Chapter 14 - The Empty Cradle
The black Mercedes SUV tore through the interstate traffic heading north toward Door County at breakneck speed. Adrian gripped the steering wheel, his phone pressed to his ear on speaker.
“Miles, tell me the security detail at Cabin 4 is still in place!” Adrian shouted over the roar of the engine.
“Sir, I’m trying to raise them now,” Miles’s voice crackled through the speakers, laced with rising panic. “The radio feed went dead ten minutes ago. Static on all channels.”
“Damn it!” Adrian slammed his foot down on the accelerator, the speedometer climbing past ninety miles per hour. The rain blurred the highway into gray streaks of asphalt and flashing tail lights.
Two hours later, the Mercedes slid to a halt outside the pine-fringed clearing of Cabin 4. The front door was splintered off its hinges. The windows were shattered.
Adrian burst out of the car, drawing a concealed firearm from his holster as he rushed across the snow-dusted porch. “Ariana!”
The cabin interior was silent, save for the crackle of dying embers in the stone hearth. The wicker bassinet was overturned on the braided rug, its pink blankets discarded and empty.
No sign of Ariana. No sign of baby Rose.
On the rustic wooden dining table sat a single, pristine white envelope stamped with the Van Der Bilt family crest—a rearing silver stag.
May you like
Adrian tore the envelope open with trembling fingers. Inside was a single photograph of Ariana sitting bound to a wooden chair in an abandoned shipyard warehouse along the Chicago River, with Julian Vance standing behind her holding baby Rose.
Scrawled in sharp black ink across the back of the photo were the words: A life for an empire, Adrian. Come alone at midnight.
