Chapter 7 - The Girl in the Red Coat
Nathan had never understood how fear could become physical until that moment.
It pressed against his chest.
It narrowed his vision.
It turned every sound into noise.
“Lock the hospital!”
Daniel shouted orders into his radio.
Sarah pulled herself from bed.
Nathan caught her.
“You’re injured.”
“That’s my daughter.”
“I know.”
“Then move.”
Nathan did.
Security footage showed Lily leaving the room six minutes earlier beside a deputy.
Except the man was not a deputy.
The uniform was real.
The person wearing it was Peter Sloan’s younger brother, Thomas, a former corrections officer fired two years earlier.
Margaret Vale walked ten feet behind them.
Lily was wearing a red hospital coat.
She was not struggling.
That frightened Nathan even more.
“They told her something,” Sarah whispered.
Nathan paused the video.
Lily looked worried.
But not terrified.
“What would make her go willingly?”
Sarah’s face collapsed.
“The babies.”
Nathan understood.
“They told her Owen or Ethan needed her.”
Sarah nodded.
The footage showed Thomas leading Lily into a service stairwell.
A second camera caught them entering the underground parking garage.
Margaret’s SUV left three minutes later.
Daniel turned toward Sarah.
“Where would they take her?”
“The cabin.”
Nathan answered first.
“They need the code.”
Daniel ordered roadblocks.
Then Nathan looked at Sarah.
“What code?”
Sarah sat down.
“Dad’s hidden room has a mechanical lock.”
“You know the combination?”
“No.”
Nathan stared.
“Then how does Lily?”
“Dad left a puzzle.”
Nathan almost shouted.
“Sarah!”
“I solved it!”
She raised her voice too.
“I solved it years ago because I was the kid who spent rainy afternoons looking through Dad’s books.”
Nathan forced himself to calm down.
“What is the code?”
Sarah swallowed.
“I don’t remember the numbers.”
“But Lily does?”
“I turned it into a rhyme.”
Nathan stared in disbelief.
“She memorizes songs.”
Sarah’s eyes filled.
“I was scared Marcus would find the papers where I wrote it.”
“What rhyme?”
“Two for Mom, seven for Dad, nine for the summer we never had…”
Nathan closed his eyes.
“You taught a five-year-old a vault combination?”
“I taught my daughter the only thing I had left that might one day save her.”
Nathan stopped.
Sarah continued, quieter.
“If I died, I needed someone to know.”
Nathan had no response.
Daniel entered.
“Margaret’s SUV was spotted on Highway 207.”
“Direction?”
“North.”
The cabin.
Nathan grabbed his coat.
This time Sarah did not argue about accompanying him.
Because Daniel did.
“You’re staying.”
Sarah stared at him.
“No.”
“That’s not a request.”
“You can arrest me later.”
Nathan almost smiled despite everything.
Daniel sighed.
Twenty minutes later, they were inside an armored sheriff’s SUV heading north.
Snow still covered the road.
Nathan watched pine trees blur past.
Sarah sat beside him.
“Tell me something.”
“What?”
“Why did you name one twin Ethan?”
Sarah looked surprised.
Nathan continued.
“Ethan was Dad’s middle name.”
Sarah smiled faintly.
“Exactly.”
“And Owen?”
“Mom loved that name.”
Nathan looked out the window.
“You kept all of us.”
“What was good.”
He turned back.
Sarah’s eyes were tired.
“I tried not to let Marcus take everything.”
Nathan reached for her hand.
The mountain cabin appeared an hour later.
Nathan had not visited in nine years.
It looked smaller.
Older.
The porch sagged beneath snow.
Margaret Vale’s SUV stood outside.
Empty.
Daniel raised a hand.
Deputies spread through the trees.
No movement.
Nathan saw footprints.
One adult.
Another adult.
A child.
Leading inside.
Sarah whispered, “Lily.”
Daniel ordered Nathan and Sarah to remain behind.
They ignored him the moment his back turned.
The front door was unlocked.
Inside, the cabin smelled of cedar and cold ash.
A chair lay overturned.
Footprints continued toward the basement.
Nathan heard voices.
Margaret.
“Say it again.”
Lily.
“I forgot.”
Nathan’s heart pounded.
Thomas Sloan spoke next.
“She didn’t forget.”
Margaret answered.
“She’s frightened.”
Then Lily:
“My mommy says frightened people can forget.”
Nathan almost smiled.
She was lying to them.
Buying time.
Sarah covered her mouth.
Nathan whispered, “She’s incredible.”
“She shouldn’t have to be.”
They descended.
The basement door stood open.
Beyond it was a corridor Nathan had never seen.
Concrete walls disappeared into darkness.
Daniel signaled two deputies forward.
