Chapter 2 - The Man in Black Shoes
For the first time in my life, I was afraid to learn the truth.
Grace clutched the photograph against her chest while I remained beneath the bed, struggling to understand why another child carried my eyes. I had never been unfaithful to her. Before our marriage, there had been women, but none had ever told me she was pregnant.
Grace whispered to the photograph, “I’ll bring you home, Noah. I promise.”
Noah.
I waited until she left the bedroom. Then I emerged, replaced everything exactly as it had been, and entered the hidden security room behind my office.
Someone had erased every recording between one and three each afternoon.
Only four people possessed that authority: me, Adrian, my chief of security Marcus Vale, and my younger brother, Lucas.
I called Lucas first.
“Where are you?”
“At the warehouse.”
“Stay there.”
A pause. “What happened?”
“Nothing.”
He understood the warning in my voice. “I’ll be here.”
Next, I contacted Victor Shaw, a retired intelligence officer whose loyalty belonged to no organization. He owed Grace his life after she arranged surgery for his daughter.
I sent him the boy’s photograph.
“Find him,” I said. “Tell no one.”
Victor replied five minutes later.
“I recognize the background. St. Catherine’s Home outside Evanston. It closed three years ago.”
“Find out who owned it.”
By sunset, he had an answer.
The building belonged to a shell company controlled by Adrian Cole.
I wanted to confront Adrian immediately, but rage was a luxury. Grace and the child were alive because Adrian believed I knew nothing.
That evening, I behaved as usual. Grace served dinner and apologized for being distracted. I pretended not to see the fear behind her smile.
“Do you ever regret marrying me?” I asked.
Her fork stopped.
“Never.”
“Even with everything my name brings?”
She reached across the table. “Your name isn’t what I married.”
“Then what did you marry?”
“The man who sat beside a sick little girl for four hours because she was afraid to sleep.” Tears filled her eyes. “The man who pretends he doesn’t have a heart because too many people would try to use it.”
I covered her hand with mine.
“You can tell me anything.”
For one second, I thought she would.
Then her phone vibrated.
She withdrew her hand. “I know.”
At eleven, Grace entered my office wearing a black coat over her burgundy dress.
“I’m going to Mrs. Turner’s. She isn’t feeling well.”
I nodded without looking away from my papers. “Take two guards.”
“She asked for privacy.”
“Then take one.”
“Elias—”
“Take Daniel.”
Daniel was the youngest guard on my team and one of the few men Adrian rarely used. Grace reluctantly agreed.
After she left, I followed through the service tunnel. Victor waited in an unmarked car.
“Adrian has six men at Harrison Tower,” he reported. “Marcus Vale is with him.”
So my chief of security was the second traitor.
“And the child?”
“Not there. We located a transport van connected to St. Catherine’s. It’s parked at an abandoned riverside clinic.”
“Send your best people.”
“They’re already moving.”
We reached Harrison Tower at eleven forty-seven. The building had once housed my father’s shipping company. It now stood empty, awaiting renovation. Adrian had chosen it because he knew the surveillance system and underground exits.
Grace entered alone carrying a leather case.
Through a hidden audio transmitter Daniel had placed beneath her collar, I heard Adrian greet her.
“Where’s Elias?”
“At home.”
“The ledger?”
“In the case.”
“Open it.”
“I want proof Noah is alive.”
A video played. A child sat inside a locked room holding that day’s newspaper.
Grace began crying.
“Now open the case,” Adrian ordered.
She did.
Silence followed.
“What is this?”
“My husband’s old appointment books.”
Adrian struck the table.
“You think this is a game?”
“I never had the ledger.”
“You had access to his vault.”
“And I gave you copies of his schedules because you threatened a child. But I won’t hand you the names of people who could destroy him.”
Adrian grabbed her arm.
That was when I entered.
“Take your hand off my wife.”
Every person in the room froze.
Adrian turned slowly. Marcus reached for his weapon, but Victor’s laser sight appeared on his chest.
Grace stared at me. All color left her face.
“Elias…”
I walked toward Adrian. “You told her I trusted you.”
He released her.
“You weren’t supposed to be here.”
“That seems to be tonight’s recurring problem.”
Marcus tried to run. Daniel blocked the exit and disarmed him.
Adrian forced a smile. “You don’t understand what she’s hiding.”
“I understand enough.”
“No, you don’t.” He pointed at Grace. “Ask your wife why she has spent six months protecting the son you abandoned.”
Grace looked at me desperately. “He isn’t your son.”
Adrian’s expression changed.
I turned to her. “Then who is he?”
Before she could answer, an explosion shook the tower.
The lights died.
Gunfire erupted downstairs.
Adrian disappeared into the darkness.
I pulled Grace behind a concrete pillar as emergency lights flickered red. Marcus broke free and ran toward the stairwell. Victor fired once, striking the wall beside him, but Marcus vanished below.
My phone rang.
Victor’s rescue team.
“We reached the clinic,” the agent said. “The boy is gone.”
A new message appeared on Grace’s phone.
It contained a photograph of Noah sitting in the back of a moving car.
May you like
Beneath it were six words:
BRING ELIAS, OR BURY HIS SON.
