Chapter 10 - NOAH DISAPPEARS

For six days, nothing happened.

That was almost worse.

The kids started breathing again.

Noah slept through the night.

Lily laughed at breakfast.

I almost forgot what normal sounded like.

Then Friday came.

Megan picked Lily up from school.

I went for Noah.

The teacher met me at the door.

She was pale.

“Mr. Reed?”

Every parent knows that tone.

“What happened?”

“Noah isn’t here.”

My body went numb.

“What do you mean he isn’t here?”

“He was dismissed.”

“To who?”

Her mouth trembled.

“A woman with authorization.”

“No.”

“The system showed her as an emergency contact.”

“No.”

“She had ID.”

“Who?”

“I don’t know. The front office—”

I ran.

The principal was already on the phone with police.

Security footage showed Noah walking out at 2:36 p.m. holding a woman’s hand.

Not Claire.

An older woman.

Gray hair.

Blue jacket.

I recognized her immediately.

Claire’s mother.

My mother-in-law.

The woman who had spent years telling me Claire was “intense” but meant well.

The woman who had known what Claire did to her cousin.

The woman who had protected her once already.

I called her.

Straight to voicemail.

Again.

Nothing.

Then my phone buzzed.

Unknown number.

A photo.

Noah sitting in the back seat of a car.

Alive.

Scared.

Below it:

STOP TRYING TO DESTROY ME.

I called the number.

Disconnected.

Police started tracking everything they legally could.

I gave them the cabin address.

Rebecca gave them her mother’s car information.

Every minute felt like an hour.

At 3:18, Lily called me from Megan’s phone.

“Did Mom take Noah?”

I couldn’t lie.

“We’re finding him.”

“That means yes.”

“We’re finding him.”

Lily went silent.

Then she said:

“She won’t hurt him if he follows the rules.”

My heart cracked.

“What rules?”

“He knows them.”

At 4:02, police found Claire’s mother’s car abandoned at a gas station.

At 4:19, security footage showed Claire getting into a different vehicle with Noah.

At 5:11, a highway camera caught the car heading north.

Toward the cabin.

By then, state police were involved.

I wasn’t allowed to go.

I went anyway.

Megan tried to stop me.

My lawyer tried to stop me.

Rebecca practically screamed into the phone.

I didn’t care.

My son was somewhere with a woman who had taught him how not to cry.

Dark fell before I reached the county road leading to the cabin.

Police lights flashed ahead.

An officer blocked my car.

“You need to stay back.”

“Is my son inside?”

“We believe so.”

“Is he okay?”

“We don’t know.”

“Is Claire inside?”

“We believe so.”

Then a sound cut through the night.

A child screaming.

My child.

“DAD!”

I ran.

Two officers grabbed me.

“NOAH!”

Another scream.

Then a window shattered.

Everyone froze.

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