Chapter 4
For a moment, the world lost sound.
My brother had been picked up.
By a man who said I sent him.
I gripped the phone so hard my fingers hurt.
“No,” I whispered. “No, I didn’t send anyone.”
Nico’s face changed instantly.
Not shock.
Command.
He turned to Marco.
“Lock the estate.”
Marco moved.
Nico looked at Jonah.
“Police alert. Amber alert if eligible. Pull every traffic camera near the school.”
Jonah was already dialing.
Officer Hale stepped closer.
“Miss Marsh, who is Wes?”
“My brother.”
“How old?”
“Seven.”
Camille sighed from the hallway.
“This is getting theatrical.”
I turned on her.
“You did this.”
She lifted one shoulder.
“I’ve been with officers the entire time.”
Franklin said nothing.
That was worse.
Nico saw it.
“Franklin.”
The older man’s face remained calm.
“You should choose your accusations carefully.”
Nico rolled closer until he was directly in front of him.
“My nurse’s brother was taken after your voice appeared on camera threatening another nurse’s sick relative.”
Franklin leaned down.
“You have no proof I took anyone.”
“No,” Nico said. “But I have motive.”
“And what motive would that be?”
“To make Adeline shut up.”
Franklin smiled faintly.
“She is staff. Staff usually do what survival requires.”
The words hit me like a slap.
Because Wes was survival.
My whole life was survival.
Franklin knew.
Somehow, he knew everything.
My phone buzzed again.
Unknown number.
I answered before anyone could stop me.
A man’s voice came through.
“Adeline Marsh?”
“Yes.”
“Your brother is safe for now.”
My knees almost gave out.
“Let me talk to him.”
“Not yet.”
Nico lifted one hand, signaling me to keep him talking.
I put the call on speaker.
The man continued.
“Return what you took.”
“I don’t have it.”
“You had the tablets.”
“They’re already with police.”
Silence.
Then a soft curse.
Nico’s eyes turned cold.
The caller said, “Then tell Alfieri to stop digging.”
Nico spoke.
“This is Alfieri.”
A pause.
Then the man laughed.
“You sound smaller than I expected.”
The room went still.
Nico’s face did not move.
But something deadly entered the air.
“Where is the boy?”
“Alive. That can change.”
I made a sound.
Nico’s voice stayed low.
“If you harm him, every hour of the rest of your life will belong to me.”
Jonah mouthed, Stop.
Officer Hale signaled for the trace.
The caller laughed again.
“You still think you’re the man before the crash.”
Nico’s hand tightened on his wheel.
I saw the sentence land.
Camille saw too.
Her mouth curved.
The caller said, “You have until midnight. Destroy the tablet footage, lose the pill, and fire the nurse publicly. Or the boy disappears like the others.”
The call ended.
“Like the others?” I whispered.
Jonah looked grim.
The first three nurses.
My blood went cold.
“What happened to them?”
No one answered fast enough.
I turned to Nico.
“What happened to them?”
His voice was tight.
“They left.”
“Did you check?”
“I was told—”
He stopped.
He had been told.
By Camille.
By Franklin.
By staff who looked away.
By a house that had learned to move around his pain instead of through the truth.
I felt anger rise, but fear for Wes swallowed it.
“Find him,” I said.
Nico looked up at me.
For once, I did not care that he was a mafia boss.
A patient.
A man humiliated in his own foyer.
I cared only that he had power.
“Find my brother.”
“I will.”
“No promises. Do it.”
His eyes held mine.
“I will.”
The next hours became a blur of calls, footage, officers, agents, and panic so sharp I could taste metal.
Wes had been signed out by a man using a fake ID and a forged note with my signature.
The school secretary cried when police questioned her.
The pickup car was a gray sedan with stolen plates.
Traffic cameras caught it heading south.
Then nothing.
Camille and Franklin were separated for questioning.
Camille acted bored.
Franklin acted insulted.
Neither acted afraid enough.
At ten-thirty, Marco found the second camera file.
The one from the east garage the night of Nico’s crash.
Nico had told me the crash happened when his car went off a private road after a brake failure.
He never said there was missing footage.
Maybe he had not known.
The video showed Nico’s car that night.
Then a figure entering the garage.
Camille.
She wore a long dark coat.
Her face was clear when she turned toward the camera.
She opened the hood.
Then Franklin entered behind her.
He handed her a small metal tool.
My stomach turned.
Nico watched in silence.
Frame by frame, Camille cut something beneath the hood.
When the clip ended, no one spoke.
Nico looked like every bone in him had turned to stone.
“She caused the crash,” I whispered.
Camille had not fallen in love with a man after tragedy.
She had made the tragedy.
Then stayed to harvest what remained.
Nico rolled toward the door.
Jonah blocked him.
“No.”
“Move.”
“You go near her now and we lose control.”
Nico’s eyes were terrifying.
“She put me in this chair.”
“Yes,” Jonah said. “And if you kill her before we find Wes, she wins twice.”
That stopped him.
Barely.
Then Edna entered with a trembling hand pressed to her chest.
“Nico.”
“What?”
“The first nurse. Helen Price. She’s downstairs.”
I stared.
“What?”
Edna’s eyes filled.
“She says she knows where they take witnesses.”
We rushed down.
Helen stood in the kitchen wearing a coat too thin for the cold.
She was pale, older than in the footage, and terrified.
A scar cut through her eyebrow.
She looked at me and whispered, “They took someone you love too?”
I nodded, unable to speak.
Helen looked at Nico.
“The Ashcrofts don’t just silence people,” she said. “They keep insurance.”
“What does that mean?” Nico asked.
Her lips trembled.
“They take someone you’d die for and make you sign whatever they want.”
My knees weakened.
“Where is my brother?”
Helen swallowed.
“An old rehabilitation wing under St. Bartholomew’s. Closed to the public. Franklin funds it.”
Nico’s face went white.
“What?”
May you like
Helen looked at him with pity.
“That’s where they kept me after I found out Camille was drugging you.”
