Chapter 1 - The Knock at MidnightThe knock came again.
Three slow strikes against the penthouse door.
I clutched the blanket around my shoulders, my eyes fixed on Elias Vance. He stood motionless beneath the golden light of the chandelier, one hand beneath his jacket, his expression colder than the winter beyond the windows.
“Stay here,” he ordered.
“My daughters…”
“Will remain exactly where they are.”
He crossed the room and spoke quietly into the security intercom. I couldn't hear the reply, but I watched his face change.
“Turn off every light in the east wing,” he instructed. “Nobody enters until I give the word.”
The crying from the nursery stopped.
Somehow, that frightened me more than the knock.
Elias glanced at me. “What is your husband's full name?”
“Nathaniel Cross. Everyone calls him Nathan.”
“Does he know you survived?”
“I don't know.”
“Think carefully, Ava. Did he take your phone? Your identification? Anything that could lead him here?”
My stomach tightened.
“My wedding ring. My purse. My phone.” I swallowed. “But I had another phone. An old one. It was in the pocket of my coat when his men dragged me outside.”
Elias's eyes narrowed. “What was on it?”
“Nothing important. I used it to record voice messages for myself. Nathan hated me keeping anything private.”
That final sentence seemed to hold his attention.
Before he could question me, a voice crackled through the intercom.
“Mr. Vance, this is Detective Robert Hale with the NYPD. We have a report of an abducted woman and two newborns. Open the door.”
Elias didn't move.
“Run the badge number,” he told his security chief through his earpiece.
A moment passed.
Then another.
His chief answered.
“Boss, there's no detective registered under that number.”
Elias smiled without warmth.
The sound made my blood turn cold.
He pressed the intercom button.
“Who sent you?”
Silence.
Then a man's voice answered, different from the first.
“Mr. Vance, this is a personal matter. Give us Ava Miller and her children, and nobody needs to get hurt.”
My throat closed.
Nathan's men.
They had found me.
Elias took the weapon from beneath his jacket and handed it to the guard who had appeared silently in the hallway.
“Get the children,” he said. “Use the private elevator. Take them to the lower residence.”
The guard nodded and disappeared.
I tried to stand, but weakness sent me against the arm of the sofa.
“I can explain everything,” I whispered. “Please, don't let them take my babies.”
Elias caught my elbow before I fell.
“Listen to me. Nobody takes those girls from this building.”
The door shuddered beneath a heavy impact.
Someone was trying to force it.
Elias guided me behind the marble partition beside the living room. “Stay low. Whatever happens, don't come out until you hear my voice.”
Then he stepped into the open.
The lock exploded.
Men in dark tactical clothing surged through the doorway. Elias's guards met them in a burst of shouting, crashing furniture, and gunfire that shook the windows.
I pressed both hands over my mouth.
Then I heard a familiar voice.
“Vance! This isn't your fight!”
Nathan.
My husband had come himself.
“You have no idea what you've involved yourself in,” Nathan shouted. “Give me my wife, and I'll forget you ever touched my property.”
My property.
Even now, he couldn't call me a person.
Elias emerged through the smoke-filled doorway, his gun lowered but ready.
“She isn't your property.”
Nathan laughed bitterly.
“You think you're saving an innocent woman? Ask her what she heard before I threw her out.”
My breath stopped.
Nathan knew about the phone.
Elias's eyes flicked toward my hiding place for half a second.
Nathan noticed.
His smile widened.
“Ask her about the shipment records, Vance. Ask her why my accountant disappeared three weeks ago. Then ask yourself why I need those children alive.”
The room went unnaturally quiet.
Elias raised his weapon.
Nathan stepped backward, still smiling.
“Because one of those girls isn't mine.”
Then the emergency lights went black.
In the darkness, I heard footsteps racing toward the nursery.
And someone whispered directly beside my ear.
May you like
“Ava, don't scream. I'm taking you to your daughters.”
But the voice wasn't Elias's.
Related Stories
