Chapter 3 - THE WRONG DAUGHTER
I had men covering every exit in less than thirty seconds.
No one had seen Emma leave.
No one had heard glass break.
No alarm had triggered.
That meant whoever took her knew my security system.
I looked at the open window.
Then at Lily.
“Where were you?”
“In the bathroom.”
“How long?”
“Maybe two minutes.”
“And Emma?”
“She was sitting on the bed.”
Lily’s voice began shaking.
“She said she heard something outside.”
I crouched.
“What did she hear?”
“Someone whistling.”
A chill went through me.
Grace used to whistle when she was nervous.
Three short notes.
Pause.
Two short notes.
It was something her father had taught her.
Hardly anyone knew it.
I looked at my security chief.
“Check every camera.”
“We already are.”
“Check the dead zones.”
His eyes narrowed.
“How did you know there were dead zones?”
“Every system has them.”
He nodded.
Then I went back downstairs.
Karen stood the moment I entered.
“What happened?”
I grabbed the birth certificates.
“Emma’s gone.”
The blood drained from her face.
“No.”
“You brought someone to my house.”
“I didn’t.”
“They knew where she was.”
“I swear.”
I slammed my palm against the table.
“Who called you?”
Karen started crying again.
“He used a voice changer.”
“What did he say?”
“That Emma belonged with her real family.”
“What else?”
“That if I didn’t cooperate, Lily would disappear too.”
I froze.
“You didn’t tell me that.”
“I didn’t think they could actually get to her.”
“You thought wrong.”
My phone rang.
Unknown number.
Everyone in the room went silent.
I answered.
“Blackwell.”
A distorted voice came through.
“You found what Grace hid.”
My hand tightened around the phone.
“Where is Emma?”
“Safe.”
“If she has one scratch—”
“You really should stop making threats before you know who you’re threatening.”
I motioned to my tech team to trace the call.
The voice continued.
“Grace made a mistake seven years ago.”
“What mistake?”
“She kept one twin from us.”
“Who is us?”
A laugh.
“You still don’t understand.”
I looked toward the stairs.
Lily was standing there.
Watching me.
I turned away.
“What do you want?”
“The daughter you raised.”
Every part of me went cold.
“No.”
“Then Emma pays for Grace’s betrayal.”
I heard a sound in the background.
A child crying.
Emma.
“Marcus?”
Her voice was tiny.
“Emma!”
The line shifted.
Then the distorted voice returned.
“Midnight.”
“Old Union Station warehouse.”
“Bring Lily.”
“If I see police, Emma dies.”
The call ended.
My security chief swore.
“Trace?”
The technician shook his head.
“Bounced through six servers.”
I looked at the clock.
8:17 p.m.
Less than four hours.
Karen sank into a chair.
“They’re going to kill her.”
I stared at her.
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Because if they wanted Emma dead, she’d already be dead.”
Karen looked at me.
“They want something else.”
I looked down at the birth certificates.
One twin raised under my protection.
One hidden from me.
Someone had waited seven years.
Then Anna died.
Karen took over.
And suddenly the hidden child became exposed.
That timing wasn’t random.
I turned to my oldest adviser.
“Find everything on Anna Callahan.”
He nodded.
“Seven years back?”
“Everything since birth.”
Twenty minutes later, he returned with a file.
Anna Callahan wasn’t Karen’s biological sister.
She had been adopted at age twelve.
Her birth name was Anna Vescari.
That name hit me.
Vescari.
One of Chicago’s oldest crime families.
A family my father had destroyed twenty-three years ago.
I stared at the file.
Karen looked confused.
“What does that mean?”
“It means Anna wasn’t hiding Emma from my enemies.”
I closed the folder.
“She was hiding Emma from her own family.”
My adviser slid another photograph across the table.
A man in his sixties.
Silver hair.
Sharp eyes.
Victor Vescari.
Officially dead for eleven years.
Unofficially, no body had ever been recovered.
Under the photograph was a surveillance image taken three weeks earlier.
Toronto.
Victor Vescari.
Alive.
And meeting with someone I recognized immediately.
My own uncle.
Raymond Blackwell.
The man who had helped raise me after my father died.
The man Lily called Uncle Ray.
The man who knew our security codes.
I stared at the picture.
Then I heard Lily behind me.
“Daddy?”
I turned.
She was holding something.
A small silver necklace.
Emma’s necklace.
The pendant had opened.
Inside was a tiny folded piece of paper.
Lily handed it to me.
I unfolded it.
May you like
Three words were written in Grace’s handwriting.
DON’T TRUST RAYMOND.
