Chapter 6: The East Wing

Sebastian reached the hospital parking garage seconds too late.

A black sedan tore through the exit gate.

One of his own security vehicles.

Thomas was driving.

Isabella sat in the back seat holding the baby.

Claire screamed from behind Sebastian.

“My son!”

Detective Brooks called for roadblocks.

Sebastian pulled out his phone.

Every Vance vehicle carried a private tracking system.

He opened the security application.

The sedan moved north.

Then the signal stopped.

“Thomas disabled the tracker,” Sebastian said.

Maya shook her head.

“Not completely.”

She grabbed his phone.

“Your vehicles have medical emergency transmitters. I saw the system when the baby was brought home.”

She opened another menu.

A weak signal appeared.

The sedan was heading toward the Vance estate.

“Why go back there?” Claire asked.

Sebastian understood.

“The old airfield.”

The Vance property included a private runway behind the east wing.

A corporate jet could be ready within minutes.

Detective Brooks called local officers, but Sebastian was already running toward his car.

“I’m coming,” Claire said.

“No.”

“That is my child.”

Sebastian looked at her.

He did not argue again.

Maya climbed into the back seat with Claire.

They reached the estate in nineteen minutes.

Rain had begun to fall.

The grand ballroom, once glowing with chandeliers, stood dark behind the tall windows.

Sebastian drove through the east gate and onto the private road.

Ahead, the jet’s engines were starting.

Thomas’s sedan stopped beside the runway.

Isabella stepped out with the baby under her coat.

“Isabella!” Sebastian shouted.

She turned.

Her hair was wet and loose around her face.

The polished woman from the gala was gone.

“You should have let me leave,” she said.

“With a stolen child?”

“He is my son.”

Claire stepped forward.

“No. He isn’t.”

Isabella clutched the baby tighter.

He began to cry.

“Stay back.”

Maya saw the infant’s face.

“He can’t breathe properly.”

“He is fine.”

“You’re pressing him against your chest.”

Isabella loosened her grip slightly.

The baby gasped.

Thomas stood near the jet stairs.

“Hurry,” he said. “The police will be here soon.”

Sebastian looked at the man who had managed his life for fifteen years.

“You served my family.”

“I protected it.”

“You kidnapped a child.”

“I secured an heir.”

“You buried my son’s death and stole another woman’s baby.”

Thomas’s eyes hardened.

“The Vance empire would have collapsed under scandal. Investors needed stability.”

“A child is not a business asset.”

“That is easy to say now.”

Sirens sounded in the distance.

Thomas pulled a gun from inside his coat.

Maya froze.

Claire stepped in front of her.

Sebastian moved slowly toward Isabella.

“Give Claire the baby.”

“No.”

“You are frightened.”

“I am not frightened.”

“You are terrified,” he said. “You have been terrified since the night our son died.”

Tears ran down Isabella’s face.

“I held him for eleven minutes.”

Sebastian stopped.

“You should have called me.”

“You didn’t answer.”

“I was on the plane.”

“I called six times.”

The words struck him harder than any accusation.

“I listened to your voicemail,” she continued. “You said the meeting could not wait.”

Sebastian remembered.

He had deleted the message after landing, assuming she was anxious about the delivery.

“I failed you,” he said.

Isabella’s face crumpled.

“But Claire did not,” he continued. “And this baby cannot pay for what happened to us.”

Thomas raised the gun.

“Enough. Get on the plane.”

Isabella looked toward him.

For the first time, she seemed to understand what he had turned her into.

“You told me she abandoned him.”

Thomas tightened his grip.

“She was poor. The boy would have had nothing.”

“He had a mother.”

“He had an opportunity.”

Claire took another step.

“He had me.”

Thomas swung the gun toward her.

Isabella moved before anyone else.

She turned her body, shielding the baby.

The gun fired.

She fell to her knees.

Sebastian caught her before she hit the pavement.

The baby slipped from her arms.

Maya grabbed him.

Police vehicles surrounded the runway.

Officers tackled Thomas beside the jet.

Claire took her baby and pressed him to her chest.

Sebastian looked down.

Blood spread across Isabella’s silver robe.

She gripped his hand.

“Is he safe?”

Sebastian looked at Claire and the baby.

“Yes.”

Isabella closed her eyes.

“Then tell him…”

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Her breathing weakened.

“Tell him I was sorry.”