Chapter 6 - THE EMPTY CRIB
Victor did not lower his weapon.
Neither did Dominic.
The red emergency light swept across both men in slow pulses.
Lily stood between the locker hall and the stairwell, gripping Amelia’s recorder.
“You said Adrian has Ethan,” Victor said.
Dominic nodded.
“How?”
“The nursery lost power twelve minutes ago.”
“The interior guards received an evacuation order using your voice.”
Victor’s expression hardened.
“A synthetic recording.”
“Yes.”
“They moved Ethan through the medical corridor.”
“Who gave the order?”
“The system lists your secure phone.”
Victor looked at Lily.
Her face had gone white.
“Serena,” she whispered.
Dominic shook his head.
“She is still confined.”
“Then Adrian.”
“Possibly.”
Victor’s weapon remained trained on Dominic.
“How did you get free?”
“The guards escorting me received the same emergency order.”
“They opened the vehicle.”
“I took one man’s phone and saw the nursery alert.”
“You could have run.”
“I came here.”
“Why?”
Dominic’s eyes hardened.
“Because whatever you believe about Prague, I did not spend twenty years protecting your family to let a child disappear tonight.”
Victor studied him.
The station alarms continued.
Guards were searching the lower corridor.
Lily heard distant shouting.
Every second Ethan remained missing felt unbearable.
“We don’t have time,” she said.
Both men looked at her.
“If Dominic is lying, deal with him later.”
“If he is telling the truth, Ethan needs us now.”
Victor lowered his weapon first.
Dominic followed.
They moved quickly to the vehicles.
During the drive, Dominic played the false evacuation order.
Victor’s own voice came through the phone.
Remove Ethan from the nursery.
Use the west medical corridor.
No radio communication.
It was nearly perfect.
Only one detail was wrong.
Victor never referred to his son by name during security orders.
He used the code word Sparrow.
Someone had copied his voice but not his habits.
“Where did the transfer vehicle go?” Victor asked.
“North gate camera caught a white medical van.”
“Plates?”
“Stolen.”
“Tracker?”
“The vehicle disappeared beneath the viaduct.”
Lily remembered something.
“Ethan’s blanket.”
Victor looked at her.
“What about it?”
“I stitched a tracking tag into the blue blanket after he wandered into the laundry room last month.”
“Serena said it was foolish.”
“Is the blanket with him?”
“The guards wrapped him in it before the transfer.”
Dominic opened the household tracking application.
The tag was offline.
Then a weak signal appeared.
It flashed near the old Blackwood chapel on the northern edge of the estate.
Victor ordered the convoy to turn.
The chapel had not been used in years.
It stood beyond the family cemetery, surrounded by bare trees and overgrown hedges.
Amelia had once wanted to restore it.
Victor kept postponing the project.
The white medical van was parked behind the building.
Its doors were open.
No one was inside.
Victor approached the chapel with six armed guards.
Lily followed despite his order to remain in the vehicle.
He turned.
“No.”
“My tracker found him.”
“You are injured.”
“He may respond to my voice.”
Victor wanted to refuse.
Then he remembered Ethan reaching for her in the medical room.
“Stay behind me.”
They entered through the side door.
Dust hung in the air.
Moonlight filtered through cracked stained glass.
The chapel pews had been removed, leaving a wide empty space.
A child’s cry sounded from beneath the floor.
Lily moved toward the altar.
“There’s a basement.”
Victor found the iron ring built into the stone.
Two guards lifted the trapdoor.
A narrow staircase descended into darkness.
Victor went first.
Lily followed.
The basement smelled of cold earth and old wood.
At the far end, Ethan lay inside a portable crib.
His blue blanket was wrapped around him.
A woman in a housekeeper’s uniform stood beside the crib holding a syringe.
Victor raised his weapon.
“Put it down.”
The woman began shaking.
“I had no choice.”
Lily recognized her.
“Marisol?”
Marisol Vega had worked in the mansion laundry for four years.
She was quiet.
Reliable.
A mother of two sons.
Tears streamed down her face.
“They have my boy.”
“Who?” Victor asked.
“I don’t know.”
“A man called me.”
“He showed me a video of Luis outside his school.”
“He told me to bring Ethan here.”
“What is in the syringe?”
Marisol looked at it.
“I don’t know.”
“He said to give it to the baby if anyone came.”
Lily stepped closer.
“Give it to me.”
Marisol shook her head.
“They’ll hurt Luis.”
Victor lowered his weapon slightly.
“They will not touch your son.”
“You cannot promise that.”
“I can.”
Something in his voice reached her.
Marisol’s fingers loosened.
Lily took the syringe.
Victor moved to the crib.
Ethan saw him and began crying harder.
Victor lifted him.
The child’s uninjured hand reached past his father toward Lily.
She stepped close and touched his cheek.
“I’m here.”
Ethan pressed his face against Victor’s chest.
Dominic examined the basement.
“There’s another exit.”
A door behind the altar led into a tunnel.
