Chapter 3 - The Secret Message in the DarkI quickly shielded Leo with my body, subtly taking the crumpled piece of paper from his small, trembling hands before Detective Vance or Officer Daniels could notice. I slipped it into my back pocket, my heart hammering against my ribs like a caged bird.
“Are you okay, Leo?” I asked, smoothing his messy hair back. “Have you guys eaten?”
“No,” Maya whined, clutching her stuffed bear to her chest. “Daddy said we couldn't turn on the lights or open the fridge because the ‘shadow men’ would see us.”
A chill ran down my spine. Shadow men. The Red Line Syndicate. Ryan hadn't just fled; he had left his four young children in an unlocked house as a distraction while he escaped, knowing the loan sharks or the police would find them first.
“Officer Daniels,” I said, standing up and keeping my composure carefully masked. “I need to take my nieces and nephews out of here. They’re traumatized and hungry.”
Daniels hesitated, looking at Detective Vance. “Ms. Carter, until we clear up the legal validity of those forged documents, CPS legally has custody of the children.”
“Over my dead body,” I snapped, my eyes flashing with a fierce protectiveness I didn't know I possessed. “Those monsters—my brother and his wife—abandoned them. I am their blood. I am not letting them spend a single night in a shelter or a group home. Process whatever temporary emergency placement paperwork you need to, but they are coming with me.”
Vance sighed, looking at the terrified faces of the four little kids hanging onto my clothes. “Fine. Temporary emergency kinship placement. But you’ll have a police escort to your home, Olivia. If Ryan’s creditors are involved, your townhouse might not be safe either.”
An hour later, under the watchful eye of a police cruiser parked outside, I led the four exhausted children into my two-bedroom townhouse. I cooked them warm soup, made up makeshift beds in my living room with every blanket and pillow I owned, and waited until all four were fast asleep.
At 1:30 a.m., with the house completely silent except for the soft breathing of the children, I went into the bathroom, locked the door, and pulled the crumpled note out of my back pocket.
Unfolding it carefully, my heart stopped.
Written in Ryan’s frantic, messy handwriting was a message:
“Olivia, if you’re reading this, you survived the morning. I know you hate me. I know you think I’m a monster. But Madison and I didn't have a choice. They threatened to kill the kids in front of us if we didn't pay $4 million by midnight. We had to run.
Look inside the old red barn behind Mom and Dad’s summer cabin in Oakridge. In the floorboards under the tractor, there is a steel box. The key is hidden inside the frame of your favorite childhood painting in Mom’s living room.
Take the box. Use what’s inside to clear my debt with the Syndicate leader, a man named Viktor Vance. If you don't do this by Thursday, they won't just come for us, Olivia. They will come for you and the kids. Don't trust Mom and Dad. THEY WERE IN ON IT FROM THE START.”
I swallowed hard, the paper trembling in my hands.
Mom and Dad were in on it?
May you like
Before I could even process the words, my phone rang on the bathroom counter.
It was my mother.
