Chapter 5
Daniel grabbed Brooks’s phone.
“Where did this come from?”
“A traffic camera outside Fort Worth.”
“That’s Emily.”
“The image isn’t clear enough to confirm her identity.”
“I know my wife.”
Lily climbed onto a chair.
“Let me see.”
Daniel hesitated.
Then he showed her the photograph.
Lily touched the screen.
“Mommy?”
Her voice was so hopeful that my heart broke.
The woman had Emily’s eyes.
She also had a pale scar along her forehead.
“What if this is another trick?” I asked.
Daniel looked at Aaron.
“Did you know she survived?”
“No.”
“You’ve lied for twelve years.”
“I did not know.”
Daniel stepped toward him.
Aaron didn’t retreat.
“If I had known Emily was alive, I would have found a way to tell you.”
Brooks took back the phone.
“The sedan was heading west. State police are searching, but Reed knows our procedures.”
“Why would they keep Emily alive?” I asked.
Aaron looked at the empty computer.
“The ledger.”
“Emily memorized something they needed,” Brooks said. “Or she created a security lock they couldn’t break.”
Daniel picked up his jacket.
“I’m going after her.”
“Based on one traffic-camera image?”
“Based on my wife sitting in a car with the people who destroyed my family.”
Brooks blocked the door.
“Your daughter needs you here.”
Daniel looked at Lily.
She was watching him with tears in her eyes.
“Find Mommy,” she whispered.
He crouched beside her.
“I will.”
“When?”
“I don’t know.”
“Is she coming home?”
Daniel swallowed.
“I don’t know that either.”
Lily wrapped her arms around his neck.
“Please don’t disappear too.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“I won’t.”
Brooks’s team traced the sedan to a service road near an abandoned bridal warehouse.
The vehicle was found empty.
Inside were drops of blood, part of Vanessa’s torn veil, and a bracelet.
Daniel recognized the bracelet.
He had given it to Emily for their fifth anniversary.
The warehouse belonged to a company connected to Victor.
“We need to move before Reed clears the site,” Brooks said.
Daniel insisted on going.
Aaron insisted too.
I refused to stay behind.
Lily remained with Claire inside the federal building.
Before we left, she took Emily’s necklace from around her neck and gave it to Daniel.
“Mommy might want this.”
Daniel placed it near his heart.
“I’ll bring it to her.”
The warehouse stood beyond a row of empty factories.
Its sign had faded.
White dresses hung in the windows like ghosts.
Brooks stopped the vehicle two blocks away.
A tactical team surrounded the building.
No movement appeared on the cameras.
The front door was unlocked.
Inside, hundreds of wedding gowns hung from metal racks.
Some were clean.
Others were stained or torn.
Photographs covered one wall.
Each showed a different bride standing beside a different husband.
Vanessa appeared in at least eight of them.
Victor appeared as a brother, photographer, driver, or guest.
“This was their trophy room,” Aaron said.
Daniel tore one photograph from the wall.
Vanessa stood beside a man in his sixties.
A little boy watched from behind them.
Brooks checked the case number written on the back.
“The husband died three months after the wedding. His son vanished.”
A sound came from the rear office.
Daniel ran toward it.
Brooks cursed and followed.
The office was empty.
A laptop sat on the desk.
Its screen displayed a live video.
Emily was tied to a chair.
Vanessa stood behind her.
Daniel stopped breathing.
“Emily.”
Her eyes opened.
She looked directly at the camera.
“Daniel?”
He moved closer to the screen.
“I’m here.”
Vanessa stepped into view.
“She can’t hear you. This recording was made earlier.”
Daniel slammed his fist onto the desk.
Vanessa continued speaking.
“If you’re watching this, you found our little museum. Bring the complete ledger to the chapel behind the warehouse.”
“We don’t have the ledger,” Brooks said.
Vanessa smiled as if she had heard her.
“Do not pretend the files were destroyed. Emily created three copies. Your brother has one. Margaret has one. And the final copy is hidden inside something Lily carries.”
Daniel touched the necklace beneath his shirt.
Vanessa leaned toward Emily.
“Tell your husband what happens if he disappoints me.”
Emily lifted her head.
“Don’t bring it, Daniel.”
Vanessa slapped the back of her chair.
Emily flinched.
“Tell him.”
“Protect Lily,” Emily said.
Vanessa faced the camera.
“You have ten minutes.”
The screen went black.
Daniel ran toward the rear exit.
Brooks seized his arm.
“This is a trap.”
“My wife is in that chapel.”
