Chapter 14 - The Next Accident
Ortiz found the first sign in my car.
A cut in the brake sensor wire.
Not enough to stop the brakes.
Enough to disable the warning system.
Then the mechanic found scoring on the main line.
Fresh.
Someone had started preparing the same kind of “accident.”
I stopped driving immediately.
The house went into lockdown.
Police patrol outside.
No staff except Maria.
No visitors.
That night, the power went out.
Every light in the mansion died.
Emma screamed upstairs.
I ran.
The backup generator should have started automatically.
It did not.
I heard glass break downstairs.
Maria shouted, “Adrian!”
I reached Emma’s room.
She was gone.
The window was open.
For one second, I could not breathe.
Then I heard her voice from the hallway.
“Daddy!”
She was carrying Noah’s blanket but not Noah.
“Where’s your brother?”
“Maria took him!”
A crash came from the nursery.
I ran in.
Maria was on the floor fighting a masked man who had one hand on Noah’s bassinet.
I tackled him.
We hit the wall.
He swung.
I blocked, drove him down, and pinned him until police rushed in through the side door.
The mask came off.
The man was the guard from our front gate.
The same guard who had ignored my calls the night Maria disappeared.
Ortiz searched him.
He had zip ties.
A syringe.
And a printed custody order claiming Emma and Noah were being removed from my care.
Fake.
But good enough to confuse someone for a few minutes.
A few minutes was all they needed.
The guard demanded a lawyer.
Then his phone lit up.
One incoming message.
Unknown number.
DID YOU GET THE GIRL?
Ortiz looked at me.
“This isn’t over.”
She traced the message.
Burner phone.
Last signal pinged near Hartley Neurological Center.
Police moved immediately.
By the time they arrived, Hartley was gone.
His office was empty.
Files shredded.
Computer drives removed.
But in the basement, they found a locked cabinet.
Inside were sedatives.
Blank prescription pads.
And medical charts with my name on them.
One chart was dated for next week.
Under PROCEDURE, someone had typed:
EXTENDED OBSERVATION FOLLOWING ACUTE PSYCHIATRIC EPISODE.
I stared at the page.
They were not going to kill me.
May you like
Not yet.
They were going to make me disappear legally.
