Chapter 12 - Margaret Disappears

I looked at the chair beside my bed.

It was empty.

Margaret had gone downstairs ten minutes earlier for coffee.

My heart slammed against my ribs.

"Where is she?"

The man on the phone laughed softly.

"You have until sunset to tell your lawyer to withdraw the board complaint."

"Put Margaret on."

"Sunset."

The line went dead.

Marcus was already moving.

"Call hospital security. Lock the floor."

Miriam reached for her phone. "I'm calling police."

"Wait," Marcus said.

I glared at him.

"Do not tell me to wait."

"I'm not. I'm telling you the call may be a bluff. Margaret's sister's phone could have been stolen. We verify first."

Then the door opened.

Margaret walked in carrying two coffees and a plastic bag of muffins.

She stopped when she saw our faces.

"Who died?"

I burst into tears.

Not elegant tears. Not movie tears. I sobbed so hard my monitor alarmed.

Margaret dropped the coffee and rushed to me.

"I'm here. I'm here."

Someone had stolen her sister's phone from an unlocked locker at the hospital.

The threat was real, even if the kidnapping was not.

Police took the report. Marcus gave them everything he knew about Harrow Protection. Miriam forwarded the call details and my father's notes to a former federal prosecutor she trusted.

Roman texted once during all of it.

I heard someone upset you. This is exactly why you need my security.

I stared at the message until nausea rose in my throat.

"He knows," I said.

Marcus did not answer.

"He knows before the police do."

Miriam's voice was careful. "That does not prove he ordered it."

"No. But it tells me what world he built around us."

I blocked Roman's number.

At 5:42 p.m., as sunset turned the windows blue, Dr. Ruiz checked me again.

"Baby's heart rate looks good. You're stable. I want you here overnight."

A nurse stepped in with another envelope.

"This was left at reception for you. No courier name."

Inside was a single photograph.

It showed me leaving my father's office in Margaret's coat.

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On the back, someone had written:

YOUR FATHER TRIED TO LEAVE TOO.