Chapter 2 - THE MAN AT THE GATE
Deputy Cole Mercer saw Marcus through the window.
“Do you know him?”
“That is the children’s father.”
Nathan’s answer came without hesitation.
“He is also the man Lily says attacked her mother.”
Mercer called for backup.
The storm had blocked several roads, and the nearest unit was more than twenty minutes away.
Marcus stood outside the gate as if the cold did not affect him.
He wore a dark coat and no hat.
Blood marked one cuff of his shirt.
He pressed the intercom button.
Nathan’s phone rang through the estate security system.
He answered without opening the line to the house speakers.
“Nathan.”
Marcus’s voice sounded calm.
“My daughter wandered away.”
“She carried two infants through a blizzard.”
“She panicked.”
“Where is Sarah?”
A pause followed.
“At home.”
“Then why is there blood on your sleeve?”
Marcus looked down at his cuff.
His smile disappeared.
“Open the gate.”
“No.”
“You are interfering with a father’s legal custody.”
“I am protecting three children from a violent man.”
“You know nothing about my family.”
“I know Lily walked barefoot through snow rather than stay with you.”
Marcus stepped closer to the intercom camera.
“Sarah is sick.”
The lie sounded practiced.
“She has been sick for years.”
Nathan remembered the messages he had received after Sarah vanished.
She needed distance.
She was undergoing treatment.
She blamed Nathan for worsening her condition.
Marcus had always presented himself as the patient husband caring for an unstable woman.
“She wrote that you forged the letters,” Nathan said.
For the first time, Marcus showed fear.
His eyes moved toward the house.
“What did she give you?”
“Enough.”
Marcus disconnected the call.
He returned to his truck.
The engine roared.
Instead of driving away, he reversed and accelerated toward the iron gate.
“Get down,” Mercer shouted.
The truck struck the gate with a violent metallic crash.
The first impact bent the center bars.
The second broke one hinge loose from the stone column.
The paramedics were still preparing the children for transport.
Nathan pushed Lily’s stretcher behind a marble wall.
Rosa moved the infant carriers beside her.
Marcus backed up for a third attempt.
Deputy Mercer drew his weapon.
“If he breaches the gate, everyone moves to the safe room.”
Nathan looked at the twins.
Owen had begun crying.
Ethan remained frighteningly silent.
The truck accelerated again.
Before it reached the gate, red lights appeared through the storm.
A county rescue vehicle blocked the driveway behind Marcus.
Two deputies emerged with weapons raised.
Marcus turned sharply, crashed through a snowbank, and disappeared between the trees.
Mercer swore under his breath.
“He knows these mountain roads.”
Nathan watched the darkness swallow the truck.
“He also knows where Sarah is.”
The paramedics carried Lily and the twins toward the ambulance.
Nathan climbed inside with them.
Before the doors closed, Mercer handed the bracelet back to him in an evidence bag.
“We’ll search the Carter house.”
Nathan looked at the hidden message.
“Search every room.”
Mercer nodded.
“We will.”
The ambulance began descending the mountain.
Ten minutes later, Mercer called.
The address connected to Marcus was empty.
The kitchen floor had been scrubbed.
Sarah was gone.
But inside the fireplace, deputies found the remains of a burned photograph.
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It showed Nathan standing beside Sarah on the day she married Marcus.
Someone had cut Marcus out of the picture.
