Chapter 6 - WHY THEY WANTED RUE CALLAWAY
Harlan locked me in the study.
I lasted forty-three seconds.
Then I opened the door.
Two guards blocked the hallway.
“Mr. Voss said you stay inside.”
“Mr. Voss says many things.”
“Miss Callaway.”
“I am not sitting in a room while Belle is missing.”
One guard looked apologetic.
The other looked terrified of Harlan.
Smart man.
I stepped back into the study.
Then climbed out the window.
Rich people always forget windows.
I found Harlan in the security center.
He turned when I walked in.
The look on his face could have killed weaker women.
“How did you get out?”
“Window.”
“I posted guards.”
“At the door.”
His jaw flexed.
“Rue.”
“Belle is gone.”
“I know.”
“And the note asked for me.”
“Which is why you are staying here.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“I found her once.”
“You almost froze doing it.”
“I can help.”
“You are not trained.”
“Neither was whoever kidnapped her, apparently, because they keep leaving clues.”
His eyes narrowed.
“What clue?”
“The note.”
“What about it?”
“They called me the girl from the garage.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Silence.
“Everyone knows my name now.”
Harlan stared.
“Why not write Rue?”
He looked at the note again.
“Because whoever wrote it doesn’t know your name.”
“Exactly.”
“Meaning they weren’t part of the medical suite.”
“And maybe weren’t part of the first kidnapping.”
His expression changed.
I continued.
“Maybe there are two different people involved.”
One group poisoned Belle.
Another took her.
Or someone had betrayed another.
Harlan called Tomas.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
We looked at each other.
“Tomas,” I said.
Harlan’s face went cold.
Security searched the estate.
His room was empty.
His safe had been cleared.
His SUV was gone.
Fourteen years of loyalty disappeared in under twenty minutes.
Then Harlan’s phone rang from a blocked number.
He answered.
Tomas’s voice came through.
“Bring Rue to Meridian Theater.”
Harlan’s eyes found mine.
“Where’s Belle?”
“Alive.”
“Let me hear her.”
A pause.
Then Belle cried, “Daddy!”
My knees nearly gave out.
Harlan closed his eyes for half a second.
“I’m coming.”
“With Rue.”
“No.”
“Then Belle’s next cardiac episode happens without medication.”
I felt sick.
Harlan’s voice lowered.
“If you hurt her—”
“You’ll kill me?”
Tomas laughed softly.
“You should have done that years ago.”
The call ended.
Harlan turned toward his men.
“Full assault team.”
“No.”
Everyone looked at me.
Harlan stared.
“What?”
“He’ll see them.”
“We’re not walking in alone.”
“He wants me for a reason.”
“Exactly why you’re not going.”
“I’m going.”
“No.”
I stepped closer.
“She called me.”
His expression tightened.
“She trusted me in that garage.”
“This is not your responsibility.”
“I know.”
“Then stop acting like it is.”
“Because somebody has to.”
The words came out harder than I intended.
Harlan went still.
I lowered my voice.
“You can’t control every danger by locking people away.”
His face changed.
Elise.
That was what she had hated.
The vault.
I continued.
“You want Belle to survive this?”
“More than anything.”
“Then trust someone.”
Silence.
Eventually, he said, “Fine.”
Not because he liked it.
Because Belle had changed him just enough to consider it.
Meridian Theater had been abandoned for twelve years.
It stood three blocks from the garage where I found Belle.
That wasn’t coincidence.
Harlan and I entered through the old loading entrance.
He wore a wire.
So did I.
His tactical team stayed two blocks away.
The theater smelled like dust, rain, and rotting velvet.
We reached the stage.
One spotlight switched on.
Belle sat in the center.
Tied to a chair.
Her tutor lay unconscious nearby.
“Tomas,” Harlan called.
The security director stepped from behind the curtain.
He held a gun.
Grant stood beside him.
My stomach dropped.
Harlan’s face became stone.
“You.”
Grant looked exhausted.
“Before you decide I’m the villain, listen.”
“You kidnapped my daughter.”
“No.”
“Tomas did.”
Tomas smiled.
Grant continued.
“I came because he told me he had proof about Belle.”
Harlan raised his weapon.
“Move away from him.”
Grant did.
Tomas didn’t stop him.
