Chapter 6 - THE WOMAN WHO ORDERED THE BABYMason refused to name the person who had ordered Noah’s abduction.
Not until his lawyer arrived.
Not during interrogation.
Not after prosecutors threatened him with life imprisonment.
He simply repeated one sentence.
“She is closer than you think.”
Claire hated riddles.
She hated them even more when they involved babies.
Noah remained under constant guard in a private medical suite beneath Victor’s monastery.
Rachel refused to sleep unless he was beside her.
Caleb refused to leave Rachel.
Ethan refused to leave Claire.
Claire noticed that last part before he did.
Her shoulder wound was minor.
The bullet had grazed muscle.
She needed stitches, antibiotics, and rest.
Ethan stationed two guards outside her room anyway.
“You realize I’m not royalty,” Claire said.
“No.”
“Good.”
“You’re more inconvenient.”
Claire stared at him.
“That might be the closest you’ve come to flirting.”
His expression changed.
For the first time, Ethan Blackwood looked embarrassed.
Claire smiled despite herself.
Then everything became serious again.
Federal agents arrived with news.
Mason’s phone records included dozens of calls to a number registered to a woman named Helen Ward.
Claire had never heard the name.
Rachel had.
“My mother.”
The room froze.
Rachel’s mother, Helen Ward, lived in Boston.
She had attended Noah’s birth virtually.
She had received minute-by-minute updates.
She knew Noah had been born alive.
Exactly the information needed to trigger the payment.
Rachel shook her head violently.
“No.”
Caleb sat beside her.
“We need to hear everything.”
Helen had always hated the Blackwoods.
She objected to Rachel marrying Caleb.
She believed the family was violent and corrupt.
But hatred was not the same as kidnapping.
Agents showed them financial records.
Helen had received twelve million dollars from a Vale-controlled foundation over seven years.
Rachel looked ill.
“I didn’t know.”
Victor asked, “Where is she?”
“Missing.”
Claire stared at Mason’s message again.
She is closer than you think.
Helen was emotionally close.
Not physically.
Unless—
“Check the monastery staff.”
Ethan looked at her.
“What?”
“Everyone.”
Victor’s security team reviewed personnel.
One housekeeper had started three weeks earlier.
Fake identity.
Fake references.
Her photograph appeared.
Rachel screamed.
“Mom.”
Helen Ward had been inside the monastery for two days.
Noah began crying from the next room.
Everyone ran.
The crib was empty.
Claire’s blood went cold.
A guard lay unconscious beside the window.
The hidden service elevator stood open.
Rachel collapsed.
Caleb roared at security.
Ethan grabbed a weapon.
Claire saw something on the crib mattress.
A folded note.
She opened it.
YOU STOLE MY DAUGHTER.
I’M TAKING HER SON BACK.
Rachel sobbed.
“My mother thinks she’s saving him.”
Caleb stared at her.
“From me.”
Claire remembered Helen’s motive.
Not money.
Fear.
Helen believed the Blackwoods would destroy Noah.
Mason had used that fear.
Maybe for years.
They tracked Helen’s stolen vehicle south.
Claire insisted on coming.
Ethan refused.
She got into the SUV anyway.
“Claire.”
“You know this conversation is pointless.”
He shut the door.
They found Helen at a church outside Joliet.
No weapons.
No army.
Just an older woman holding Noah in a pew.
Rachel entered first.
“Mom.”
Helen turned.
Tears filled her eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
Rachel crossed the aisle and slapped her.
Then hugged her.
Helen broke down.
“I thought they would kill him.”
Caleb stopped near the door.
Helen saw him.
Her face became terrified.
“You’re alive.”
“Yes.”
“Mason told me you were coming back to take Rachel and the baby into hiding.”
Caleb said nothing.
Helen looked at Rachel.
“He showed me documents. Photos. He said your husband had become unstable.”
Claire watched Caleb’s jaw tighten.
Mason had weaponized Caleb’s imprisonment against him.
Helen had believed she was helping remove Noah from danger.
“What was the plan?” Ethan asked.
Helen looked ashamed.
“Mason said Whitmore would temporarily stop Noah’s heart. They would declare him dead, take him downstairs, revive him, and give him to me.”
Rachel looked horrified.
“You let them poison my baby?”
“I thought it was medically controlled.”
Claire nearly exploded.
“You cannot medically control cardiac arrest in a newborn.”
Helen cried.
“Mason said—”
“Mason lies.”
Noah whimpered.
Claire took him and checked his breathing.
Fine.
Then she noticed a red mark beneath his heel.
Fresh needle puncture.
“What did you give him?”
Helen looked confused.
“Nothing.”
Claire’s pulse spiked.
“Who touched him?”
“A priest helped me when I arrived.”
Ethan drew his weapon.
The church doors slammed.
An elderly priest stepped from the confession booth.
Except he was not elderly.
The gray beard peeled away.
Mason Vale smiled.
Claire stared.
“You escaped.”
He raised a detonator.
“Technically, I was transferred.”
Ethan’s face darkened.
Corrupt officers.
Of course.
Mason nodded toward Noah.
“The needle contains a tracking implant.”
Claire looked at the puncture.
“Why?”
Mason smiled.
“Because this church isn’t where I’m taking him.”
Outside, engines roared.
Armored vehicles surrounded the building.
Victor’s security team?
No.
Mason’s.
Caleb raised his weapon.
Mason held up the detonator.
“Drop it.”
No one moved.
“There are explosives beneath the pews.”
Rachel went pale.
“Mom…”
Helen looked destroyed.
Mason had used her again.
Weapons hit the floor.
Mason’s men entered.
They took Noah.
Rachel fought.
Caleb punched one attacker and was hit with a rifle.
Claire screamed.
Mason walked toward her.
“You are extraordinarily troublesome.”
“People tell me that.”
He smiled.
“You ruined a perfect plan.”
“Good.”
“Not good enough.”
He touched Claire’s injured shoulder.
Ethan lunged.
A rifle butt struck him.
Mason laughed.
Then he whispered something into Claire’s ear.
“Ask Victor why your mother was killed two days after she visited his house.”
Claire stared at him.
Mason walked away with Noah.
The armored vehicles departed.
Thirty seconds later, Ethan discovered the truth about the explosives.
There were none.
Just wires.
Fake detonator.
A bluff.
Caleb punched a pew.
Rachel screamed at Helen.
Claire stood silent.
One thought consumed her.
Her mother had visited Victor.
Two days later, she disappeared.
Victor had claimed Mason’s father was responsible.
Maybe that was another lie.
They returned to the monastery.
Victor was waiting.
Claire walked directly to him.
“Did Laura Bennett come to your house?”
Victor’s face changed.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“She wanted money.”
Claire felt fury.
“For what?”
“To disappear.”
“Why?”
Victor looked toward Evelyn.
“She believed someone was hunting her.”
Claire stepped closer.
“Did you give her money?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“Two hundred thousand.”
“Then why did she disappear two days later?”
Victor stared at her.
“I don’t know.”
Claire raised her hand.
Ethan caught her wrist before she slapped him.
She yanked free.
“My mother vanished. You had money. You had killers. You had motive to silence her.”
Victor did not defend himself.
That frightened her.
Then Evelyn spoke.
“Victor didn’t kill Laura.”
Claire turned.
“How do you know?”
“Because I did.”
The room became silent.
Claire stared at Evelyn Blackwood.
The woman who had thanked her.
Protected her.
Saved her from Whitmore.
Evelyn’s eyes filled with tears.
“I killed your mother.”
Claire could barely breathe.
“Why?”
May you like
Evelyn whispered:
“Because she begged me to.”
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