Chapter 5 - THE DEAD WIFE’S LAST CALLAt 8:52 p.m., Adrian parked six blocks from the warehouse.
Mara sat in the passenger seat.
He looked at her.
“I distinctly remember the note saying come alone.”
“I distinctly remember not caring.”
“This isn’t a game.”
“I spent three years looking for my sister.”
“And that makes you emotionally compromised.”
She stared at him.
“Your supposedly dead wife appeared in your nursery this morning.”
He said nothing.
“So maybe don’t lecture me about emotional compromise.”
Adrian opened his door.
“Stay behind me.”
Mara got out.
“Absolutely not.”
The warehouse sat near the river behind a row of abandoned manufacturing buildings.
Most of the streetlights were broken.
The river smelled like rain and rust.
They approached without flashlights.
Thomas and a federal response team waited three blocks away.
Adrian had argued against Mara coming until she showed him Emily’s letter.
If Emily had left clues specifically for Mara, her presence might matter.
At exactly nine, the warehouse door clicked open.
Nobody appeared.
Adrian entered first.
Mara followed.
The interior was empty except for an old table.
On the table sat a phone.
It rang.
Adrian approached it.
“Don’t,” Mara whispered.
“It’s why we’re here.”
He answered.
“Hello?”
A woman breathed on the other end.
Adrian froze.
“Claire?”
Mara’s heart slammed against her ribs.
The woman whispered.
“Adrian.”
His eyes closed.
There are voices a person can forget.
And voices the body remembers before the mind has time to argue.
Adrian’s body remembered hers.
“Where are you?”
“I’m sorry.”
“Where are you?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“You were in my house.”
Silence.
“Claire.”
“I had to see him.”
“Owen?”
A sob.
“Yes.”
Adrian gripped the phone.
“Is he your son?”
The silence answered too slowly.
“Claire?”
“I love him.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Mara watched Adrian’s face break.
“Is Owen your biological child?”
“No.”
Adrian lowered his head.
Mara covered her mouth.
“Whose child is he?”
Claire cried quietly.
“I don’t know who his biological mother is.”
“What?”
“The records were destroyed.”
“You gave me a stolen baby?”
“No.”
“Then explain it!”
“He was being trafficked.”
Adrian’s voice echoed through the warehouse.
“You let me believe you gave birth to him!”
“I kept him alive.”
“For three years?”
Claire stopped crying.
“Yes.”
Adrian became very still.
Mara felt her stomach turn.
The photograph had been real.
Owen was older than they believed.
“How old is my son?”
“Almost four.”
Adrian sank into a chair.
Mara stared at him.
Owen looked small for his age, but doctors had always attributed it to developmental delays and earlier medical issues.
His age had been manufactured.
His records rewritten.
Everything.
“Why?” Adrian whispered.
“Because Shepherd was searching for a four-year-old boy.”
Claire’s voice shook.
“They weren’t searching for a baby.”
“So you changed his age.”
“We changed everything.”
“We?”
“Emily helped.”
Mara stepped closer to the phone.
“Where is my sister?”
Silence.
“Mara?” Claire whispered.
“Yes.”
“Oh God.”
“Where is Emily?”
“I’m sorry.”
Mara’s knees weakened.
“No.”
“I tried.”
“No.”
“She saved me.”
“Where is she?”
Claire began crying.
“Three years ago, we were moving Owen from a safe location. They found us.”
Mara could barely breathe.
“Emily drove them away from us.”
“Is she dead?”
“I don’t know.”
“What do you mean you don’t know?”
“Her car went into the river.”
Mara stared at the dark water beyond the warehouse windows.
“Her body?”
“Never recovered.”
The same pattern.
No body.
No certainty.
Mara slammed both palms on the table.
“Then stop telling me she’s gone.”
Adrian looked at her.
Claire whispered, “You sound exactly like her.”
Mara’s tears fell.
“What happened after that?”
“I kept Owen hidden.”
“Why give him to Adrian three years later?”
“Because Shepherd discovered the safe house.”
Adrian stood.
“So you sent him to me.”
“You were the only person powerful enough to protect him.”
“You could have come too.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m the reason Shepherd wants him.”
The warehouse lights suddenly came on.
Mara spun around.
Nobody visible.
Claire’s voice became urgent.
“You have to leave.”
Adrian looked around.
“Why?”
“They know you’re there.”
Mara’s stomach dropped.
“You told us to come.”
“No.”
Adrian stared at the phone.
“What?”
“I never sent that message.”
A metal door slammed somewhere inside the warehouse.
Mara grabbed Adrian’s arm.
“Move.”
They ran.
Behind them, footsteps echoed.
More than one person.
Adrian pulled Mara behind a stack of industrial crates.
He texted Thomas one word.
NOW.
A second later, shouting erupted outside.
Federal agents entered through two doors.
The footsteps retreated deeper into the building.
Adrian kept the phone against his ear.
“Claire!”
Nothing.
“Claire!”
