Chapter 3 - THE ESCAPE
“What do you mean she’s gone?” I demanded, gripping the phone so tightly my knuckles turned white.
“She’s not in her room, Miss Bennett,” the nurse said, sounding completely panicked. “The security cameras show her leaving through the back service doors ten minutes ago. She got into a car.”
“Whose car?!”
“We don't know. The cameras didn't catch the license plate. But Sarah... she didn't look like she was running away.”
“What did she look like?”
The nurse hesitated.
“She looked like she was waiting for them.”
The line went dead.
I dropped the phone, my entire body going numb. My mother, recovering from a stroke, had just vanished into the Chicago night with someone she was waiting for.
“She’s gone,” I whispered, turning to Nicholas. “Someone took her from the facility.”
Nicholas didn't hesitate.
“Marco,” Nicholas snapped into his earpiece. “Lock down the city. I want every camera near Oakwood Care pulled right now. Nobody moves a car out of that district without us knowing about it.”
He turned back to me, his dark eyes filled with absolute determination.
“We will find her, Sarah.”
“What if Andrew’s people got her?” I panicked, looking toward the hallway where the guards were dragging Andrew and Patricia out.
“They didn't,” Nicholas said firmly. “Andrew and Patricia have been in this house tearing it apart. They didn't have time to organize a secondary extraction.”
He looked down at the tiny baby shoes still clutched in my hand, alongside the faded birth certificate.
“There’s a piece of this puzzle we’re missing,” Nicholas said softly.
He walked over to the dresser, inspecting the empty bottom drawer. He ran his tattooed hands along the wood, feeling the edges.
Suddenly, he stopped.
He pressed firmly against the back panel of the drawer.
With a soft click, a false bottom popped open.
Patricia and Andrew hadn't found it. They had been too frantic, too focused on the shoes.
Nicholas reached inside and pulled out a stack of letters, bound tightly with a faded silk ribbon.
He handed them to me.
“Read the top one,” he said.
My hands were shaking as I untied the ribbon. I opened the first envelope. The paper was crisp, expensive, and the handwriting was elegant, written in deep black ink.
The letter was dated exactly one week before my mother’s stroke.
Carol,I know what Andrew has done. I know he discovered the truth about Sarah. He came to me for money to silence you. I refused. He is a coward, just like the man who raised him. I will not let him destroy Sarah’s life to protect his own pride. If he tries to move against you, use the number at the bottom of this page. I will send a car. You and Sarah will be safe.— Giovanni.
I stared at the name, the air catching in my throat.
“Giovanni?” I whispered.
Nicholas went completely still.
He took the letter from my hands, his eyes scanning the elegant, black ink.
As he read the signature, the color drained entirely from his face.
“My father,” Nicholas breathed.
“Your father?” I gasped. “Why would your father be writing to my mother about Andrew?”
Nicholas looked at the letter, then at the birth certificate on the bed.
“Because Richard Bennett wasn't Andrew’s father,” Nicholas said, his voice dropping to a terrifying, hollow whisper.
May you like
He looked up at me, his dark eyes filled with a shock so profound it made my blood run cold.
“My father was.”