Fresh footprints marked the dust.
Someone had been watching Marisol.
Victor ordered two guards into the passage.
Marisol collapsed into a chair.
“I’m sorry.”
Victor looked at her.
“When did they contact you?”
“Three weeks ago.”
“What did they ask before tonight?”
“Small things.”
“Leave doors unlocked.”
“Move packages.”
“Switch labels on medicine bottles.”
Lily stared at her.
“You changed Ethan’s medicine?”
“No.”
“I moved a box from Serena’s room to the nursery cabinet.”
“I did not know what was inside.”
“When?”
“The night before his last fever.”
Victor’s face hardened.
“Who collected the packages?”
“A man from security.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“Name.”
“I never saw his face.”
“He wore a cap.”
“He had a raven tattoo near his wrist.”
Dominic looked at Victor.
Adrian’s private protection team used the raven as an internal symbol.
Victor held Ethan tighter.
“Did Serena speak to you?”
Marisol shook her head.
“She only told me not to enter the east wing.”
“Did Adrian?”
“No.”
“Detective Mercer?”
Marisol’s expression changed.
She recognized the name.
“He came to the service entrance twice.”
“He said he was checking alarms.”
Dominic swore quietly.
Mercer had access to the estate after Amelia’s death.
He had reviewed surveillance systems.
He could have copied codes.
Voice samples.
Interior routes.
The conspiracy extended beyond Serena and Adrian.
It had been living inside the mansion for months.
One of the guards returned from the tunnel.
“It exits near the cemetery road.”
“Tire tracks head east.”
Victor ordered roadblocks.
Dominic’s phone rang.
He listened.
Then he looked toward Marisol.
“Her son is safe.”
“Chicago police found him inside a parked car near his school.”
“He is frightened but unharmed.”
Marisol began sobbing.
Lily knelt beside her.
“Whoever called you may call again.”
“You have to help us.”
Marisol nodded repeatedly.
“I will.”
Victor looked at the syringe.
“Send it to Dr. Halpern.”
“If it contains the sedative, we have another link.”
They returned to the mansion before dawn.
Ethan was examined again.
No new injuries.
No additional drugs.
Victor remained beside him until the child slept.
Lily sat near the crib.
The disposable phone from Amelia’s locker rested on the table.
Dominic’s team had found no data except one saved contact.
MIRIAM.
Miriam Caldwell.
Amelia’s missing assistant.
Victor pressed the call button.
The number rang six times.
A woman answered.
“Amelia?”
Victor closed his eyes briefly.
“No.”
The woman inhaled sharply.
“Who is this?”
“Victor Blackwood.”
The line went silent.
Then Miriam whispered.
“You opened the vault.”
“Yes.”
“Is Lily alive?”
Victor looked toward her.
“Yes.”
“And Ethan?”
“He is safe.”
Miriam began crying softly.
“Then Amelia’s plan worked.”
“Where are you?”
“I cannot tell you.”
“You can.”
“No.”
“They watch every person connected to her.”
“Who?”
“Adrian.”
“Serena.”
“Mercer.”
“And someone Amelia never identified.”
Victor looked at Dominic.
“What original recording did Amelia leave?”
Miriam was quiet.
“She recorded the conversation that proved they planned the crash.”
“Where?”
“You have it.”
Victor looked at the device on the table.
“It is encrypted.”
“The password is not a word.”
“What is it?”
“A heartbeat.”
Victor frowned.
Miriam explained.
“Amelia recorded Ethan’s heartbeat during her pregnancy.”
“The medical envelope contains the waveform.”
“The recorder unlocks only when the correct rhythm is played.”
Lily opened the sealed envelope.
Inside was a prenatal scan and a small audio card.
She pressed the button.
A rapid heartbeat filled the room.
Victor placed the card beside the recorder.
The device unlocked.
There were three files.
The first was labeled SERENA.
The second ADRIAN.
The third IF I AM DEAD.
Victor selected the first.
Amelia’s voice came through, faint and hidden beneath restaurant noise.
Serena spoke clearly.
“Once she is gone, Victor will blame the north-side families.”
Adrian answered.
“He will destroy them for us.”
“And when he is finished?”
“You marry him.”
“What about the child?”
A pause followed.
Then Serena said something that made Lily’s blood run cold.
“Children have accidents too.”
Victor stopped the recording.
His face had become almost colorless.
No one spoke.
Then the disposable phone rang again.
Miriam was still on the line.
“Do not listen to the third file inside the mansion,” she said.
“Why?”
“Because the moment it plays, it sends a signal.”
“To whom?”
Miriam’s voice dropped to a whisper.
“To the person Amelia feared most.”
Before Victor could ask another question, the nursery window shattered.
A small black object rolled across the floor.
Dominic shouted for everyone to get down.
The device emitted a burst of smoke.
Through the confusion, a guard’s voice came over the radio.
May you like
“Serena is gone.”
“And Detective Mercer just entered the estate with a warrant for Victor’s arrest.”
