Chapter 5: The Blood on the Kitchen Floor
Richard didn't wait for another word.
"Start the helicopter!" he shouted.
Within minutes, the billionaire, his son, and a convoy of police vehicles raced toward the isolated farmhouse hidden deep in the mountains.
Rain hammered the windshield.
The little boy sat silently beside Richard, clutching the silver locket that held Sophia's photograph.
"Dad..."
Richard turned toward him.
"Mom always said if anything ever happened to her... I should never trust the people wearing expensive smiles."
Richard's stomach twisted.
Evelyn wasn't acting alone.
She couldn't have been.
The farmhouse stood eerily quiet.
Its front door swung open with every gust of wind.
The kitchen looked like a battlefield.
Broken plates.
Shattered glass.
A trail of blood leading toward the back door.
Richard's hands trembled.
"Sophia!"
No answer.
The detectives followed the blood into the woods.
Then one officer suddenly stopped.
"Sir..."
Fresh tire tracks.
Two different vehicles.
Someone had taken her.
But they hadn't expected what the forensic team discovered next.
The blood on the floor...
Didn't belong to Sophia.
It belonged to one of the kidnappers.
Richard frowned.
"What happened here?"
The lead detective smiled slightly.
"It looks like your wife fought back."
The little boy couldn't help but grin.
"I told you."
"My mom isn't weak."
Just then...
A police officer found a cracked security camera buried beneath a flowerpot.
The memory card was still intact.
Everyone gathered around the patrol car to watch the footage.
The video showed three masked men bursting into the farmhouse.
Sophia appeared from the hallway.
She didn't scream.
She didn't run.
She grabbed a cast-iron frying pan...
...and knocked the first attacker unconscious.
The second man pulled a knife.
Sophia disarmed him with astonishing speed before fleeing through the back door.
Richard stared in complete disbelief.
"Where did she learn to fight like that?"
The detective paused the video on one frame.
A tattoo was visible on one attacker's wrist.
His expression instantly changed.
"I know that symbol."
"It's not a random gang."
"It belongs to a private security organization..."
"...owned by Sterling Global."
Richard felt the blood drain from his face.
Sterling Global.
His own company.
Someone inside his empire had ordered the kidnapping.
Before anyone could react...
Richard's phone rang.
An unknown number.
He answered.
A distorted voice laughed.
"If you ever want to see Sophia alive again..."
"Come alone."
Then the caller added one sentence that made Richard's heart stop.
"And bring the boy..."
May you like
"...because he's the real reason this all began."
To Be Continued...
