Chapter 3 - The Woman in the Black Car
Emily did not get into the car.
Not right away.
Her mother had taught her never to trust strangers, especially strangers in expensive cars who appeared in dark alleys at midnight.
The woman inside the car seemed to understand.
She slowly held both hands up.
“My name is Claire,” she said. “I’m not here to hurt you.”
“Then why are those men looking for him?” Emily asked.
Claire’s eyes moved to Angel.
“Because they’re scared.”
“Of a baby?”
“No,” Claire said softly. “Of what that baby means.”
The black car’s driver looked nervously in the rearview mirror.
“Ms. Bennett, we need to go.”
“Please,” Claire said. “Those men are not police. They don’t work for the child’s father. They work for the people who took him.”
Grace wiped her face. “They took him from his mommy?”
Claire swallowed.
“Yes.”
Emily looked down at the baby. He was crying harder now, his tiny fists opening and closing against her coat.
“Who is his daddy?” Emily asked.
Claire hesitated.
Then she said, “His father is Adrian West.”
Even at five years old, Emily knew the name.
Everybody knew the name.
Adrian West owned West Tower downtown, the new hospital, a television company, a bank, and half the shiny buildings people saw on billboards. The news called him a billionaire. Adults called him brilliant. Other adults called him ruthless when they thought children weren’t listening.
Grace’s eyes widened.
“The rich man on TV?”
Claire nodded.
Emily shook her head. “No. That can’t be true.”
“I wish it wasn’t,” Claire whispered.
Headlights appeared at the end of the alley.
The men had found them.
Claire opened the door wider.
“Please, Emily. I know you’re scared. But if they take him, he may disappear forever.”
The word forever made Emily move.
She climbed into the back seat with Grace. Claire slammed the door shut, and the driver sped away just as two men ran into the alley behind them.
One of them shouted.
Another raised a gun.
The sound of the shot cracked against the night.
Grace screamed and ducked.
The rear window shattered.
Claire pulled both girls down as the car swerved around a corner.
“Drive!” she yelled.
“I am driving!”
Angel was still in Emily’s arms. She curled around him, protecting him with her body the way Monica had protected them.
For nearly ten minutes, nobody spoke.
The car raced through side streets, under bridges, past closed stores and flickering streetlights. Finally, the driver pulled into an underground parking garage beneath an old apartment building.
“We can’t stay here long,” he said.
Claire turned to Emily.
“I need you to trust me.”
“Where’s my mom?” Emily asked.
Claire’s face tightened.
“I don’t know.”
“You left her.”
“I didn’t know they would go to your home.”
“But you knew they were coming for us.”
Claire looked away.
That was answer enough.
Emily’s voice became small. “You knew about the baby.”
“Yes.”
“Then why didn’t you save him?”
Claire’s eyes filled with tears.
“Because I was afraid.”
A long silence followed.
Then Claire reached into her purse and pulled out a photograph.
It showed Adrian West standing beside a beautiful young woman with dark hair. The woman held a newborn baby in a white hospital blanket.
Angel.
On the back of the photo were handwritten words:
Adrian, our son is perfect. Love, Lena.
“That’s his mother,” Claire said. “Her name was Lena.”
“Was?” Grace whispered.
Claire nodded, unable to speak for a moment.
“She died three days ago.”
Emily looked down at the baby.
“So someone threw him in the trash because his mommy died?”
“No.” Claire’s expression hardened. “Someone wanted Adrian West to believe his son died too.”
Before Emily could ask more, the driver’s phone rang.
He answered, listened, and cursed under his breath.
“What is it?” Claire asked.
“They have Monica Reyes.”
Emily’s whole body went cold.
The driver looked at Claire.
“They’re telling everyone the baby died. They’re cleaning up the story.”
“Who?” Claire demanded.
“The people inside West Enterprises.”
Claire stared at Angel’s bracelet.
Then she whispered the name of a man Emily had never heard before.
“Victor Hale.”
And for the first time, Emily understood something terrifying.
The baby had not been abandoned by accident.
May you like
Someone had planned it.
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