Chapter 13 - THE NIGHT THEY CAME FOR MY DAUGHTER
I don't remember running through the hospital corridor. I only remember the sound of my own heartbeat and the terrible emptiness that appeared in my chest when I realized Lily was no longer where I had left her. Every mother has a sound she fears more than anything. For me, it was the silence that came when I entered her room and didn't hear her breathing. The crib was empty. Her blanket was gone. The stuffed rabbit she slept beside every night was lying on the floor. For eight months, Lily had been the center of my world, and in less than thirty seconds, the room had become proof that someone had reached into my life and taken the one thing I could never survive losing.
A nurse ran toward me.
“Mrs. Carter, please stay calm.”
“Where is my daughter?”
“She was moved.”
“By who?”
The nurse's face went pale.
“A man said he was family.”
I looked at Detective Shaw.
“Lock down the hospital.”
She immediately spoke into her radio.
Then a security guard shouted from the end of the corridor.
“We have him!”
We ran toward the security monitors.
A grainy camera showed a man pushing a hospital bassinet toward a private elevator.
Gray hair.
Dark coat.
Slow, deliberate movements.
I recognized him immediately.
Richard.
My heart stopped.
“That's him.”
Detective Shaw grabbed the radio.
“Stop the elevator.”
The doors closed.
The monitor changed.
The elevator descended.
Then the screen went black.
We ran downstairs.
By the time we reached the ambulance entrance, a black SUV was speeding away.
Detective Shaw got into her car.
“Stay here.”
“No.”
I opened my car door.
“I'm coming.”
She looked at me.
“Diane, this is dangerous.”
“My daughter is in that vehicle.”
She didn't argue.
The chase lasted only minutes, but they felt like hours. The SUV turned through three streets before two police cars cut it off near an intersection.
The doors opened.
Nobody was inside.
Except for an empty hospital bassinet.
I stepped out of the car.
My legs nearly gave way.
Then a police officer shouted.
“She isn't here!”
I turned.
“What?”
He pointed toward the side of the road.
A small white blanket was lying beneath a streetlight.
I ran toward it.
It was Lily's.
But something else was tucked inside.
A folded piece of paper.
My name.
Diane.
I opened it.
“Don't follow the car.”
My hands shook.
“Go to the old garage.”
I looked at Detective Shaw.
“What old garage?”
She took the paper from me.
I pointed to the next line.
“The place where it started.”
I knew immediately.
The garage.
The place where Scott and I had started the company.
The place where I had believed our marriage and our future began.
We drove there.
The building looked exactly as I remembered it, except the years had stripped away the warmth. Dust covered the windows. The old company sign hung crooked above the door. Inside, the original workbench was still against the wall, and beneath it was the first desk I had ever used.
Detective Shaw walked slowly across the floor.
“There's something here.”
She tapped the concrete.
Hollow.
We moved the workbench.
Beneath it was a metal panel.
When we opened it, there was a box.
Inside was an old hospital bracelet.
A photograph.
And a videotape.
I picked up the photograph.
It showed me eight months pregnant.
Scott stood beside me.
But behind us was Richard.
The date was printed in the corner.
Three weeks before my wedding.
I turned the photograph over.
There was a handwritten sentence.
“Diane never knew who the father was.”
My hands started shaking.
Then the garage door slammed shut.
I turned.
Scott stood in the doorway.
His face was pale.
He looked nothing like the arrogant man who had pointed me toward the door the night before.
He looked terrified.
“Diane…”
I stepped toward him.
“Where is my daughter?”
“She's safe.”
“You said that before.”
“I didn't take her.”
“Then who did?”
Scott swallowed.
“My father.”
I stared at him.
“You told me he was dead.”
“He was never my father.”
The words hung between us.
I stepped closer.
“Then who is he?”
Scott looked at the photograph.
Then at me.
“His name is Richard Vale.”
“And what does he want?”
Scott's voice dropped.
“Lily.”
“Why?”
May you like
He looked directly into my eyes.
“Because she is the only person who can take everything away from him.”
