Chapter 7 - HE CAME FOR THE BABYMason expected Claire to be afraid.
Grant could tell from the way he entered the private reception room.
Relaxed.
Concerned.
Almost gentle.
He wore a charcoal suit and carried a diaper bag.
That detail made Grant want to hit him.
Two Cook County officers followed with a child-services representative named Karen Doyle.
Mason looked past Grant immediately.
“Where’s Claire?”
“Safe.”
“I’d like to see my son.”
Grant smiled slightly.
“No.”
Karen stepped forward.
“Mr. Whitmore, we have a lawful emergency order.”
Grant took the paper.
Read it.
Then handed it to Daniel.
Daniel needed thirty seconds.
“This judge signed it at 6:12 this morning.”
Karen nodded.
“Yes.”
“The petition references an evaluation conducted yesterday.”
“Yes.”
Daniel looked up.
“Claire Bennett did not undergo an evaluation yesterday.”
Karen frowned.
“I can only act on the order.”
Grant looked at Mason.
“What evaluator did you use?”
Mason’s expression remained calm.
“This hostility is unnecessary.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“Claire is unwell.”
Grant felt Claire behind the one-way glass watching.
He knew every word mattered.
Mason continued.
“She recently gave birth.”
“She’s exhausted.”
“She has a documented history of anxiety.”
Grant nodded.
“And apparently teleportation.”
Mason’s smile faded.
“What?”
“The evaluation was conducted at Northlake Family Services yesterday at 2:00 p.m.”
Grant pointed toward the ceiling.
“Claire was upstairs in my building at 2:00 p.m.”
Daniel placed security logs on the table.
“And we have video.”
Karen looked uncomfortable.
Mason did not.
“There must be a clerical error.”
Grant laughed.
“Interesting.”
“What?”
“Most innocent fathers panic when someone falsifies psychiatric evidence about the mother of their child.”
Mason’s jaw tightened.
“Where is Owen?”
Grant stepped closer.
“You tell me why Richard Hale needs his DNA.”
That did it.
For half a second, Mason’s face cracked.
Tiny.
But Grant saw it.
“So you do know,” Grant said.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Elliot.”
Mason’s eyes changed.
Grant knew immediately.
Mason knew the name.
Maybe not the truth.
But enough.
“Who is Elliot?” Grant asked.
Mason recovered.
“My cousin’s son.”
“No.”
Grant lowered his voice.
“He’s your brother.”
Mason stared.
Karen looked between them.
“This has nothing to do with the custody order.”
“It has everything to do with it,” Daniel said.
He placed copies of falsified documents on the table.
“Your order depends on fraudulent medical records.”
Karen’s face tightened.
She looked at the officers.
“I need to call my supervisor.”
Mason stood.
“No.”
Everyone turned.
He realized too late how sharp he sounded.
He softened his tone.
“Owen is at risk.”
Grant stared.
“From whom?”
“Claire.”
Behind the glass, Claire closed her eyes.
Grant imagined how many times Mason had said similar things.
He stepped closer.
“Say specifically what Claire has done.”
Mason hesitated.
“She’s unstable.”
“That’s an adjective.”
“She has irrational fears.”
“Such as?”
“That people are conspiring against her.”
Grant smiled.
“Unfortunately for you, people are.”
Mason’s nostrils flared.
“She slept in a stairwell with a newborn.”
“Because you changed the locks.”
“She refused resources.”
“Northlake?”
Mason said nothing.
Grant continued.
“The same Northlake that kidnapped Jessica Nolan?”
The officers looked at each other.
Karen stared.
Mason’s composure finally shifted.
“Jessica is mentally ill.”
The door opened.
Jessica walked in.
Mason’s face went white.
Grant had not planned it.
Jessica had.
She had been watching the monitor upstairs and refused to stay hidden.
“Say that again,” she said.
Mason stepped backward.
Jessica looked thinner than before.
Still frightened.
But standing.
“You told Patrick I would disappear eventually.”
Mason recovered.
“I don’t know you.”
Jessica laughed.
“Yes, you do.”
She pulled out her phone.
“I recorded you.”
Everyone froze.
Mason’s face changed.
Jessica continued.
“Willow House had a therapy room with a broken vent.”
“Conversations traveled.”
“I recorded you and Caroline talking three months ago.”
Mason stared at her.
“You’re lying.”
Jessica pressed play.
Static.
Then Mason’s unmistakable voice.
“If Bennett delivers before the petition clears, Richard wants the child secured immediately.”
A second voice.
