Chapter 4 - The Boy Who Was TakenEverything after that happened in seconds.
Daniel shouted orders.
Security locked down the estate.
Doors slammed.
Cars moved.
Guards ran through the halls.
But Ethan was gone.
His room was empty.
The window was open.
His stuffed bear remained on the bed.
I screamed his name until my throat hurt.
“Ethan!”
Nothing.
Daniel grabbed my shoulders.
“Sarah, listen to me.”
“My son!”
“I'll get him.”
“You don't know where he is!”
“I have an idea.”
“What idea?”
He showed me his phone.
A video had arrived.
Ethan sat inside a dark room.
His hands weren't tied.
But someone stood behind him.
A woman.
The camera moved closer.
She looked into the lens.
It was the woman from the highway SUV.
“Hello, Sarah.”
I felt my blood freeze.
“Who are you?”
The woman smiled.
“Ask Daniel.”
I turned toward him.
He looked like he'd seen a ghost.
“You know her.”
“Yes.”
“Who is she?”
Daniel swallowed.
“Her name is Eleanor Bennett.”
My knees almost buckled.
“Bennett?”
“She's my father's former partner.”
“No.”
He nodded.
“And she's your aunt.”
I stared at him.
“My aunt?”
“Your mother's sister.”
I couldn't breathe.
The woman on the screen leaned toward Ethan.
“You've spent your whole life believing your mother abandoned you.”
I stepped toward the phone.
“What do you want?”
“Your daughter.”
My stomach dropped.
“No.”
“Bring Ava to Saint Mary's.”
Daniel immediately grabbed the phone.
“You're not getting her.”
Eleanor laughed.
“You still don't understand.”
She leaned closer.
“Sarah was never the one I wanted.”
The screen went black.
Ava began crying.
I pulled her close.
Daniel looked at me.
“We're not taking her there.”
“Then how do we get Ethan back?”
“I have people.”
“People didn't protect him.”
He went silent.
For the first time, I saw something break inside him.
Fear.
Not for himself.
For me.
That night, we drove toward the ruins of Saint Mary's.
Daniel insisted on coming.
Two security vehicles followed.
The old hospital sat beyond a chain-link fence.
Burned walls.
Broken windows.
Overgrown weeds.
Nothing else.
Then we saw the lights.
Inside.
“Someone is here,” Daniel said.
We entered.
The smell of smoke still lingered in the walls after all these years.
Deep inside, we found a room.
Ethan was there.
Alive.
Sitting in a chair.
My heart exploded with relief.
I ran toward him.
“Mom!”
But Daniel stopped me.
“Don't.”
We looked closer.
A wire was attached to the chair.
A bomb.
I stared at him.
“How much time?”
He looked at the timer.
“Thirty seconds.”
A speaker crackled.
Eleanor's voice filled the room.
“Congratulations.”
Daniel looked up.
“You wanted Sarah.”
“No.”
Silence.
“I wanted both of you.”
The timer reached twenty seconds.
Daniel searched the room.
“Where's the trigger?”
Ethan started crying.
“Mom!”
I ran forward.
Daniel grabbed me.
“No!”
The timer reached ten.
Eight.
Seven.
Eleanor laughed through the speaker.
Then suddenly...
The timer stopped.
At one second.
Daniel looked stunned.
A man stepped from the shadows.
He held a remote.
“You're late.”
Daniel stared at him.
I recognized him.
The security guard from the estate.
He smiled.
May you like
Then raised the gun.
“Hello, Daniel.”
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