Chapter 14 - THE FINAL MOVE
The next forty-eight hours were a blur. Diane was formally charged with Lucas’s murder. Ryan was named a person of interest. Police obtained search warrants for his office, his vehicles, his bank records. Everywhere they looked, they found more lies. More transfers of money. More payments to doctors and lawyers and “consultants.”
But Ryan himself had vanished.
He did not answer calls. He did not return home. He did not show up for questioning.
I stayed with Noah in a safe house, guarded day and night. Every time the phone rang, every time a car passed too slowly, every time Noah woke up crying and reached for me… my heart tightened with fear. Ryan was out there. And he had nothing left to lose.
On the third night, the rain began again—heavy, relentless, the same rain from the night I walked in on Noah chained to the pipe. I sat beside Noah’s bed, watching him sleep, holding the social worker’s letter in my hand like a shield.
Then the lights went out.
The entire house plunged into darkness. The backup generator did not kick on. Outside, the guard did not call out.
Silence stretched.
Too quiet.
I reached for the phone. No signal.
I stood up slowly, my heart hammering. I reached Noah’s bedside just as the bedroom window slid open.
A figure stepped through. Tall. Familiar.
Ryan.
May you like
He stood dripping rain onto the floor, face half-shadowed, eyes burning with a terrifying, desperate intensity.
“Hello, Emily,” he whispered.
