CHAPTER 7 — "The Kidnappers Made One Fatal Mistake"
The hospital looked like a battlefield.
Police officers sealed every entrance.
FBI agents questioned nurses.
Security footage from dozens of cameras had been erased with military precision.
Edward stood beside Noah's empty hospital bed.
The blanket was still warm.
"He can't be far," one detective insisted.
Edward didn't answer.
He noticed something no one else had seen.
A tiny wooden shaving.
Barely larger than a fingernail.
He picked it up.
His eyes widened.
It matched the same rare cedar wood Amelia always used when carving flutes.
"Noah..."
Edward whispered.
"You left this for me."
His security chief, Michael Reeves, frowned.
"You think he dropped it on purpose?"
Edward nodded.
"No."
"He wanted me to find it."
Another search uncovered something hidden beneath the mattress.
A folded piece of notebook paper.
Only one sentence was written in childish handwriting.
"Don't follow the black cars. They work for him."
Edward's blood ran cold.
Someone inside the hospital had tried to mislead him.
Minutes later, surveillance from a nearby bakery revealed something shocking.
No masked gunmen.
No violent kidnapping.
Instead...
Noah had quietly walked out of the emergency exit beside an elderly janitor pushing a cleaning cart.
The boy never struggled.
He climbed into an old white delivery van willingly.
As if...
He knew the driver.
Edward replayed the footage again and again.
"Zoom in."
The image sharpened.
The elderly janitor wore thick glasses and a gray beard.
But when the man briefly looked toward the camera...
Edward recognized his eyes.
He had seen them countless times in family photographs.
William.
His own brother had disguised himself.
Edward slammed his fist onto the table.
"For ten years..."
"You watched my son grow up in poverty."
"For twenty-two years..."
"You kept Amelia prisoner."
"And now..."
"You've taken them again."
His voice turned icy.
"No more hiding."
"I'm ending this tonight."
Just then, Edward's phone buzzed.
A new message arrived from an unknown number.
It contained only a photo.
Noah was alive.
Sitting beside Amelia in a dimly lit room.
She looked weak...
but she was smiling.
May you like
Beneath the picture were six chilling words.
"Come alone if you want them."
