Chapter 6
The bodyguards moved fast.
Before I could blink, they had both of us—one meaty hand clamped around each of my upper arms, lifting me off my feet. Megan fought like a wildcat, kicking, scratching, biting the hand that held her. It did no good. The guy holding her didn’t even flinch.
“Let her go,” Voss said. “And put Emily down. There’s no need for roughness. Not yet, anyway.”
They dropped us. I stumbled, catching myself on the edge of the desk. My shoulder throbbed where the guard had grabbed me.
Voss leaned back in his leather chair, steepling his fingers. He looked amused. Like we were actors in a play he was enjoying very much.
“To what do I owe this pleasure?” he asked. “Did you come to return my son? Or did you come to beg for your lives? I’m open to either, though I’ll admit I’m leaning toward the second option. Begging is so cathartic for people like you.”
“We came for Noah,” I said. My voice shook, but I held his gaze. “He’s not going anywhere with you. You don’t want him. You want an heir. A doll you can dress up and parade around at charity galas. You don’t care that he’s a person. That he has feelings. That he loves Megan and he needs me.”
Voss’s smile didn’t falter. “On the contrary, Ms. Warren. I care very much about what Noah needs. He needs stability. He needs wealth. He needs a name that will open every door in the world for him. What does he get with you? A two-bedroom apartment in a bad neighborhood? Hand-me-down clothes? A mother who gave him away once already? Let’s not pretend you suddenly developed maternal instincts after eleven years of indifference.”
He stood up and walked around the desk. He stopped in front of me, so close I could feel the heat off his body.
“I know about the letter, Emily. I know Megan told you everything. That you’re the biological mother. That I’m the biological father. That Megan stole the baby and ran. Cute story. But here’s the thing—nobody will believe you. I’ve already had my lawyers prepare documents. Medical records. Witness statements. By the time we’re done in court, you’ll look like a delusional ex-girlfriend who’s been stalking me for years, and Megan will look like the kidnapper she is. And Noah? He’ll be mine. The judge has already signed off on the adoption. It just needs a few more signatures to be official.”
He tapped his temple. “Always think three moves ahead, Emily. That’s the secret to winning.”
Megan stepped forward. “You’re gonna rot in prison for this, Voss. We have proof. Everything you’ve ever done. Every fake document. Every bribe. Every person you’ve ever paid off. It’s all on a USB drive. And the cops already have it.”
It was a lie. A good one, but a lie. The USB was still in my bra.
Voss didn’t even blink. “If the cops had it, Alvarez would have kicked down my door an hour ago. Try again, Megan.”
He nodded at the bodyguards. “Search them. Find the drive.”
Oh no.
The big one who had held me stepped forward. His hands were like ham hocks. I backed up until I hit the bookshelf. There was nowhere to go.
“Get away from me,” I snarled.
“Or what?” He laughed. “You gonna scratch me?”
He reached for me.
And then—
CRASH.
The chandelier above the desk exploded in a shower of glass and sparks.
Everyone froze.
Then the lights went out.
The whole house went pitch black, except for the faint red glow of the security system keypad by the door. Shouting erupted from somewhere outside. Footsteps pounded down the hallway. A dog started barking, loud and frantic.
“Breach! Breach at the front gate!” someone yelled.
Voss cursed. “What the hell is going on?”
“Police!” a voice boomed from the foyer. “Portland PD! Nobody move!”
Flashlights cut through the darkness, sweeping the study. In the chaos, the hand holding my arm loosened. I wrenched free and grabbed Megan’s hand.
“Now!” I yelled.
We ran.
We sprinted out of the study and down the hallway, away from the shouting. Behind us, we heard Voss screaming, “Stop them! Don’t let them get to the boy!”
We took the stairs two at a time. The east wing was at the end of a long carpeted corridor. Doors lined both sides. Which one?
“Noah!” Megan screamed. “Noah, where are you?”
A faint, muffled sound came from behind the third door on the left. Like someone banging on wood with a cast.
I threw the door open.
Noah was tied to a chair in the middle of the room, a sock stuffed in his mouth. His eyes were wide with terror. The room was empty except for the chair and a single suitcase in the corner—his, covered in dinosaur stickers. The “nice room” Voss had promised him was just a storage closet with a bed pushed into the corner.
