Chapter 5 - The Child They Were Hunting
The baby did not come that night.
Doctors stopped Lena's premature labor and ordered strict monitoring.
Adrian did not leave the hospital.
Not for meetings.
Not for phone calls.
Not even when Victor reminded him that three major operations required his attention.
“Handle them.”
“You haven't slept.”
“Handle that too.”
Victor stared at him.
“I can't sleep for you.”
“Then you've finally discovered your limitations.”
From the bed, Lena almost smiled.
Adrian noticed.
It was the first smile she had given him since the restaurant.
For two days they existed inside an uneasy peace.
Then the laboratory report on Adrian's wine arrived.
The substance wasn't poison.
It was a sedative.
Someone wanted Adrian unconscious.
Not dead.
That frightened Victor more.
“They wanted access,” he said.
“To what?” Lena asked.
Adrian looked at her stomach.
The answer became obvious.
To her.
Or to the baby.
Adrian ordered DNA testing on every piece of evidence connected to Lena's mother.
The breakthrough came from the old photographs.
One image showed Grace Park standing beside Adrian's father, Alexander Voss.
Not romantically.
Professionally.
Grace had been Alexander's forensic accountant.
She had discovered that someone inside the Voss organization was laundering money through humanitarian shipping routes and selling information to rival groups.
Alexander planned to expose the traitor.
He died before he could.
Grace vanished the same night.
“But what does any of that have to do with me?” Lena asked.
Victor placed an old photograph on the table.
Grace held nine-year-old Lena at a county fair.
Around Lena's neck hung a silver pendant.
Lena touched her throat instinctively.
“I remember that.”
“Where is it?”
“I don't know. Child services packed my belongings after Mom disappeared.”
Adrian looked toward Victor.
“Find it.”
It took forty-eight hours.
A sealed box from Lena's childhood had been sitting in a county storage facility for seventeen years.
Inside was the pendant.
Victor brought it to the hospital.
Lena held it with trembling fingers.
“My mother gave me this the week before she disappeared.”
Adrian examined the back.
A tiny seam ran around its edge.
Victor used a precision tool.
The pendant opened.
Inside was a micro-storage device.
Seventeen years old.
Protected by encryption far beyond what anyone expected from that era.
Lena stared at it.
“That’s what they wanted.”
Adrian nodded.
“Not something inside your body. Something your mother hid with you.”
Marcus had misunderstood what his kidnappers said.
Adrian's cybersecurity team spent hours breaking the encryption.
At 2:13 a.m., the first file opened.
Financial records.
Names.
Dates.
Payments.
Police officers.
Judges.
Businessmen.
And members of Adrian's own organization.
One name appeared repeatedly.
Richard Voss.
Adrian's uncle.
The man who had raised him after his father's death.
Adrian stared at the screen.
Victor whispered, “Jesus.”
Lena looked at Adrian.
“You trusted him.”
“With everything.”
The betrayal was worse than losing money.
Richard had taught Adrian how to fight.
How to run the company.
How to survive.
He had stood beside Adrian at Alexander's funeral and promised to find the killer.
All while apparently hiding his own connection to Alexander's death.
Then another file opened.
A video.
Grace Park appeared on screen.
Younger.
Terrified.
Alive.
Lena covered her mouth.
“If Lena ever sees this,” Grace said, “I'm sorry.”
Tears filled Lena's eyes.
Adrian reached for her hand.
Grace continued.
“Alexander discovered Richard's network. Richard knows we have evidence. Alexander wants me to take Lena and disappear. If something happens to us, the records in this drive can prove everything.”
The video distorted.
Then Grace said something that changed Adrian's life.
“Alexander believes Richard arranged the attack that killed Adrian's mother too.”
Adrian's hand went rigid around Lena's.
The screen went black.
Nobody spoke.
Then the hospital lights went out.
Emergency lights flashed red.
Victor reached for his weapon.
Adrian moved beside Lena's bed.
“Stay behind me.”
A scream echoed from the hallway.
Then gunshots.
Lena's monitor began beeping faster.
Victor checked the door.
“They found us.”
Adrian pulled Lena from the bed.
Another contraction hit her.
She gasped.
“No.”
“Not now.”
“I don't think she cares.”
Blood appeared on the sheet.
Adrian's face changed.
“Victor.”
Victor looked once and understood.
They couldn't run.
Not anymore.
May you like
Their daughter was coming.
And someone with a gun was walking down the hallway toward them.
