Chapter 12 - NOAH
Noah sat in the family waiting room with a social worker named Karen.
He colored a picture of four people.
Mommy.
Daddy.
Himself.
The new baby.
He did not draw Vivian.
He did not draw Grandma Margaret.
The door opened.
A janitor entered pushing a cart.
Karen barely looked up.
The man smiled at Noah.
“Hey, buddy.”
Noah stared.
Something about his face felt familiar.
Not personally.
Like a picture he had seen.
The man pointed at Noah’s drawing.
“Nice family.”
“Thanks.”
“What’s the baby’s name?”
Noah frowned.
“We don’t know yet.”
The man smiled.
“Your grandpa used to take forever to name things too.”
Karen looked up.
“I’m sorry. Do you know the family?”
The man moved fast.
He shoved the cart into Karen and grabbed Noah.
Noah screamed.
“HELP!”
He bit the man’s wrist.
The attacker cursed.
Noah ran.
The man chased him into the corridor.
Noah was small.
But fast.
He raced toward the nurses’ station.
“HELP ME!”
A security guard stepped out.
Thomas Cross hit him with a stolen fire extinguisher.
Noah screamed louder.
Thomas grabbed the back of his shirt.
Then someone tackled Thomas from the side.
Vivian.
They crashed into the wall.
“RUN, NOAH!”
Noah ran.
Thomas stared at his daughter in disbelief.
“You hit me.”
Vivian stood between him and Noah.
“You tried to take a child.”
“I was getting leverage.”
“He’s seven!”
“Exactly. Daniel would do anything for him.”
Vivian stared at the man she had mourned for twenty-two years.
“You’re a monster.”
Thomas smiled sadly.
“No. I’m your father.”
“Not anymore.”
He swung at her.
Vivian ducked.
They fought in the narrow corridor.
Thomas grabbed her throat and slammed her against the wall.
“I made you strong.”
Vivian clawed at his hands.
“You made me angry.”
“You needed anger.”
“No.”
She drove her knee upward.
Thomas grunted and released her.
Vivian grabbed the fire extinguisher.
“You needed me angry because angry people don’t ask questions.”
Thomas’s face changed.
Sirens echoed in the distance.
He backed toward an exit.
Vivian raised the extinguisher.
“Stay there.”
Thomas laughed.
“You still think Daniel cares about you?”
“I don’t care.”
“You destroyed his marriage.”
“I know.”
“And for what?”
Vivian’s eyes filled with tears.
“For a lie.”
Thomas smiled.
“Then come with me.”
“No.”
“You’re my daughter.”
“And Emily is a mother.”
Vivian’s voice trembled.
“I watched her son scream while she drowned.”
She lowered the extinguisher slightly.
“That boy will hear that scream in his head for years because of me.”
Thomas shook his head.
“Sentiment makes you weak.”
“No.”
Vivian looked toward Noah, now surrounded by nurses.
“It makes me human.”
Thomas ran.
Police flooded the corridor seconds later.
Vivian pointed toward the stairwell.
“He went that way!”
Daniel arrived moments later.
Noah ran into his arms.
“Daddy!”
Daniel dropped to his knees.
“I’ve got you.”
Noah sobbed into his shoulder.
“The bad man said he knew Grandpa.”
Daniel looked at Vivian.
“That was Thomas?”
“Yes.”
Police radios crackled.
Then one officer shouted:
“Suspect vehicle located. He’s heading south.”
Vivian looked at Daniel.
“South means the old property.”
Daniel’s face changed.
“My mother.”
They were all thinking the same thing.
Thomas Cross had failed to take Noah.
Now Margaret was his only hostage.
May you like
And a cornered man with nothing left to lose was heading straight toward the place where the Carter family’s darkest secret had begun.
---
