Chapter 13 - The Child Everyone Wanted
Gabriel ran upstairs.
Beatrice followed despite his protest.
The nursery was empty.
Window locked.
No Voss.
The voice came from the baby monitor receiver.
A recording.
Another manipulation.
Beatrice exhaled.
“He wants us afraid.”
Gabriel checked the window.
“Then he succeeded.”
“No.”
She held Matteo closer.
“He scared us. That’s different.”
Adrian arrived.
So did federal agents.
The photograph contained a clue.
Reflection in the nursery glass.
A church tower.
But no such tower could be seen from Beatrice’s house.
The image had been composited.
Thomas identified the tower.
The abandoned church where he had been held.
Voss wanted them there.
This time Beatrice refused to be bait.
They sent no one.
Instead investigators traced the paper stock, printer microdots and courier route.
Voss’s arrogance betrayed him.
A warehouse near the airport.
Authorities surrounded it.
Inside they found computers.
Passports.
Cash.
And evidence Voss intended to leave the country.
But no Voss.
One screen displayed a countdown.
Six hours.
Thomas examined the code.
“It’s connected to Meridian accounts.”
Voss had initiated a destruction protocol.
When the countdown ended, billions would scatter through thousands of accounts.
Evidence trails would disappear.
The black box could stop it.
But only with both biometric keys.
Beatrice.
And Matteo.
Gabriel said no immediately.
Beatrice ignored him.
“Can it be done remotely?”
Thomas nodded.
“From a secure system.”
“Then we do it.”
Matteo was never brought to the warehouse.
A previously authenticated sample remained secured with Beatrice’s attorney.
The procedure began from a protected federal facility.
Beatrice pressed her thumb to the scanner.
Thomas entered the code.
Matteo’s encrypted biometric signature was added.
The countdown stopped.
Meridian’s accounts froze.
Billions trapped.
Evidence preserved.
Voss had lost.
Then a video call opened automatically.
Samuel appeared.
He looked tired.
Older.
No longer invincible.
“You think money was the point?”
Beatrice stared.
“No.”
He smiled.
“You understand.”
“Control was.”
“Yes.”
“And you lost that too.”
His smile faded.
“You’re still surrounded by men deciding your future.”
Beatrice looked around.
Gabriel stood several feet away.
Adrian farther back.
Thomas beside the computer.
None spoke.
None answered for her.
Beatrice looked into the camera.
“No. They learned.”
Voss’s face changed.
Police traced the connection.
He realized.
The video cut.
Agents moved.
They found him forty minutes later at a private airfield.
Voss tried to escape.
He failed.
No dramatic execution.
No secret grave.
He was arrested.
Handcuffed.
Photographed.
Processed like an ordinary criminal.
Beatrice preferred that.
Men like Samuel Voss wanted mythology.
Prison offered paperwork.
Months passed.
Trials began.
The evidence held.
Gabriel testified.
Adrian testified.
Thomas testified.
Vittorio testified from a wheelchair.
Chloe testified against Marianne.
Beatrice testified last.
She spoke about surveillance.
Coercion.
Her mother.
The attempt to use her child.
When she finished, she walked outside into sunlight.
Gabriel waited on the courthouse steps.
Not beside the car.
Not blocking her path.
Just waiting.
“How did it go?”
“It’s over.”
“Almost.”
“No.”
She looked at him.
“For me, it’s over.”
Gabriel understood.
She was done allowing Meridian to occupy her life.
That evening, Beatrice invited Gabriel to dinner.
Matteo was four months old.
He had Gabriel’s eyes.
Beatrice’s stubborn mouth.
Gabriel fed him badly.
Milk went everywhere.
Beatrice laughed until she cried.
Gabriel stared at her.
“What?”
“I missed that.”
Her laughter faded.
“I missed us too.”
He looked down.
“I ruined us.”
“You damaged us.”
He met her eyes.
“There’s a difference?”
“Maybe.”
Hope appeared.
Beatrice pointed a warning finger.
“Don’t.”
He nodded.
“Right.”
Later, after Matteo slept, Beatrice brought out the unsigned divorce papers.
Gabriel went still.
She placed them between them.
“I made a decision.”
He looked at her.
She reached for a pen.
Before she could touch the paper, someone knocked.
Gabriel looked toward the door.
Beatrice checked the camera.
Her face changed.
A woman stood outside holding an old suitcase.
Beatrice had not seen her since childhood.
She opened the door.
The woman looked at Beatrice and began crying.
“My name is Anna Bell.”
Beatrice froze.
Her father had never mentioned an Anna.
The woman gripped the suitcase.
May you like
“Thomas Bell is my husband.”
And Beatrice realized her father had another family.