“We need to clear it first.”
“She’s waited three years.”
“And she can wait two more minutes.”
Daniel pulled away.
Aaron stood in front of him.
“Listen to her.”
“You don’t get to tell me to wait.”
“If you rush in, Reed will kill Emily before she sees Lily again.”
Those words stopped him.
Brooks sent two agents around the chapel.
The building appeared abandoned.
Then one agent reported movement beneath the floor.
“There’s a lower level,” Aaron said. “The chapel is a distraction.”
Daniel studied the warehouse map.
A freight tunnel connected the warehouse to the old factory next door.
“They moved her underground.”
The tactical team entered the tunnel.
We followed at a distance despite Brooks’s orders.
The air smelled of dust and chemicals.
At the end of the passage, a steel door stood open.
Emily’s bracelet lay on the floor.
Daniel picked it up.
Beyond the door was a concrete room.
A chair stood in the center.
The ropes were empty.
A speaker crackled overhead.
Reed’s voice filled the room.
“You were always predictable, Daniel.”
A steel gate dropped behind us.
Brooks spun around.
We were trapped.
Smoke began pouring from vents near the floor.
“Gas masks!” Brooks shouted.
The tactical agents had them.
We did not.
Daniel wrapped his jacket around my face.
Aaron searched the walls.
“There has to be a release.”
Brooks fired at the lock.
The bullets did nothing.
The smoke thickened.
My eyes burned.
A window above the steel door revealed a control room.
Vanessa stepped behind the glass.
Victor stood beside her.
Reed was nowhere in sight.
Daniel rushed to the window.
“Where is Emily?”
Vanessa smiled.
“Closer than you think.”
“I’ll give you the necklace.”
“Place it on the floor.”
“Open the gate first.”
“That isn’t how this works.”
Daniel removed the necklace.
Vanessa’s eyes fixed on it.
“Emily was clever,” she said. “She spent years pretending the crash damaged her memory. We believed her until she tried to escape.”
Daniel’s hand trembled.
“You kept her prisoner for three years.”
“She kept herself alive by being useful.”
“Let her go.”
“Give me the necklace.”
Daniel placed it on the concrete.
Victor pressed a switch.
A narrow slot opened beneath the window.
“Slide it through.”
Daniel kicked the necklace toward the slot.
It stopped inches away.
“Open the gate,” he said.
Vanessa’s smile vanished.
Victor raised his weapon.
Aaron suddenly struck the wall beside a fire pipe.
The metal cover broke loose.
He pulled the emergency lever inside.
Sprinklers burst overhead.
The ventilation fans shut down.
The steel gate began rising.
Brooks’s agents charged into the control room.
Victor fired.
The window shattered.
Vanessa screamed and dropped behind the console.
Daniel crawled through the broken opening.
Victor tackled him.
They crashed into the wall.
Daniel struck Victor again and again.
“Where is my wife?”
Victor laughed through a split lip.
“You married a stubborn woman.”
Daniel hit him harder.
Brooks dragged him away.
“Stop! We need him alive.”
Vanessa had disappeared through another door.
Aaron found a second passage and followed her.
I called his name, but he did not stop.
Brooks handcuffed Victor.
“Where did Reed take Emily?”
Victor looked toward the smoking tunnel.
“Marcus doesn’t take anyone he can’t use.”
Daniel grabbed him again.
“Answer me.”
A gunshot sounded from the passage.
Daniel released Victor.
“Aaron!”
We ran toward the sound.
Aaron lay beside an open loading door, clutching his shoulder.
Vanessa’s wedding dress vanished into a waiting truck.
Daniel knelt beside his brother.
“Stay with me.”
“I’m fine,” Aaron said through clenched teeth. “Go.”
The truck accelerated away.
Brooks called for medical support and roadblocks.
Victor began laughing behind us.
“You still don’t understand. Vanessa isn’t escaping with Reed.”
Daniel looked at him.
“What are you talking about?”
“Reed left her here to die.”
“Then who was in the truck?”
Victor’s laughter stopped.
“Emily.”
Daniel ran outside, but the truck was already gone.
Aaron grabbed his sleeve.
“There’s something else.”
He reached into his coat and removed a small audio recorder.
“I took it from the control room.”
He pressed play.
Reed’s voice spoke clearly.
Once Emily opens the final account, kill Vanessa and Victor. Take the money and the child. No witnesses.
Daniel stared at Victor.
For the first time, Victor looked terrified.
May you like
Reed had betrayed everyone.
And Lily was still inside the federal building Reed once controlled.
