Chapter 7 - THE SECOND ABDUCTION
Grace ran through Union Station without feeling the ground beneath her feet.
Jonah called the officers guarding Lily.
No one answered.
Nathan drove faster than Grace had ever seen him drive.
For fifteen minutes, no one spoke.
Grace called Lily’s name even though the child could not hear her.
When they reached the Holloway estate, the front gate stood open.
One police vehicle was empty.
The officer assigned to Lily lay unconscious near the garden.
She was alive.
The second officer had vanished.
Grace rushed inside.
The library was empty.
Lily’s white flower-girl dress had been left on the floor.
A small line of blood marked the collar.
Grace collapsed beside it.
Nathan picked up the dress.
His hands shook.
“I will find her.”
Grace looked at him.
“You have already failed her once.”
The words wounded him.
She did not apologize.
Jonah found a tablet on the library desk.
A video was waiting on the screen.
It showed Lily sitting inside a windowless room.
She wore ordinary clothes.
Her hands were not tied.
A masked figure stood behind her.
Lily looked directly into the camera.
“Mommy, they said you have to bring the files.”
Grace touched the screen.
“I’m here, baby.”
The masked figure placed a hand on Lily’s shoulder.
“Midnight.”
The voice was digitally altered.
“Bring everything Nurse Ruiz gave you to the old St. Augustine clinic.”
The video ended.
Nathan turned toward Jonah.
“We give them the files.”
Jonah shook his head.
“They will kill Grace and Lily.”
“We don’t have another choice.”
Grace stood.
“Yes, we do.”
She looked at Camila.
“The clinic had underground service tunnels.”
Camila nodded.
“One connected to the river.”
Grace remembered being taken through those tunnels during the fire.
Smoke had filled the corridors.
Aaron Pike had chased her.
Camila had opened a drainage gate and pushed Grace into the freezing river.
The world believed Grace died that night.
The tunnels had saved her once.
They would help her save Lily.
Jonah organized a tactical team.
Grace agreed to wear a tracking device.
Nathan insisted on going with her.
Jonah refused.
Grace surprised them both.
“He comes.”
Nathan looked at her.
“Why?”
“Because the person behind this expects us to turn against each other.”
Nathan’s face tightened.
“Maybe we already have.”
Grace gathered the files.
“I don’t trust you.”
“I know.”
“But Lily loves you.”
Nathan lowered his eyes.
“That is more than I deserve.”
At eleven thirty, Grace and Nathan approached the abandoned clinic.
The building had been damaged by fire, but most of its concrete structure remained.
Broken windows stared across the river like empty eyes.
Grace entered through the main doors carrying the suitcase.
Nathan followed several steps behind.
They reached the old treatment wing.
Lights suddenly turned on.
Lily sat in the center of the hallway.
Grace ran toward her.
“Mommy.”
Before Grace reached the child, metal doors slammed down between them.
Nathan was trapped on the opposite side.
Grace found herself alone with Lily.
A woman stepped from a nearby room.
She removed her mask.
Grace stared in disbelief.
It was Beatrice Holloway.
May you like
Nathan’s mother smiled.
“I always knew you would come back and ruin everything.”
