Chapter 10 - Leo Vanished Before Sunrise
Margaret reached the mansion in under two hours by helicopter.
Police cars filled the drive.
Victoria sat barefoot on the front steps, wrapped in a blanket despite the warm afternoon.
The moment she saw Margaret, she stood.
“I’m sorry.”
Margaret walked past her.
Not because she did not care.
Because if she stopped, she might break.
Inside, Caroline was being treated by paramedics.
She had been struck behind the ear but was conscious.
“I’m sorry,” she kept saying.
Margaret knelt beside her.
“Stop apologizing.”
“I should have heard—”
“Did you see anyone?”
Caroline’s eyes filled.
“A woman.”
Margaret leaned closer.
“Who?”
“She looked like Victoria.”
Victoria, standing nearby, went pale.
“What?”
Caroline shook her head.
“Not exactly. Similar hair. Same height. I thought she was Mrs. Vance at first.”
Margaret thought of Rachel Vale.
The woman in the school photograph.
“Did she speak?”
“Yes.”
“What did she say?”
Caroline swallowed.
“She asked if Leo had eaten.”
Victoria stared at her.
“What?”
“She sounded like she knew his routine.”
Margaret looked at Mr. Cho.
“Camera footage.”
“Disabled for eleven minutes.”
“Inside job?”
“Possibly.”
June arrived minutes later with Eleanor.
The police immediately separated them for statements.
Margaret ignored the questions until Mr. Cho handed her a still image recovered from a neighbor’s camera.
A black SUV leaving the property.
Temporary plates.
One passenger visible in the rear seat.
A small child.
Margaret had to sit.
For the first time since the nightmare began, her control failed.
Leo was not money.
He was not leverage.
He was a one-year-old boy who liked bananas mashed into oatmeal and fell asleep faster if someone rubbed his left foot.
Someone had taken him into a car.
And Margaret had no idea whether he was crying.
Victoria sat beside her.
“I did this.”
Margaret looked at her.
“No.”
“I lost my temper with him.”
“You did.”
Victoria flinched.
Margaret continued.
“And you will answer for that with yourself and with him when he is old enough to understand. But kidnapping him is not your crime.”
Victoria stared at her hands.
“I hated being a mother sometimes.”
Margaret said nothing.
Victoria’s voice trembled.
“I hated how tired I was. I hated how David disappeared into his phone every night. I hated feeling like everyone thought I should be grateful because we had money.”
Margaret watched her carefully.
“Why didn’t you ask for help?”
“I thought asking meant admitting I was bad at it.”
Margaret’s expression softened by a fraction.
“Then you became bad at it because you refused to ask.”
Victoria started crying.
“I know.”
It was the first honest thing Margaret had heard from her all night.
June walked over.
“We traced the note paper.”
Margaret looked up.
“Where?”
“Wellington Foundation stationery.”
Eleanor frowned.
“That’s available in three offices.”
“Boston, New York, and the foundation archive.”
Margaret stood.
“The archive.”
June nodded.
“It’s in Connecticut.”
Margaret’s eyes narrowed.
Rebecca had worked there before her accident.
They drove immediately.
The foundation archive occupied an old converted schoolhouse near Greenwich.
Margaret had not visited in years.
The alarm was active.
No sign of forced entry.
Inside, nothing seemed disturbed.
Then Margaret saw the children’s wing.
A light was on.
She walked toward it.
On the wall hung decades of scholarship photographs.
Children whose tuition Margaret’s foundation had paid.
At the end of the corridor, one frame was missing.
Margaret lifted the label beneath the empty space.
NOAH REED - 2024 WELLINGTON YOUTH SCHOLAR
Her heart stopped.
Noah had been receiving money from her foundation.
Under his real name.
Someone had hidden him in front of her.
June came up beside her.
“There’s more.”
Inside the empty frame was a handwritten number.
A bank safe-deposit box.
New York.
Margaret stared at it.
Then her phone buzzed.
A photograph appeared from an unknown number.
Leo was asleep in a crib.
Alive.
Beside him stood a boy around six years old.
Dark hair.
Gray eyes.
Rebecca’s eyes.
Noah.
May you like
Below the photograph were five words.
YOU NOW HAVE BOTH HEIRS.
