Chapter 9 - The Ally I Never ExpectedThe police arrested Caldwell.
But my mother disappeared.
So did Frederick.
For six hours, I felt as though I was drowning.
Then the nurse called.
Her name was Sarah.
She worked with a child protection investigator and had secretly agreed to help us track Frederick.
She had recognized that my mother was planning something dangerous after noticing inconsistencies in the medical reports.
“My mother paid for some of those reports,” Sarah said.
“She wanted Frederick declared at risk.”
I stared at her.
“Where is my son?”
Sarah hesitated.
“We have a lead.”
She gave us an address.
A rural property outside Murfreesboro.
We arrived with the police.
A barn stood behind the house.
Inside, we found nothing.
Then we heard crying.
Behind a false wall.
Frederick.
Alive.
Amy collapsed to her knees when she saw him.
She hugged him so tightly that the officers had to reassure her he was safe.
Frederick grabbed her hair.
He cried.
So did she.
I stood there unable to move.
Then an officer shouted.
“We found something.”
Inside the hidden room was a box.
Documents.
Cash.
Passports.
Three burner phones.
And a photograph of my mother with Caldwell.
But there was another photograph.
My father.
My mother.
And a third man.
I looked closer.
It was Caldwell.
They had known each other before I was born.
My father had not accidentally crossed paths with them.
He had uncovered their operation.
The officer found another document.
A handwritten journal.
My father’s journal.
The final entry was dated three days before his death.
I read it.
I know who is behind this.
The man is called Caldwell.
He wants the company.
My wife says she is protecting us.
I no longer believe her.
My heart stopped.
My mother had betrayed my father long before she betrayed me.
The next page was torn out.
But the final line remained.
If anything happens to me, the evidence is hidden beneath the place where Connor first learned to build.
I stared at the words.
“Construction site,” I whispered.
Mason looked at me.
“You worked at your father’s old site.”
I nodded.
A childhood memory flashed.
My father had taken me to an abandoned warehouse when I was ten.
He showed me how to read blueprints.
He called it “the place where everything starts.”
We went there that night.
The building had been abandoned for decades.
Inside, beneath a concrete stairwell, we found an old metal box.
It required a key.
I didn’t have one.
Then Mason remembered something.
My father’s old keychain.
A tiny brass key was attached to the ring.
It fit.
The box opened.
Inside was a USB drive.
A photograph.
And a letter.
The letter was addressed to me.
I opened it.
Connor,
If you ever find this, it means your mother has betrayed me.
I nearly stopped reading.
The next line made my blood run cold.
And she will eventually betray you too.
I looked at Amy.
She stood beside me.
The letter continued.
There is one person you must never trust.
Not your mother.
Not Caldwell.
Not even the man who claims to be your ally.
The sentence ended there.
A name had been deliberately covered in ink.
Only the first letter remained.
“M.”
I looked at Mason.
May you like
His face went pale.
Because his name began with M.
