Chapter 16 - The Man Grandma Trusted
Thomas Wade had attended Grandpa’s funeral.
He sent Grandma flowers every Christmas.
He knew when she traveled, when she changed investments, and which grandchildren had trusts.
And according to Marsha, he had shown Linda exactly how to structure the transfers so internal alerts would not trigger too early.
Grandma looked older overnight.
“I trusted him with everything.”
I sat beside her. “That’s what people like this use.”
Investigators found that Thomas had taken kickbacks from Dad’s company and had quietly overridden verification flags on my account. He also helped create Sophie’s fraudulent account using internal access.
Thomas was arrested at the bank.
Dad surrendered the next morning.
Mom’s attorney began negotiating.
Ryan was still missing.
Then Natalie called.
“He contacted me.”
“From where?”
“I don’t know. A new number.”
“What did he want?”
“He wants money and a car.”
Daniel leaned toward the phone. “Did he threaten you?”
“He said if I don’t help, he’ll release messages that make it look like I planned everything with him.”
“Do you have the text?”
“Yes.”
Police arranged for Natalie to continue the conversation under supervision.
Ryan demanded $25,000 cash and told her to meet him in a grocery-store parking lot after dark.
I listened from a secure room while officers ran the operation.
At 8:42 p.m., Natalie parked under a broken light.
A man in a baseball cap approached.
Not Ryan.
He took the bag and left.
Police followed him.
He drove seventeen miles to an abandoned storage facility.
Ryan was not there either.
Inside one storage unit, officers found boxes of documents, two laptops, cash, and a second fake passport.
This one was for Ryan.
But the biggest discovery was a stack of legal papers already prepared for filing.
A new identity.
A lease in another state.
School research for a town in Arizona.
And a handwritten note.
E + baby transferred before Friday.
Transferred.
Not kidnapped.
Transferred.
Like Sophie and I were assets on a spreadsheet.
Then Daniel’s phone rang.
He answered, listened, and looked straight at me.
“They found Ryan.”
I stood.
May you like
Daniel’s face remained grim.
“He’s at your parents’ house.”
