucy’s legal father and that Ethan had kidnapped her.
By morning, selected pages had been leaked to the press.
ADRIAN COLE ACCUSES BUSINESSMAN OF HIDING SECRET CHILD.
Reporters surrounded Ethan’s company headquarters.
Cole appeared before cameras with Celia beside him.
“A child has been exploited by individuals attempting to damage my campaign,” he said. “I will use every legal resource available to bring her home.”
He never admitted he was Lucy’s father.
He only suggested she might be part of a political attack.
Ethan’s board called an emergency meeting.
Several directors demanded that he temporarily step aside.
“The company cannot survive a public kidnapping accusation,” one board member said.
“The accusation is false.”
“The truth will take months to prove. The damage is happening now.”
Ethan looked through the conference-room window at protesters gathering outside.
He had spent years building the company.
Vanessa and Julian had nearly stolen it.
Now Adrian Cole was using Emma and Lucy to destroy it.
Ethan signed a temporary leave agreement.
When he returned to Rachel’s house, Emma was waiting in the kitchen.
“Did you lose your job?” she asked.
“Not exactly.”
“Are we going to lose our house?”
“No.”
“Are the bad people coming back?”
Ethan knelt in front of her.
“I won’t let them take you.”
Emma’s eyes filled with tears.
“You said that before the wedding.”
The words cut through him.
Before Ethan could answer, Daniel entered holding a sealed evidence envelope.
Agents had searched the attacker’s vehicle more carefully.
They found a photograph taken inside Ethan’s house.
The framed family rules hung in the background.
May you like
The photograph had been taken before the canceled wedding.
Someone had been watching Emma long before Vanessa locked her outside.