I ran to him and ripped the sock out of his mouth.
“Emily! Megan!” He was sobbing. “He said he was gonna send me away to boarding school in Switzerland if I didn’t stop crying. He said I’d never see either of you again.”
“Not gonna happen,” Megan said, fumbling with the knots on his wrists. They were tight, plastic zip ties. She couldn’t get them undone.
“Stand back,” I said. I grabbed the heavy ceramic lamp from the nightstand and smashed it down on the ties. They snapped.
Noah launched himself out of the chair and into our arms. The three of us hugged in the dark, crying, while the house shook with the sound of police breaking down doors and Voss screaming at his lawyers.
“We have to go,” I said. “Now.”
We ran for the stairs. Halfway down, we ran straight into Detective Alvarez. He had his gun drawn, his vest on, his face grim. Behind him, half a dozen uniformed officers were swarming the house.
“Emily! Megan! Noah!” He holstered his gun when he saw us. “Thank God you’re all right. I got your texts. I called in every favor I had. We got Voss on corruption, kidnapping, witness tampering, assault—you name it. The FBI is on their way. This is over.”
He looked at Noah. “You okay, kid?”
Noah nodded, his face buried in my neck.
“Where is he?” Megan demanded. “Where’s Voss?”
“Cuffed in the study. His lawyers are already on their way, but it won’t matter. We’ve got enough to put him away for twenty years minimum. And the custody order? Thrown out. The judge who signed it is already in cuffs too—turns out he’s been taking bribes from Voss for a decade. Half the city council is gonna be indicted by the end of the week.”
He paused, looking at me.
“Emily… Megan mentioned something about a USB drive? Evidence?”
I pulled it out of my bra and handed it to him. “Everything. Every record. Every fake ID. The real birth certificate. All of it.”
Alvarez took it like it was a bomb. “Good. This is the nail in his coffin. Now c’mon. Let’s get you three out of here. The press is already gathered at the gate. We’ll sneak you out the back through the boathouse.”
He led us through the kitchen, out the same window we’d climbed through an hour earlier. The woods felt different now. Less scary. More like an escape route.
When we reached my car, Noah stopped. He looked at Megan, then at me, then back at Megan.
“Now what?” he asked.
It was the question none of us had dared to ask.
Voss was going to prison. The immediate danger was over. But the three of us—we were a mess of secrets and lies and blood ties that had been cut and retied too many times. Megan had raised him for eleven years. I was his biological mother. We were both his family now, but we didn’t fit into any box the world had for us.
Megan knelt down so she was eye level with him. She brushed the hair out of his face. Her hands were shaking.
“Noah, baby,” she said softly. “Emily is your real mom. She loves you so much. And she can give you things I never could. A real house. Stability. A normal life. You don’t have to run anymore. You don’t have to lie about your name. You can be a regular kid.”
Her voice broke.
“I think… I think you should live with her now.”
Noah’s face crumpled. “No! I don’t want to live with just her! I want both of you! I don’t care about a normal life! I care about us!”
He grabbed my hand with his good one and Megan’s with the other.
“You said we’re family,” he said to me. “And you said nothing would ever split us up,” he said to Megan. “So you’re both liars if you make me choose.”
I looked at Megan.
She looked at me.
Twelve years of history passed between us in that single glance. The parties. The all-nighters. The pregnancy. The betrayal. The running. The fighting. And through it all—underneath all the anger and the fear and the mistakes—there was still that same thing we’d had in the dorm room. The promise. The love. The knowledge that no matter what, we were better together than apart.
I squeezed Noah’s hand.
“She’s not going anywhere,” I said. “Neither of us are. Right, Megan?”
Megan let out a shaky laugh, tears streaming down her face. “Right. Where else am I gonna go? Who else is gonna put up with my terrible cooking and my habit of leaving wet towels on the bed?”
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Noah whooped and threw his arms around both of us. We toppled over into a pile on the grass, laughing and crying, while the red and blue lights of the police cars flashed through the trees and the sound of helicopters echoed overhead.
For the first time in all of our lives, the three of us were exactly where we were supposed to be.
