Chapter 2
The lock was engaged, but the heavy steel door had been left unlatched by a fraction of an inch.
Emma held her breath, carefully placing her fingertips against the cold metal edge and gently pushing it open.
The door swung back without a sound on freshly greased hinges, revealing a small, windowless concrete holding cell.
In the corner of the dim room, curled up on a thin wool blanket over the bare floor, was nine-year-old Ethan Sterling.
His clothes were rumpled and stained, his pale face covered in dust, his eyes red and swollen from hours of crying.
“Ethan!” Emma gasped, rushing across the room and dropping to her knees beside the trembling boy.
The young boy flinched away in terror, pulling the blanket over his face until he recognized Emma’s yellow gloves.
“Emma?” Ethan sobbed, throwing his small arms around her neck and clinging to her crisp uniform with all his strength.
“Shh, it’s okay, sweetheart, I’m here, you’re safe,” Emma whispered, rubbing his back as tears filled her own eyes.
“She put me down here, Emma,” Ethan whimpered, his voice raspy from lack of water. “She locked me in the dark!”
“Isabella?” Emma asked, her blood running cold as she pulled back to look into his frightened eyes.
Ethan nodded frantically, pointing a trembling finger toward a tray of uneaten, stale bread sitting on a plastic stool.
“She said if I told my dad about the papers in her closet, she would leave me down here forever,” he cried.
Emma’s mind raced as the horrific reality of the situation crashed over her with absolute, terrifying clarity.
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This wasn't a family bonding trip to Maine; this was a calculated, cold-blooded kidnapping happening inside the mansion.
And the billionaire father was upstairs right now, completely oblivious, celebrating his new marriage to a monster.
