Chapter 5
Marcus had every police officer within fifty miles looking for Leo within ten minutes.
We had drones in the air.
Helicopters.
Every road in and out of the city blocked.
I sat in the back of Marcus’s SUV, staring at my phone, waiting for a call.
Waiting for Helen.
She called at 1:12 a.m.
Blocked number.
I answered before the first ring finished.
“Where is he?” I screamed.
“If you’ve hurt one hair on his head—”
“Relax,” Helen’s voice purred through the line.
“He’s fine. He’s eating ice cream and watching cartoons. He doesn’t even know he’s been kidnapped. He thinks he’s on a special adventure with Grandma.”
My blood ran cold.
“What do you want, Helen? The company? It’s yours. Just give me back my son.”
Helen laughed.
“I don’t want your stupid company. I already told you. I want you to suffer. I want you to feel what I felt when you took everything from me. I want you to spend the rest of your life wondering if your son is alive or dead.”
She paused.
“Here’s the deal. Tomorrow morning, at 9 a.m., you will hold a press conference. You will confess to every lie I’ve ever told about you. You will say you beat Leo. You will say you forged the video. You will say you stole the company. You will give me full permanent custody of Leo. And then you will get on a plane and leave this country forever. And you will never come back. If you do all that… I’ll drop him off at a police station by noon. Unharmed.”
“And if I don’t?”
Helen was quiet for a long time.
“Then you’ll never see him again,” she said softly.
“And I’ll make sure the whole world thinks you killed him. Just like you tried to make everyone think I was a monster. Fair’s fair, Elena.”
She hung up.
I threw my phone against the car window.
It shattered.
Marcus put his hand on my shoulder.
“We traced the call,” he said.
“It came from a small cabin three hours north of the city. Helen’s father built it in the 70s. Local SWAT is already in position. But if we go in hard… she might hurt him before we can get to her. She’s got nothing left to lose.”
I closed my eyes.
Thought.
Helen wanted me broken.
She wanted me to beg.
She wanted to see me defeated.
Fine.
I’d give her exactly what she wanted.
“Tell SWAT to hold position,” I said.
“Out of sight. I’m going in alone. Unarmed. I’ll text you the word ‘now’ when it’s safe. Not a second before.”
Marcus argued.
Said it was too dangerous.
Said Helen would kill me.
I didn’t care.
Leo was in there.
That was all that mattered.
I drove to the cabin alone.
Three hours later, I pulled up the long dirt driveway.
The cabin was small.
Dark.
Only one light on in the front window.
I got out of the car.
Held my hands up.
Walked to the door.
It opened before I knocked.
Helen stood there.
She looked terrible.
Her hair was a mess.
No makeup.
Wearing an old flannel shirt.
In one hand, she held a kitchen knife.
In the other, she held Leo’s wrist.
Leo’s eyes were red from crying.
But when he saw me, his face lit up.
“MAMA!”
He tried to run to me.
Helen pulled him back.
Hard.
Leo whimpered.
“Not so fast,” Helen said, waving the knife at me.
“Did you bring the confession papers?”
I held up the manila folder I’d brought.
“Right here. All signed. Everything you wanted. Just let him go, Helen. He’s just a little boy. He hasn’t done anything to you.”
Helen laughed.
A wild, crazy sound.
“Done anything? He’s your son. That’s enough. You took my whole life. I’m taking yours.”
She looked past me.
Into the dark.
“Where are your little soldiers, Elena? Hmm? Did you leave them at home? Or are they hiding in the woods waiting to kill me?”
She pressed the knife to Leo’s throat.
Not hard enough to cut.
But enough to make him freeze.
“Tell them to go away,” she said.
“Or I swear to God, I’ll do it.”
That was when I saw it.
Over her shoulder.
On the kitchen table.
A framed photo.
A young Helen, maybe twenty years old, holding a tiny baby girl.
On the back of the frame, written in pencil:
My Anna.
1988.
I froze.
Anna.
Helen’s first daughter.
The one no one ever talked about.
The one Mia had told me about once, when she was drunk.
The baby Helen had been forced to give up for adoption when she was nineteen, because her own parents had said she was too young, too poor, too worthless to be a mother.
The baby she’d never stopped grieving.
The reason she’d been so obsessed with controlling Daniel.
With building an empire.
With taking Leo.
She’d spent her whole life trying to prove she was good enough to be a mother.
And she’d failed.
Over and over again.
I looked at Helen.
Really looked at her.
Not the monster.
Not the businesswoman.
Just a woman.
Who’d lost the only thing she’d ever really wanted.
And spent the rest of her life punishing everyone else for it.
“You never got over her, did you?” I said softly.
Helen froze.
The knife wavered in her hand.
“Shut up,” she whispered.
“You don’t know anything about me.”
“Anna,” I said.
“Your baby. The one you had to give up. You thought if you built a big enough company, a perfect enough family, you could make up for losing her. But you couldn’t. Because you were so busy trying to be perfect, you destroyed everyone who ever loved you.”
I took a slow step forward.
Tears spilled down Helen’s face.
“I know that pain, Helen,” I said.
“I know what it feels like to be afraid you’re going to lose your child. I know what it feels like to think you’re not good enough to be a mother. I know you’re not evil. You’re just hurt. So, so hurt.”
Another step.
Leo was watching me, wide-eyed.
“You don’t have to do this,” I said.
“Put the knife down. Let Leo go. It’s not too late. I found Anna, Helen. She lives in Seattle. She’s a nurse. She has two little boys. She’s been looking for you for twenty years. She hired three different private investigators. She never stopped wondering if you loved her. If you ever thought about her.”
I stopped.
Three feet away from her.
I held out my hand.
“She wants to meet you. She wants to tell you she doesn’t hate you. She wants to understand. Put the knife down. Let Leo go. And you can still have that. You can still be loved. Not for your company. Not for your money. Just for being her mom.”
Helen stared at me.
The knife shook.
And then it clattered to the floor.
She let go of Leo’s wrist.
He ran straight to me.
I caught him.
Held him so tight I never wanted to let go.
Helen collapsed onto the porch step.
Sobbing.
Broken.
I pulled out my phone.
Texted Marcus one word.
Now.
Red and blue lights flashed at the end of the driveway.
Sirens wailed.
Helen didn’t move.
She just sat there.
Crying for the baby she’d lost thirty-six years ago.
I carried Leo to the car.
Wrapped him in a blanket.
Kissed his forehead over and over.
I thought it was over.
I really did.
But three days later, my lawyer called.
Helen had been released on bail.
Her wealthy brother had put up his entire estate to get her out.
And she’d just released a video to every news channel in the country.
A video that looked real.
That looked like me.
Yelling at Leo.
Shoving him.
Telling him I wished he’d never been born.
The headline on every channel:
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ELENA VOSS CAUGHT ABUSING HER SON ON CAMERA.
CUSTODY BATTLE REOPENED.
