Chapter 4
I could hear children crying in the background when the principal told me Holly was gone.
A substitute secretary had accepted the forged order. Owen claimed an emergency judge had granted him custody and said police were waiting outside.
By the time the school verified the document, his car had disappeared.
Brandon nearly collapsed.
“My own brother took my daughter.”
“You didn’t know he was your brother.”
“I should have protected her.”
I grabbed his face.
“Gene planned this. We’re going to find Holly.”
Detective Ortiz issued an Amber Alert.
Traffic cameras tracked Owen’s car toward the mountains. He used one of Gene’s credit cards at a gas station, then abandoned the vehicle beside a hiking trail.
Police searched the woods.
At sunset, my phone rang from Holly’s tablet.
“Mom?”
Her voice was barely a whisper.
“Where are you?”
“In a cabin.”
“Is Owen there?”
“He went outside.”
“Can you see anything through the window?”
“Trees. And a red bridge.”
Brandon knew the place.
Arthur owned an old hunting cabin beside Red Creek Bridge. Gene claimed it had been sold years earlier, but county records showed she still controlled it through a private company.
Police approached without sirens.
Inside, Holly hid beneath a bed holding her tablet. Owen paced in the next room, arguing with Gene on speakerphone.
“You said Brandon would sign,” he shouted.
“He will,” Gene replied. “Keep the girl until he does.”
“She keeps crying.”
“So make her stop.”
Holly covered her mouth.
I wanted to run into the cabin, but Detective Ortiz held me back until officers surrounded every exit.
Then Owen discovered the open call.
He dragged Holly from beneath the bed.
“You called them?”
She screamed.
Brandon broke through the door before police could stop him.
Owen held Holly in front of him.
“Stay back!”
“That is your niece,” Brandon said.
“She’s my daughter.”
“You abandoned her.”
“I didn’t know Arthur was my father until Gene found me!”
The truth came out in broken pieces.
Gene contacted Owen after Arthur’s death and revealed his parentage. She promised him money and a place in the family if he challenged Holly’s adoption.
Owen never wanted custody.
He wanted Arthur’s inheritance.
“You used a child you had already abandoned,” Brandon said.
Owen’s grip loosened.
Holly bit his hand and ran.
I pulled her into my arms as police tackled Owen.
She clung to me.
“I gave Grandma her key. How did she still get me?”
“She used people instead of keys,” I whispered. “But they won’t take you again.”
Gene was arrested for conspiracy and kidnapping.
This time, no family attorney could make the accusations disappear.
But the missing memory card still threatened Holly’s trust.
Owen told investigators that Gene had given it to Paige before the kidnapping. Paige hid it somewhere inside the family company headquarters.
Samuel called an emergency board meeting.
Arthur’s trust would transfer to the grandchildren on New Year’s Day. If Gene destroyed the original amendment before then, she could claim Arthur had excluded Holly.
Brandon and I brought Holly to my sister’s house under police protection.
She did not want us to leave.
“What if Grandma sends someone else?”
Detective Ortiz gave her a safety phone and taught her a family password.
“No one takes you anywhere unless they know this word.”
Holly chose “redbox.”
Then Brandon and I entered Cole Medical headquarters with police.
Paige had escaped her electronic monitor.
Security footage showed her carrying a small memory card into the records floor.
Minutes later, the fire alarm activated.
Smoke poured through the building.
Paige was burning Arthur’s trust documents.
We reached the archive as flames climbed the cabinets.
May you like
She stood beside an open window holding the memory card.
“Take one more step,” she screamed, “and I throw it.”