That bothered me.
Too easy.
“What do you want?” Harlan asked.
Tomas looked at me.
“Her.”
“Why?”
I swallowed.
Tomas smiled.
“Because Rue Callaway isn’t who she thinks she is.”
I laughed nervously.
“That sounds dramatic.”
“Your mother’s name was Angela Callaway.”
My smile disappeared.
“How do you know that?”
“She worked at the Voss fertility clinic.”
I stopped breathing.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“My mother was a respiratory therapist.”
“Afterward.”
Harlan looked at me.
Tomas continued.
“Angela discovered what Victor Voss did to Elise.”
Harlan’s father.
“She helped Elise steal the real records.”
My chest tightened.
“Then why would anyone care about me?”
“Because Angela kept the only surviving copy.”
“My mother died seven years ago.”
“I know.”
“She left nothing.”
Tomas smiled.
“She left you.”
Silence.
I stared.
“What does that mean?”
He looked at Harlan.
“Belle’s donor wasn’t Grant.”
Harlan’s jaw tightened.
“We know.”
“The embryo wasn’t from a donor at all.”
Tomas’s voice lowered.
“Belle was conceived from Harlan and Elise’s genetic material exactly as they intended.”
Harlan froze.
“Then what was falsified?”
“The hereditary screening.”
Grant stepped forward.
“Our father altered the results.”
“Why?”
Tomas looked at Belle.
“Because Belle inherited a cardiac mutation from Victor’s line.”
Harlan went still.
His father had known.
“He concealed it.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because acknowledging it would invalidate the Voss succession trust.”
Grant cursed under his breath.
I finally understood.
The trust required the heir to meet a health certification.
If Belle’s condition was hereditary and known before the trust transfer, the entire share structure could be challenged.
Possibly voided.
“Who benefits?” I asked.
Tomas smiled.
“I do.”
Harlan stared.
“You?”
“My mother was Victor’s first wife.”
Grant looked sick.
“Tomas is our half brother.”
Everything rearranged.
Fourteen years inside the house.
The security codes.
Elise’s records.
Belle’s medication.
He hadn’t been a loyal employee.
He had been waiting.
Harlan whispered, “Father knew?”
“Of course.”
“And still made you work for us?”
“He called it penance for being born.”
Tomas’s face finally cracked.
“He gave you everything. Grant enough to keep him obedient. Me a uniform.”
“So you poisoned Belle.”
“Yes.”
Grant lunged.
Tomas fired.
The bullet hit Grant’s shoulder.
Chaos exploded.
Harlan fired back.
I ran toward Belle.
Tomas grabbed me before I reached her.
His arm locked around my throat.
Gun pressed against my ribs.
“Harlan!”
He froze.
“Drop it.”
Harlan’s weapon lowered.
Tomas pulled me backward.
“Angela hid the real genetic file.”
“I don’t have it.”
“She told Elise she put it where her daughter would always carry it.”
My mind raced.
Where her daughter would always carry it.
My purse?
My mother’s jewelry?
I had nothing.
Then I remembered.
The eviction notice.
The worn leather purse.
The keychain attached to it since I was twelve.
My mother’s silver medical tag.
I had never taken it off.
Tomas saw recognition on my face.
“There.”
My blood ran cold.
He wanted the keychain.
Harlan saw it too.
“Rue, don’t.”
I reached slowly into my pocket.
I had moved the tag there after my purse strap broke earlier.
I held it up.
Tomas loosened his grip slightly.
“Give it to me.”
I looked at Belle.
Then at Harlan.
And dropped the tag through a broken section of stage floor.
Tomas screamed.
He shoved me aside.
Harlan fired.
Tomas fell.
The gun skidded across the stage.
I crawled to Belle.
“Honey.”
“Rue.”
“I’ve got you.”
Her skin was pale.
Too pale.
“Harlan!”
He was beside us instantly.
Belle’s breathing became shallow.
“No,” he whispered.
Grant, bleeding, pointed toward the back corridor.
“Tomas brought a medical case.”
Harlan found it.
Empty.
No emergency medication.
Tomas had planned for Belle to die whether he escaped or not.
Then Belle’s eyes rolled back.
May you like
Her monitor alarm began screaming.
And the nearest hospital was twelve minutes away.
