CHAPTER 8 – THE MAN CALLED "DIRECTOR" WAS CLOSER THAN THEY EVER IMAGINED
The phone kept ringing.
Neither of them dared to answer it.
Finally...
The screen went black.
One second later, a text message appeared.
"Welcome back, A and L."
Both twins froze.
No one had ever called them by those letters before.
Except the people behind the hospital conspiracy.
Lena's hands began to shake.
"He's watching us..."
The boy looked around the crowded marketplace.
Hundreds of faces.
Thousands of eyes.
Any one of them could belong to the man called Director.
Just then, the elderly janitor arrived, breathing heavily.
"The police are coming," he said.
"But don't trust everyone wearing a badge."
"What do you mean?" the boy asked.
Before the janitor could answer, six police cars surrounded the market.
Officers rushed toward the twins.
"You're safe now!" one detective shouted.
But Lena didn't move.
She stared at the detective's left hand.
A silver ring.
Engraved with the same symbol she had seen years ago in a classified file connected to the stolen babies.
She whispered,
"Run..."
The detective suddenly pulled out his gun.
"Take them alive!"
Chaos exploded.
People screamed as the twins escaped through the narrow streets, chased by men pretending to be police officers.
The elderly janitor led them into an abandoned subway tunnel beneath the city.
Hidden behind a rusted maintenance door was a secret room lit by a single hanging bulb.
The walls were covered with photographs.
Every missing child.
Every fake adoption.
Every family destroyed.
In the center of the room stood an old computer.
The janitor turned it on.
"I've spent thirty years collecting evidence," he said.
"I was never just a janitor."
"I was the hospital's chief security officer."
"I failed to stop them once."
"I wasn't going to fail again."
He inserted an old flash drive.
A video began to play.
The screen showed a secret meeting held twenty-four years earlier.
Doctors.
Lawyers.
Businessmen.
Judges.
Police commanders.
All sitting around one long table.
Then the camera turned toward the man sitting at the head of the room.
The twins couldn't breathe.
It wasn't Father Michael.
It wasn't the hospital director.
It wasn't their wealthy father.
It was someone the entire country knew.
A beloved philanthropist.
The founder of the largest children's charity in the nation.
The man millions called a hero.
His public slogan had always been:
"Every Child Deserves a Family."
The irony was unbearable.
The very man celebrated for rescuing children...
had built his fortune by stealing them.
Before anyone could process the truth, every light in the underground room suddenly went out.
Darkness swallowed everything.
A calm voice echoed through hidden speakers.
"Congratulations."
"You finally found me."
"But you've overlooked one small detail..."
A spotlight flickered on.
It illuminated only one person.
The little ballerina.
She was gone.
In her place...
A single white ballet shoe lay on the floor.
Beside it was a handwritten note.
"If you want to see her alive again... come alone."
The boy clenched the note so tightly it tore in half.
For the first time since this nightmare began...
May you like
He wasn't searching for answers anymore.
He was racing against time to save the girl who had never stopped believing in him.