The call had ended.
They searched the warehouse.
No Claire.
No attackers.
Only one open loading door facing the river.
Thomas returned twenty minutes later.
“Whoever was here knew the building.”
Adrian looked furious.
“How did they get past perimeter?”
“Underground storm tunnel.”
Mara noticed something near the table.
A child’s shoe.
Tiny.
Blue.
She picked it up.
“Adrian.”
He recognized it.
“Owen has the same pair.”
Mara checked inside.
A label had been written beneath the tongue.
Not Owen.
ELIAS.
Adrian frowned.
“Who is Elias?”
Thomas’s phone rang.
He answered.
His face changed.
“What?”
Adrian stepped closer.
Thomas listened.
Then lowered the phone.
“Cassandra wants to talk.”
“Now?”
“She says she’ll only speak to you.”
They returned to the estate shortly after eleven.
Cassandra sat in an interview room at the local federal field office.
No green dress now.
Gray jail clothing.
No makeup.
No smile.
Adrian entered with Mara despite Cassandra’s objection.
“You brought the maid.”
“Her name is Mara.”
Cassandra laughed softly.
“You already trust her.”
“I trust the woman who jumped into a pool after my son more than the woman who pushed him.”
Cassandra’s smile disappeared.
“What do you want?”
“You asked for me.”
“I want a deal.”
“For attempted murder?”
“For information.”
“About Shepherd?”
“About Claire.”
Adrian sat.
“Talk.”
Cassandra looked at Mara.
“Emily is alive.”
Mara’s entire body went numb.
“Where?”
“Aren’t you going to ask how I know?”
“No. Where?”
Cassandra smiled.
“I don’t know.”
Mara slammed her hands on the table.
“Stop playing with me.”
“I’m not.”
“You said she was alive.”
“She was eighteen months ago.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
“It’s more than you had this morning.”
Adrian leaned forward.
“What do you want?”
“Protection.”
“From who?”
Cassandra stared at him.
“Jonathan.”
Claire’s first husband.
The missing FBI agent.
“You said Jonathan is alive.”
“I said Claire told you that.”
“No. Claire’s note did.”
Cassandra’s eyes widened slightly.
She had not known about the note.
Adrian caught it.
“You’re scared of him.”
She looked away.
“What is Shepherd?”
Cassandra said nothing.
“Is Jonathan Shepherd?”
“No.”
“Claire?”
“No.”
“You?”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“I was.”
Mara stared.
Cassandra whispered, “For eleven months.”
The room went silent.
“They forced me.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know all of them.”
“You tried to drown Owen because somebody forced you?”
“I wasn’t supposed to kill him.”
Adrian’s fist tightened.
“You pushed a stroller into a pool.”
“I knew Mara would run.”
Mara stared at her.
“What?”
Cassandra turned toward her.
“That’s why I hired you.”
The statement landed like a slap.
“I investigated you.”
“You knew about Emily.”
“Yes.”
“You knew I could swim?”
Cassandra nodded.
“You were a college lifeguard.”
Mara felt sick.
“You used me.”
“I needed Adrian to see the video.”
“But you shut off the camera.”
“I shut off the obvious camera.”
Mara stopped.
The underwater camera.
Cassandra knew.
“You knew it was there.”
“Yes.”
“Then who was in the nursery?”
Cassandra’s expression changed.
“I don’t know.”
“Claire.”
Cassandra looked at Adrian.
“No.”
“We saw her.”
“No.”
“On video.”
Cassandra began shaking her head.
“No. No, you didn’t.”
Adrian frowned.
“Why are you scared?”
“Because Claire would never go into that nursery.”
“She did.”
“No.”
“Why?”
Cassandra leaned toward him.
“Because Claire knows what’s behind the south wall.”
Adrian’s expression hardened.
“We already found the box.”
Cassandra looked confused.
“What box?”
The question chilled them.
“If you mean the compartment behind the bookshelf,” Cassandra whispered, “that isn’t what I’m talking about.”
Mara felt cold.
“What’s behind the wall?”
Cassandra looked straight at Adrian.
“A room.”
“There’s no room.”
“Yes, there is.”
Adrian remembered the original plans.
Fourteen missing inches.
Not enough for a room.
Unless the plans themselves were false.
Cassandra continued.
“And if someone opened that room today…”
Her voice broke.
“…you need to get Owen out of the house right now.”
Adrian was already standing.
“Why?”
Cassandra looked terrified.
“Because that room contains the original list.”
“What list?”
“The children.”
Adrian stopped.
“All of them.”
She looked at Mara.
“Real names. Real birthdays. Biological parents.”
Mara’s pulse accelerated.
“And Owen?”
Cassandra nodded.
“Especially Owen.”
Adrian reached the door.
Cassandra shouted after him.
“There’s something else!”
He turned.
She swallowed.
“Owen isn’t the only child Claire took.”
Adrian stared.
May you like
Cassandra’s next words silenced the entire room.
“There were two boys.”
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