Chapter 6 — Taken Before Dawn
Lucas reached the window in seconds.
A rope ladder hung from the balcony.
Below, tire tracks cut across the wet lawn.
He called the police while running outside barefoot.
“Emily has been taken.”
Detective Morris arrived within fifteen minutes.
Maria regained consciousness but remembered only a man in a mask.
“He smelled like medicine,” she said weakly. “Like a hospital.”
Lucas showed the detective Natalie’s photograph.
“Dr. Wells.”
The detective sent officers to the clinic.
It was empty.
His house was empty too.
Then Lucas received a video call.
Sophia appeared on the screen.
She was not in jail.
Lucas’s stomach dropped.
She smiled faintly.
“Did you really think my father would leave me there?”
Behind her, Emily sat tied to a chair.
Her face was streaked with tears.
“Daddy.”
Lucas’s voice shook.
“Let her go.”
Sophia leaned closer to the camera.
“You humiliated me.”
“You planned to drug my child and kill me.”
“You were supposed to trust me.”
“You locked a six-year-old in a bathroom.”
Sophia’s smile vanished.
“She was always in the way.”
Emily began crying harder.
Lucas forced himself to stay calm.
“What do you want?”
“The evidence from the wedding. The passport. The emails. The medical case.”
“The police have them.”
“Then get them back.”
“That’s impossible.”
Sophia tilted the camera toward Emily.
Dr. Wells stood beside the child with a syringe.
Lucas felt the air leave his lungs.
“You have six hours,” Sophia said. “After that, Emily becomes very quiet.”
The call ended.
Detective Morris traced the signal.
“Burner network,” she said. “But there was background noise.”
Lucas replayed the recording.
A low horn sounded in the distance.
Then metal wheels screeched.
“A train yard,” Lucas said.
Natalie called again.
She recognized the room behind Sophia.
“It’s an abandoned Vale warehouse near the river.”
Police prepared a tactical team.
Lucas was ordered to remain behind.
He agreed.
Then he took his car keys and left through the kitchen.
Because he knew one thing the police did not.
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Richard had built the warehouse over a set of old smuggling tunnels.
And Lucas had helped finance the renovation five years earlier.
