Chapter 4 - The Camera Behind the Mirror
Ethan answered.
No voice came.
Only a baby's cry.
“Noah?”
Another cry followed.
Jack.
Ethan gripped the phone.
“Brooke!”
A distorted voice answered.
“Bring Claire's files.”
The call ended.
Hannah looked ready to collapse.
Ethan caught her shoulders.
“We'll get them back.”
“How?”
“We stop reacting and start thinking.”
Caleb checked the security system.
Someone had looped eleven minutes of footage.
Professional work.
Brooke couldn't have done it alone.
Ethan examined the room.
Then he noticed the antique mirror opposite his bed.
It had been moved.
Behind it was a tiny camera.
Not Ethan's.
Caleb removed its memory card.
The recordings went back months.
Someone had been watching Ethan's bedroom.
Brooke.
Claire.
The babies.
Everything.
But the final recording showed the kidnapping.
Brooke entered the nursery.
A man followed.
His face remained outside camera range.
Hannah tried to stop them.
The man threatened her from behind.
Brooke took Noah.
The stranger took Jack.
Before leaving, he accidentally faced the mirror.
Ethan froze the frame.
Caleb whispered, “No.”
Ethan knew him.
Daniel Hale.
Ethan's uncle.
The man who had paid Ethan's college tuition after his father disappeared.
The man Ethan had appointed to Hale Harbor's board.
Family.
Claire had been right.
Ethan called Daniel.
No answer.
Then he called Brooke.
She answered immediately.
“Where are my sons?”
“Safe.”
“If you've hurt them—”
“I haven't.”
“Let me hear them.”
Brooke hesitated.
Then Noah cried.
Ethan closed his eyes.
“Claire's files,” Brooke said. “Tonight.”
“Where?”
“You'll receive instructions.”
“You prepared those placement papers before my accident.”
Silence.
Brooke finally whispered, “So you were awake.”
“Yes.”
Her voice changed.
“You staged it.”
“Yes.”
A strange laugh escaped her.
“You never trusted me.”
“I trusted you enough to almost marry you.”
“And now?”
“Now I know you.”
Brooke hung up.
Caleb located Daniel's vehicle through a Hale Harbor fleet tracker.
It was moving south.
Ethan, Hannah, and Caleb followed.
The signal ended at an abandoned Hale Harbor development outside Denver.
Ethan entered alone.
A bassinet stood beneath a construction light.
Noah slept inside.
Ethan ran to him.
Alive.
Unhurt.
But Jack wasn't there.
A phone rested beside Noah.
It rang.
Ethan answered.
Daniel's voice said, “One child for the files.”
“You're insane.”
“No. I'm practical.”
“You betrayed Claire.”
“I protected what you built.”
“By threatening my children's mother?”
“Claire was never supposed to die.”
Ethan stopped.
“What?”
“The hemorrhage wasn't part of anything.”
“Part of what?”
Daniel didn't answer.
“Where's Jack?”
“Bring me the original drive.”
“Why?”
“Because Claire recorded something that can destroy more than Brooke.”
“Who?”
A sound came behind Ethan.
Hannah entered.
She was staring at the far wall.
Someone had painted a date there.
March 17.
317 again.
Hannah whispered, “That isn't an address.”
Ethan looked at her.
“What?”
“It's a date.”
She pointed toward Noah's medical bracelet.
“Claire circled March seventeenth on her calendar every year.”
“Why?”
Hannah's face drained of color.
“Because that was the day our mother disappeared.”
Then the construction elevator behind them began descending.
May you like
Someone was coming down.
And the person inside was holding Jack.
