Chapter 8 - THE CHILD WITHOUT A NAME
Elena nearly collapsed.
“What?”
Vanessa repeated it.
“Charles has the baby.”
Elena crossed the room.
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“WHERE?”
Alexander caught Elena before she reached Vanessa.
Vanessa backed against the wall.
“Cynthia mentioned a private residence.”
“What residence?”
“She called it Hawthorne.”
Alexander froze.
“Hawthorne House?”
Robert Hale looked at him.
“What is that?”
“My grandmother’s estate.”
It was ninety minutes outside the city.
Officially abandoned.
Unofficially owned through a Whitmore shell company.
Elena was already moving.
“I’m going.”
Alexander followed.
“So am I.”
I looked down at Sophie.
She knew what I was thinking.
“No.”
“Sophie—”
“I’m staying with Mrs. Hale.”
Robert’s wife was upstairs with the guests.
My daughter hugged me.
“Go find the baby.”
We left with police.
By then, detectives had arrived and taken custody of Charles, Cynthia, and Dr. Pierce.
But Charles refused to speak.
He only smiled when Alexander mentioned Hawthorne House.
That smile worried me.
Ninety minutes later, we reached the estate.
The front door was unlocked.
Inside, the house was almost empty.
No staff.
No furniture.
No baby.
Then Elena heard it.
A faint sound upstairs.
She ran.
“Wait!”
Alexander followed.
We reached the second floor.
At the end of the hallway was a nursery.
A crib stood near the window.
Elena rushed toward it.
Empty.
But the mattress was warm.
Someone had been there minutes earlier.
Then Alexander noticed a baby monitor.
The screen was still active.
A vehicle appeared on it.
Driving away behind the estate.
Elena stared.
“My baby.”
Alexander grabbed his phone.
But I noticed something else.
A handwritten note beneath the monitor.
May you like
Three words.
ASK WHO THE FATHER IS.
