The Night the Nursery Went Dark
Chapter 07 - The Night the Nursery Went Dark
Adrian called the manor, but every line went unanswered.
He and Hannah reached the estate with Mara minutes later. The front gate stood open. Two guards were unconscious from a sedative, and the nursery windows were dark.
Hannah ran faster than anyone expected after months of confinement. She reached Ella’s room and found the crib empty.
On the blanket lay the silver medal.
A monitor flickered on. Conrad appeared from an unknown location holding Ella, who was awake but unharmed.
He demanded the original ledger, the storage drive, and a signed statement declaring Hannah’s marriage fraudulent. In exchange, he promised to return the baby before the court hearing.
Hannah’s face went completely still.
“No,” she said.
Adrian thought he had misheard.
Hannah turned to Mara. “If we give him everything, he will keep doing this. We find her.”
The manor’s old service tunnels connected the nursery wing to a carriage house near the woods. Muddy wheel tracks led to an abandoned veterans’ rehabilitation center once funded by the foundation.
Mara organized a rescue team. Hannah studied the video and noticed a brass bell behind Conrad. She remembered the same bell from a St. Agnes storage room where supplies were labeled for transfer.
The rehabilitation center contained an underground treatment wing not shown on official plans.
Police entered through the boiler room. Adrian stayed behind the first team as ordered, while Hannah monitored body-camera feeds from a command vehicle. She recognized hallways, medicine carts, and the sound of a faulty ventilation fan from St. Agnes.
“Second door after the red pipe,” she told Mara through the radio. “There is usually a locked observation room.”
They found Ella there with Lucia Perez.
Lucia had been forced to care for the baby while Conrad prepared to leave the country. She had protected Ella and delayed the departure by claiming the child had a fever.
Conrad escaped through a maintenance tunnel before police arrived.
Lucia provided the missing testimony. She had filmed Dr. Mercer sedating Hannah, Evelyn visiting the clinic, and Conrad ordering staff to forge postpartum records.
She also knew where Conrad would go.
He kept a private aircraft at a foundation-owned airfield. The plane could depart within an hour.
Adrian held Ella as Hannah embraced Lucia. Relief lasted only seconds before Mara received another message.
Conrad had taken Evelyn with him.
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He threatened to release a fabricated video blaming her for the entire conspiracy unless Adrian publicly withdrew the audit.
The man who used his daughter as a shield was now using his own.
