Chapter 4 - The Orphanage Trap
Friday came with freezing rain.
By evening, Milwaukee’s streets shone black beneath the streetlights, and the wind cut through every alley like a blade.
At the Whitaker estate, Andrew made preparations in silence.
Marcus supervised a team of former military contractors. Every vehicle was checked. Every route was mapped. Drones circled overhead. Police contacts were placed on standby, though Andrew trusted very few officers with the full plan.
Hannah sat in the nursery with the twins.
Mason was teething and miserable. Noah had fallen asleep against her shoulder. Sophie sat on the rug, coloring a picture of the family.
She had drawn Andrew too.
He stood beside them, holding an umbrella.
Hannah’s eyes filled.
“You really think he’ll come for us?” Sophie asked.
Hannah looked at her daughter.
“I think he’ll try.”
“Then why do we go?”
“Because sometimes bad people make choices that leave us no easy answer.”
Sophie put down her crayon.
“Mr. Andrew will stop him.”
Hannah wished she had that kind of faith.
---
At 11:35 p.m., Hannah’s phone received a message.
**COME ALONE.
BRING SOPHIE.
LEAVE THE BABIES.**
Andrew read it once.
Then he crushed the phone in his hand.
“No.”
Hannah looked at him. “If we don’t go—”
“We are not giving him Sophie.”
“He may already know where she is.”
“He does. That is why we move now.”
Within minutes, the estate went into lockdown. The twins were placed in a secure panic room with Flora and two nurses. Sophie clung to Hannah’s hand as Marcus led them toward the armored SUV.
“Where are we going?” Sophie asked.
“Somewhere safe,” Andrew said.
But before they reached the vehicle, every light in the mansion went out.
The estate fell into darkness.
Then came the sound of gunfire.
Glass shattered near the front entrance.
Marcus shouted into his radio. “Perimeter breach! East gate!”
Andrew grabbed Sophie and pushed Hannah behind a stone wall.
“Stay down!”
Sophie screamed.
Men in black tactical gear moved through the darkness beyond the courtyard. They were not after money. They were not after Andrew’s files.
They were after the children.
Andrew knew it instantly.
“Marcus, get them to the panic room!”
Marcus moved toward Hannah, but a flash grenade exploded near the fountain.
For one blinding second, the courtyard vanished in white light.
Then Sophie was gone.
Andrew heard Hannah’s scream before his vision cleared.
“SOPHIE!”
A black van tore through the open east gate.
Andrew fired twice at the rear tires, but the vehicle vanished down the long estate drive before his men could reach it.
Hannah collapsed to her knees.
“No,” she sobbed. “No, no, no—”
Andrew stood in the rain, gun lowered at his side.
His face had gone completely still.
Marcus approached carefully.
“Andrew…”
Andrew turned toward him.
“Find her.”
“We will.”
“No,” Andrew said, his voice like ice. “You do not understand. Find her before Gabriel teaches me what it feels like to lose someone I love.”
Marcus stared at him.
Andrew had never said those words aloud before.
Someone I love.
---
Gabriel Voss sat across from Sophie in a dark room at the old St. Agnes orphanage.
The building had been abandoned for years. Its windows were boarded. Its hallways smelled of mold and dust.
Sophie sat in a wooden chair, wrapped in a blanket too thin to keep out the cold.
Gabriel placed a juice box in front of her.
“You must be thirsty.”
She did not touch it.
“You’re my daddy,” she whispered.
Gabriel’s face changed for a fraction of a second.
“I was.”
“Mommy said you hurt people.”
“She doesn’t understand.”
“Mr. Andrew says people can make bad choices.”
Gabriel leaned back in his chair.
“And what does Mr. Andrew say about himself?”
Sophie looked down.
“He says he’s trying to make better choices now.”
Gabriel’s eyes hardened.
“That is the problem with good men, Sophie. They make people believe monsters can change.”
Sophie finally looked at him.
“Mr. Andrew isn’t a monster.”
Gabriel smiled without warmth.
May you like
“Then let’s see what he becomes when he comes to save you.”
---
