Chapter 10 - The Man Reed Trusted Most
Everyone looked at Tommy.
He looked more horrified than I felt.
“I didn’t take her.”
His badge had opened the service exit.
Camera footage showed a man in a black coat carrying Ava.
Face hidden.
Using Tommy’s credentials.
Then another camera caught the man entering a sedan.
License plate registered to Tommy.
Too obvious.
Someone was framing him.
Reed knew it.
I didn’t care.
“My baby is gone.”
Daniel grabbed his coat.
“I’m finding her.”
I blocked him.
“You already disappeared once.”
“Mara—”
“If you run out that door without telling me where you’re going, I swear you will never see her again.”
He stopped.
Good.
We worked together.
For once.
The car tracker led west.
Then vanished.
Thomas called.
“Come alone.”
I laughed.
“No.”
“Mara—”
“You kidnapped an eight-month-old baby. You don’t get to give instructions like we’re negotiating a parking ticket.”
Silence.
Then something unexpected.
He sounded amused.
“Sarah really is your mother.”
“Where is Ava?”
“Safe.”
I heard her.
Tiny babbling.
Alive.
My knees nearly failed.
“Let me hear her again.”
A pause.
Then Ava squealed.
I cried silently.
Thomas continued:
“Bring the charter.”
“Why?”
“Because only you can activate succession.”
He needed my signature.
Not Ava.
So why take her?
Leverage.
Simple.
Ugly.
Reed traced the call.
Old Callaway hotel near Lake Michigan.
Closed for renovation.
We went.
Not alone.
Thomas expected that too.
The hotel lobby was empty except for one chair.
Ava sat safely in a portable car seat.
I ran.
No one stopped me.
I lifted her.
Checked everything.
She was unharmed.
Then an elderly man appeared on the staircase.
Thomas Ritchie.
Tommy stared.
Thirty years of grief became anger in one second.
“You used me.”
Thomas looked at his son.
“I positioned you.”
“You abandoned me.”
“I protected you.”
Tommy laughed bitterly.
“Everybody in this family loves that word.”
I almost liked him.
Thomas explained his plan.
Meridian was collapsing.
Caroline’s arrest would expose parts of it.
Old members were turning against each other.
They needed a legitimate successor with no criminal record.
Me.
A waitress.
Single mother.
Invisible.
Exactly the kind of person nobody would suspect.
“I’m not doing it.”
“You misunderstand.”
Thomas produced documents.
If Meridian collapsed uncontrolled, evidence implicating Daniel and Reed would automatically release.
Some real.
Some fabricated.
Daniel could spend decades in prison.
Reed could lose everything.
I looked at Reed.
He shrugged slightly.
“Don’t sign for me.”
That surprised Thomas.
Reed continued:
“If the choice is my freedom or her daughter’s future, release everything.”
Daniel nodded.
“Same.”
For once, Callaway men made a decent decision.
Thomas’s face hardened.
Then Tommy stepped toward his father.
“You lost.”
Thomas smiled.
“No.”
He pressed a button.
A television activated.
Live footage.
Callaway’s restaurant.
Police vehicles surrounding it.
Federal agents entering.
News cameras arriving.
Thomas looked at Reed.
“The archive has already started releasing.”
Then the screen changed.
A headline appeared on a television broadcast.
Not about Reed.
Not Daniel.
Me.
CHICAGO WAITRESS IDENTIFIED AS HEIR TO SECRET CALLAWAY FORTUNE.
My face.
My name.
My address.
And Ava’s photograph.
Thomas smiled.
“You wanted to stay invisible, Mara.”
May you like
He looked at my daughter.
“That life ended five minutes ago.”