Suddenly Margaret shouted:
“I have a gun!”
Everyone froze.
“Back away!”
Daniel raised his voice.
“Margaret, this is Sheriff Reeves.”
“I know who you are.”
“We just want the child.”
“No.”
Nathan stepped around Daniel.
“Nathan!” Daniel hissed.
Margaret heard him.
“Dr. Pierce.”
Her voice echoed.
“Still rushing into rooms where nobody invited you.”
Nathan remembered Christmas cookies in her kitchen.
Birthday presents.
Her hand squeezing his shoulder at his father’s funeral.
“Let Lily go.”
“Charles deserves what your father stole.”
“My father stole nothing.”
“Your father was a coward.”
Sarah stepped forward.
“You’re the coward.”
Nathan looked at her.
Margaret laughed.
“Sarah. Still dramatic.”
Sarah’s face changed.
For seven years, men and women had used that word to erase her.
Tonight it failed.
“You sent Marcus.”
“Charles did.”
“You helped him.”
“I cleaned up his mistakes.”
“My children are not mistakes.”
“No.”
Margaret’s voice became almost tender.
“They’re leverage.”
Nathan heard Lily whimper.
His vision darkened.
“Margaret.”
“Stay where you are.”
A metal click.
Gun being cocked.
Daniel motioned everyone back.
Then Lily’s voice:
“Uncle Nathan?”
“I’m here.”
“Mommy?”
Sarah answered immediately.
“I’m here, baby.”
“I remembered what you said.”
Sarah’s brow furrowed.
“What?”
“When someone wants you scared…”
Nathan watched Sarah understand.
She finished softly:
“Make them look somewhere else.”
Suddenly Lily screamed.
“BEHIND YOU!”
Margaret turned instinctively.
There was nobody behind her.
Lily ran.
A gunshot exploded through the corridor.
Nathan lunged forward.
Lily appeared from the darkness in her red coat.
Sarah screamed.
Nathan reached her first and pulled her behind the wall.
Deputies rushed past.
“Police! Drop the weapon!”
Another gunshot.
Then shouting.
Then silence.
Nathan held Lily against his chest.
“Are you hurt?”
She shook violently.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
Sarah wrapped both arms around them.
Lily burst into tears.
For the first time since Nathan met her, she cried like a five-year-old.
Not quietly.
Not bravely.
She sobbed.
Sarah held her.
“You don’t have to be brave right now.”
Lily buried her face against her mother.
Deputies emerged with Thomas Sloan in handcuffs.
Then Margaret.
A bloody scrape marked Margaret’s forehead, but she was walking.
She saw Nathan.
“This isn’t over.”
Nathan stared at her.
“It is for you.”
Margaret smiled.
“You still don’t know Charles.”
Daniel led her away.
Then one deputy called from the hidden corridor.
“Sheriff!”
They entered the chamber.
The door was steel.
A keypad sat beside it.
Lily pointed.
“That’s the number door.”
Sarah knelt.
“You did so good.”
“I told them the wrong song.”
Sarah kissed her forehead.
Nathan examined the keypad.
“Do you remember the real code?”
Lily nodded.
Sarah whispered:
“You don’t have to.”
Lily looked at Nathan.
“Grandpa wanted you to know.”
She entered six numbers.
The lock clicked.
The hidden door opened.
Inside were shelves of sealed document boxes.
Old computer drives.
Medical files.
And one video camera.
Nathan lifted it.
A label had been taped to the side.
FOR NATHAN.
His hands shook.
There was a memory card inside.
Daniel found an old television and adapter upstairs.
They played the recording.
Nathan’s father appeared on screen.
Older.
Tired.
Alive in a way Nathan had forgotten.
He looked directly into the camera.
“Nathan, if you’re watching this, I failed to fix something before it reached you.”
Nathan stopped breathing.
His father continued.
“Charles Vale has been using our company to hurt people.”
Sarah grabbed Nathan’s hand.
“I have proof.”
Their father looked down briefly.
“And if Charles has already convinced you that your sister is your enemy, then listen carefully.”
Nathan felt the room disappear.
His father looked directly into the camera.
“Sarah is not the weak one.”
Nathan’s eyes filled.
“She is the one they will target because they know you will destroy anyone who hurts her.”
Nathan closed his eyes.
“They will not defeat this family by attacking our money.”
His father paused.
“They will do it by making you stop trusting each other.”
Nathan squeezed Sarah’s hand.
The recording continued.
And then their father said one final thing.
A name.
A name neither Nathan nor Sarah expected.
The person who had first told Charles Vale how to reach Sarah.
Nathan’s own former fiancée.
Rebecca Sloan.
May you like
Peter and Thomas Sloan’s sister.
The woman Nathan had almost married eleven years earlier.
