Chapter 6 - The Eagle
My mother had returned from the dead.
I barely cared.
Daniel had my children.
Every other revelation became background noise.
"Let me speak to Noah."
Daniel laughed softly through my father's phone.
"You don't make demands right now."
"Let me hear my children."
A pause.
Then Noah's voice.
"Mom?"
My knees weakened.
"Baby, I'm here."
"Fiona's scared."
"I know. Listen to me. You're doing great."
"Where are you?"
"Coming home."
Daniel took the phone.
"Bring the medallion."
"You hurt them and I'll—"
"I'm their father."
"That hasn't stopped you from hurting them today."
His silence told me I'd landed the blow.
Then he said:
"Three hours."
The call ended.
Samuel immediately began coordinating with law enforcement.
Miriam contacted the police in our town.
Thomas called Vale security.
I stood beside the conference table, staring at nothing.
Mom came near.
"Evelyn."
"Don't."
"We need to think."
"I am thinking."
"You cannot just give Daniel the ledger."
"I don't care about the ledger."
"You will when Victor uses it to erase evidence."
I turned.
"My children are four and eight years old."
"I know."
"No, you don't."
She flinched.
"You gave up the right to tell me what protecting a child requires fourteen years ago."
That was cruel.
I knew it.
I didn't take it back.
Thomas said quietly, "The medallion may not contain the ledger."
I looked at him.
"What?"
"Arthur gave it to Evelyn before Eleanor supposedly died. If it were the actual storage device, Victor could have stolen it years ago."
Mom nodded slowly.
"It's a key."
"To what?"
She shook her head.
"I don't know."
Samuel approached.
"Police found Robert."
"Where?"
"At the house. Injured, conscious."
I closed my eyes.
"Daniel hit him?"
"Apparently."
My father was sixty-eight.
Daniel was thirty-seven.
Rage steadied me.
"Flight?"
"We can have the company jet ready in twenty minutes."
"I don't want the company jet."
"It saves an hour."
"Then I want the company jet."
For once wealth had a use I could respect.
We reached home before sunset.
Police vehicles filled Maplewood Lane.
Dad sat inside an ambulance with a bandage above his eyebrow.
I hugged him.
Then punched his shoulder.
Not hard.
"That's for lying to me."
He cried.
"I deserve worse."
"Later."
"Your mother?"
"Alive."
He shut his eyes.
"Thank God."
"You don't get to say that yet."
He nodded.
Fair.
Police believed Daniel had driven away with the children in an SUV registered to one of his clients.
No Amber Alert had been issued immediately because he was their legal father, but the circumstances and alleged assault accelerated everything once investigators understood the situation.
I entered the house with officers.
The medal display was open.
The eagle medallion was gone.
I stared.
"He already took it."
Samuel frowned.
"Then why call you?"
A note lay in the case.
COME ALONE. OLD HOUSE. 7PM.
I recognized the phrase.
Old house.
My mother did too.
"The farmhouse."
I looked at her.
"What farmhouse?"
"Arthur's first property. Outside Briar Glen."
Dad stood behind us.
"It burned years ago."
Mom shook her head.
"The main house did. The stone cellar remained."
Police immediately rejected the idea of me going alone.
So did Samuel.
I agreed.
"I'll appear alone."
Different thing.
By 6:42 p.m., tactical officers were positioned beyond the property.
I drove the final half mile myself.
No visible weapon.
No phone.
No body armor outside my uniform blouse.
I stepped from the car.
The farmhouse ruins sat among overgrown fields.
Daniel emerged from behind the remaining stone wall.
Alone.
"Where are the kids?"
"Safe."
"Show me."
He held up his phone.
Live video.
Noah and Fiona sat together in a room.
Unhurt.
Terrified.
"Where?"
"Medallion."
"You already stole it."
His face tightened.
"No."
"What?"
"Someone beat me to it."
My thoughts raced.
"You didn't take it?"
"I went to the house. It was gone."
Then who had opened the display?
Dad?
Mom?
Victor?
Daniel moved closer.
"Arthur moved everything before he died."
"You're working with Victor."
"I was."
"Was?"
He laughed bitterly.
"You think Victor cares about me? He promised me ten million if I got access to your trust assets. Then your inheritance became public inside the estate process, and suddenly I was disposable."
"So you decided to steal from everyone."
"I decided to survive."
"You kidnapped our children."
His face flashed.
"I took my children."
"You assaulted my father."
"He tried to stop me."
"Yes. That's what decent men do."
Daniel stared at me.
For half a second, I saw the man I once loved.
Then it vanished.
"Evelyn, Victor has them."
My heart stopped.
"What?"
"The video isn't from me."
He turned the phone.
A second man appeared behind the children.
Silver hair.
Victor Dane.
My biological father.
He looked directly into the camera.
"Hello, Evelyn."
Daniel whispered:
"He took them from me twenty minutes ago."
Victor smiled on the screen.
"Bring Eleanor to Vale Tower."
I stared.
Then he added:
"And bring the real eagle."
The screen went dark.
Daniel looked at me.
"You still don't understand."
"Understand what?"
"The medal at your house was a copy."
My stomach tightened.
"Where is the real one?"
Daniel looked at the insignia pinned above my left breast.
"The one your mother gave you when you became a major."
I looked down.
An eagle-shaped pin.
I had worn it for three years.
My mother's voice came faintly through the concealed earpiece police had insisted I use.
"Evelyn, don't touch it."
Too late.
Daniel reached for the pin.
A red light flashed beneath the metal.
Then my earpiece went dead.
May you like
And a man's voice came from directly behind me.
"Found it."
