Chapter 8 - The Truth in the Dark
I didn't look at Julian as he groaned on the tarmac. I lunged forward, sliding onto my knees, gathering both little girls into my arms simultaneously. Lily buried her face into my chest, sobbing uncontrollably, while Emma clung to my neck with a grip so fierce her small fingers dug through my wet wool coat.
""I got you,"" I whispered, pulling my trench coat around both of them to shield them from the freezing wind. ""I got both of you. You're safe. Daddy’s here.""
""Daddy,"" Lily choked out between tears, ""he said we were going on a plane and we’d never see our house again.""
""Nobody is taking you anywhere,"" I kissed the top of Lily's wet head, then pulled back to look at Emma. Her face was soaked with rain and tears, but for the first time since I found her sitting alone under that oak tree, the terror had drained from her expression. In its place was a quiet, profound recognition.
""Are you really my daddy?"" she asked in a tiny, fragile whisper that cut straight through the roar of the idling jet engines.
""I am your daddy, Emma,"" I said, my voice breaking slightly. ""And I'm never letting you go again.""
Viktor approached, kicking Julian's weapon away and signaling to our perimeter guards to secure the Gulfstream's crew. Two of my men dragged Julian backward toward the idling Maybach, while Miller ran across the tarmac carrying a secure tablet.
""Boss,"" Miller said, breathing heavily. ""Sal Valenti just succumbed to his injuries en route to the county hospital. Before he flatlined, he gave up the secondary encryption key to the hospital vault. We just unlocked the second partition on Grace's hard drive.""
I kept both girls wrapped securely inside my coat as Miller turned the screen toward me.
On the screen was a high-resolution video recording taken from a hidden camera inside Grace’s private suite at St. Jude’s, dated seven hours before her scheduled delivery. Grace sat in the hospital bed, pale but radiant, holding a small digital camera. Her green eyes—the exact emerald shade Emma carried—looked directly into the lens with fierce, unyielding maternal love.
""Marcus, my love,"" Grace’s voice drifted through the tablet’s speakers, soft, melodic, and completely free of fear. ""If you are watching this, it means Ronald Hayes and Julian Vance carried out their threat. They think I don't know what they put into my IV drip this morning. But Elena smuggled this recorder in for me. Marcus... Dr. Hayes told me this morning that our second baby didn't survive the third trimester. But I felt her kick an hour ago. She is alive inside me. They are planning to split them, Marcus. They want to use one child to control your empire and sell the other to hide their embezzlement.""
Grace took a deep, trembling breath, pressing a hand to her swollen stomach. ""I don't have enough time to reach you. Julian’s guards are outside my door. But I hid the original financial ledgers inside the blue bunny we bought in Rome. If they take my babies, Marcus... tear this city apart until you bring our daughters home. Tell them their mother fought for every heartbeat. Tell them... I love you.""
May you like
The video ended.
I lowered my forehead against Emma’s wet hair, a solitary tear cutting down my cheek, washed away instantly by the Chicago rain. Grace hadn't died from weakness or misfortune; she had fought an entire den of vipers with her final breaths, leaving behind the breadcrumbs that brought her daughter back to my arms seven years later.
