Chapter 3 - THE MILL OF SECRETS
The air outside was freezing, filled with the smell of damp pine and decaying leaves. I ran through the dense woods, my shoes slipping on the wet mud, my lungs burning with every desperate breath. Thoughts of Toby terrified me. Was he scared? Was he hurt?
The old Lawson timber mill loomed out of the darkness like a decaying leviathan. Its rusted iron roof groaned in the night wind, and the sound of crashing water from the nearby river roared like an angry beast.
I pushed open the heavy wooden door of the mill. The hinges shrieked in protest.
"Toby!" I called out, my voice trembling, echoing off the high, exposed rafters. "Toby, I'm here!"
"Mommy!"
The small voice came from the upper gantry platform. I looked up and saw Toby tied gently—but securely—to a wooden chair. Standing right beside him, draped in a dark overcoat, was the stranger from the bus.
"Stay back, Jennifer," the man said, stepping into the dim moonlight filtering through the broken skylight.
Now that I could see him clearly, he looked remarkably familiar. He had sharp gray eyes, a jagged scar across his left jaw, and the same quiet, intense posture that Brandon used to have.
"Who are you?" I demanded, taking a slow step toward the stairs. "Why did you kidnap my son? If you touch a hair on his head, I swear to God—"
"I didn't kidnap him to harm him, Jennifer. I took him to keep Christian's men from drugging him and taking him to a private clinic in Switzerland," the man interrupted calmly. He reached into his coat, pulled out a pocketknife, and sliced through the ropes binding Toby's wrists. "Go to your mother, kiddo."
Toby scrambled off the chair and ran down the iron stairs, throwing his arms around my waist. I hugged him fiercely, checking his hands, his face, his legs. He was crying, but he was completely unharmed.
"He didn't hurt me, Mommy," Toby sobbed. "He told me he was Daddy's friend."
I pushed Toby behind me and glared at the stranger. "Who are you?"
The man stepped down the stairs, pulling off his leather gloves. "My name is Marcus Vance. I was Brandon’s personal lawyer and his closest friend. And I’m the man who helped him hide the evidence against his family three years ago."
I gasped. Brandon had mentioned Marcus once or twice years ago, but Marcus had vanished shortly after Brandon's death. The news had reported that Marcus went missing and was presumed drowned in a boating accident.
"You're supposed to be dead," I said, my pulse racing.
"Christian tried to kill me the same week he killed Brandon," Marcus said, his eyes darkening with painful memories. "I survived, but I had to go underground. I've spent the last three years building a federal case against the entire Lawson network. But I needed Brandon's original copy of the board ledger to seal their conviction—the key to the safety deposit box."
"The key..." I murmured, looking down at the metal key Marcus had left on Toby's pillow.
"Brandon kept the ledger key hidden inside the lining of his old leather jacket—the one he gave to his father before he died," Marcus explained. "When Christian realized Walter was protecting you, he planned to isolate you tonight, force you to sign over guardianship, and seize all of Brandon's estate. That joint administration agreement wasn't just about money, Jennifer. It contained a clause surrendering full medical and legal control of Toby to Christian."
Suddenly, the heavy iron doors of the mill slammed open with a deafening crash.
Bright halogen floodlights burst to life, blinding us. The sharp, metallic clack of multiple handguns being cocked echoed through the cavernous mill.
"How touching," a smooth, sinister voice called out from the shadows behind the lights.
May you like
As my eyes adjusted, Christian stepped forward, flanked by four heavily armed security guards. Standing right beside him, looking cold and utterly unbothered, was Martha Lawson.
"My dear sweet sister-in-law," Christian sneered, leveling a pistol straight at my chest. "You really should have taken the bus back to Baltimore."
