Chapter 12 - The Empty Crib
Leah did not remember screaming.
She remembered Nathan grabbing her shoulders.
She remembered punching him in the chest until Ruiz pulled her away.
“You did this!” she shouted.
Nathan looked destroyed. “I swear I didn’t.”
Ruiz canceled the arrest long enough to treat the kidnapping as an immediate child-abduction case. The safe house had one exterior camera.
The footage showed a woman in nursing scrubs entering with a badge.
Ruth opened the door.
The woman struck her with a stun gun.
Then a man carried Noah out.
Simone zoomed in on the woman’s face.
“Dr. Rusk.”
Leah’s obstetrician.
Nathan sat down hard.
“My mother paid for her medical school.”
Ruiz looked at him. “Anything else you forgot to mention?”
Nathan rubbed both hands over his face.
“There’s a private airfield outside Delaware County. Mom uses it for foundation trips.”
Leah stood. “They’re leaving.”
Simone checked flight data through a contact.
“One Carver Foundation jet filed for Toronto at 9:40 tonight.”
It was 8:58.
Ruiz called state police.
Leah grabbed Nathan’s keys.
Ruiz blocked her. “You’re not driving into an airfield.”
“That is my child.”
“And I’m trying to get him back alive.”
Nathan spoke quietly. “There’s another place.”
Everyone turned.
“Dad built a private records annex under the old maternity pavilion when the foundation funded the renovation. Mom used to keep sensitive documents there.”
Simone said, “Briar Glen.”
Nathan nodded.
“Before a flight, she’d go there first. Always.”
Leah’s phone buzzed.
A video call.
Doreen.
Leah answered.
The screen showed Noah asleep in Doreen’s arms.
Leah’s knees almost failed.
“Give him back.”
Doreen smiled without warmth.
“He’s peaceful now.”
“You drugged him?”
“Don’t be dramatic.”
Behind Doreen, Leah saw white tile and an old blue hospital sign.
MATERNITY B - LOWER LEVEL.
May you like
Doreen leaned toward the camera.
“Come alone, Leah. Or the next time you see your son will be in another country.”
