Chapter 8 - The First Real Threat
Alexander locked the house down in less than five minutes.
Gates closed.
Guards moved inside.
Emma was carried to an interior nursery with no exterior windows.
Grace hated every second of it.
"She's a baby, Alex. I don't want her growing up inside a fortress."
"Tonight, I want walls."
He showed the threat to police.
A detective named Rachel Moreno arrived with two officers and immediately asked the question Grace could barely tolerate.
"Who benefits if this adoption collapses?"
Dana answered first. "Possibly whoever falsified the hospital records. Possibly whoever removed Emma from her mother."
"Or the biological father," Moreno said.
Jenna looked down.
Grace noticed.
"You know who he is."
Jenna's face closed.
"Jenna," Dana said gently. "This matters now."
"His name is Lucas Reed."
Alexander frowned. "Reed Development?"
Jenna gave a bitter laugh. "His family owns it. Lucas was twenty-five. I worked in the accounting department. We dated in secret because his father didn't want him with an employee."
"Did Lucas know you were pregnant?"
"Yes."
"Did his family?"
Jenna looked at her hands.
"His father did."
The room shifted.
Everyone knew Malcolm Reed.
Hotels. Construction. Luxury apartments. Private hospitals.
Including a significant ownership stake in Saint Matthew's medical network.
Alexander swore under his breath.
Jenna continued. "Malcolm offered me money to leave the state. I refused. Lucas promised he would stand up to him. Then, two weeks before Emma was born, Lucas disappeared. His phone was shut off. His apartment was empty."
"Did you report him missing?" Moreno asked.
"His father said Lucas had gone to Europe and wanted nothing to do with me."
"And you believed him?"
"Not completely. But I was pregnant, broke, and alone. I had no proof."
Moreno wrote the name down.
Grace stared at Jenna.
"Do you think Malcolm Reed took Emma?"
"I think Malcolm Reed would do anything to protect his family's name."
Alexander's expression hardened.
"He and I have been bidding against each other for the old riverfront district for six months."
Dana looked up sharply. "Then don't contact him. If this becomes a business war, we lose focus."
"This is not business."
"Then prove it by letting the police work."
A cry sounded from the hall.
Grace stood immediately.
Emma's nanny appeared at the door, pale.
"Mrs. Whitmore, you need to see this."
She held out Emma's diaper bag.
Inside the side pocket was a small silver digital recorder.
No one in the house had put it there.
Detective Moreno pressed play.
Static crackled.
May you like
Then a man's voice whispered:
"The blind baby was never supposed to survive the transfer."
