CHAPTER 3 – "The Nanny's Deadly Secret"
Emma couldn't stop staring at the glowing phone.
"If Richard survived, use the baby."
The sender was simply saved as...
The Nanny.
Before anyone could react, the nursery door slammed shut upstairs.
Then...
Noah's cries suddenly stopped.
Emma's heart dropped.
"The baby!"
She sprinted upstairs, Richard close behind.
When they burst into the nursery, the crib was empty.
Only the window swayed in the wind.
The curtains fluttered.
And on the mattress lay a tiny stuffed elephant with a handwritten note pinned to it.
"Choose your daughter... or your heir."
Richard's face turned ghostly white.
"No..."
Security rushed through every hallway.
The gates were locked.
Every vehicle was searched.
But the nanny had vanished.
At the police station, Victoria refused to speak.
She sat with a strange smile on her face.
"You'll never find them."
Detective Mason leaned forward.
"Who is 'them'?"
Victoria laughed.
"You still think I planned this alone?"
Richard overheard the conversation through the observation window.
His blood ran cold.
"There are others..."
The detective immediately ordered a search of every Ashford company employee.
Then an investigator rushed into the room.
"Sir... we found something."
He placed an old personnel file on the table.
It belonged to Emma's mother.
Richard's hands shook as he opened it.
Inside was a faded photograph taken twenty-two years earlier.
Standing beside Emma's mother...
...was the same nanny who had just kidnapped Noah.
She hadn't worked for the Ashfords for five years.
She had been connected to the family for over two decades.
But that wasn't the biggest shock.
On the back of the photograph, someone had written six words in black ink:
"The first child was never yours."
Richard's breathing stopped.
"The... first child?"
He looked at Emma.
Then at the old photo again.
His entire life suddenly felt like a lie.
Before anyone could say another word, Richard's phone rang.
An unknown number.
He answered.
A disguised voice whispered,
"You have twelve hours."
"If you tell the police another word..."
"You'll never see either of your children alive again."
The line went dead.
Richard slowly lowered the phone.
Emma looked into his terrified eyes.
May you like
"What did they mean..."
"...'either of your children'?"