Caroline.
“And the mother?”
“Same as Nolan.”
Jessica stopped the recording.
Silence swallowed the room.
Karen slowly lowered the custody order.
One officer looked at Mason.
“Sir, do you want to explain that?”
Mason turned toward the door.
Ethan blocked it.
“Move.”
“No.”
“I said move.”
Ethan smiled.
“You say that like people usually listen.”
Mason looked toward Grant.
“This is kidnapping.”
Grant laughed.
“You walked into my building voluntarily.”
Karen stepped aside and made a phone call.
Mason’s face changed again.
Now he was afraid.
Good.
Then the fire alarm sounded.
Grant’s blood went cold.
Not again.
Ethan immediately looked at the security panel.
“No fire.”
Mason smiled.
There it was.
Tiny.
Satisfaction.
Grant grabbed his arm.
“What did you do?”
Mason pulled free.
Nothing happened.
Then Claire screamed from behind the glass.
“Owen!”
Grant turned.
A woman dressed as a nurse was running down the secure hallway carrying a hospital bassinet.
Claire sprinted after her.
Grant moved.
Everything broke apart.
Ethan tackled Mason.
Daniel shouted for lockdown.
Grant hit the hallway at full speed.
The woman reached a stairwell.
Claire grabbed the bassinet.
The woman struck her across the face.
Claire fell.
Grant saw red.
He slammed into the woman before she could move again.
They crashed into the wall.
The bassinet rolled.
Claire crawled after it.
“Owen!”
It stopped inches before the stairwell drop.
Claire grabbed her baby.
The nurse reached inside her pocket.
Ethan shouted from behind.
“Gun!”
Grant pinned her wrist against the tile.
A pistol fell.
Security rushed in.
Claire crouched on the floor holding Owen.
Her cheek was bleeding.
But the baby was crying.
Alive.
Safe.
Grant looked toward Mason.
Ethan had dragged him into the hallway.
Mason stared at Claire.
Not with fear.
Not even anger.
With frustration.
As if a plan had failed.
Claire saw it.
Something changed in her face.
For four years, she had feared Mason.
Now she stood.
She walked toward him slowly with Owen against her chest.
“You sent her.”
Mason smiled faintly.
“You need help, Claire.”
Claire slapped him.
Hard.
The hallway went silent.
Mason’s head turned.
Claire’s voice was low.
“Don’t ever diagnose me again.”
Grant almost smiled.
Then the woman disguised as a nurse started laughing.
Everyone looked at her.
She had blood on her lip.
“Too late.”
Grant crouched.
“What’s too late?”
She smiled.
“You found the files.”
“Yes.”
“Then Richard already knows.”
“Knows what?”
“That Lydia failed.”
Grant’s stomach tightened.
“What happened to my sister?”
The woman looked at him.
“You still think she’s alive?”
Grant grabbed her collar.
Ethan pulled him back.
The woman laughed again.
“Ask your mother what happened at Willow House four years ago.”
Grant went still.
Margaret had said Lydia visited her four years ago.
Twenty minutes.
Then vanished.
Grant turned to Daniel.
“Call my mother.”
Daniel did.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Grant’s blood turned cold.
“Get someone to Lake Forest.”
Ethan immediately called a security unit.
The woman on the floor smiled.
“Richard hates loose ends.”
Grant looked at Claire.
She understood before anyone said it.
Margaret Whitmore was now a loose end.
Twenty-seven minutes later, Ethan received the call.
Grant watched his face.
“What?”
Ethan lowered the phone.
“Your mother’s house is empty.”
Grant stared.
“No sign of forced entry.”
“Staff?”
“Gone.”
“Her car?”
“In the garage.”
Grant felt rage rise.
Then Claire’s phone rang.
Blocked number.
Grant looked at her.
She answered on speaker.
Richard Hale’s voice came through.
Older.
Calm.
Powerful.
“Mr. Whitmore.”
Grant took the phone.
“You touch my mother—”
“Your mother is comfortable.”
Grant’s hand tightened.
“You have one hour.”
“For what?”
“To bring me Owen Bennett.”
Claire went white.
Richard continued.
“One baby for one old woman.”
“Simple exchange.”
Grant looked at Claire.
“No.”
Richard laughed softly.
“I wasn’t asking you.”
He hung up.
Claire stared at Grant.
Grant looked at Owen.
Then at Mason, handcuffed on the floor.
For the first time, Mason looked genuinely terrified.
Because Richard Hale had just proved something Mason had never wanted to believe.
May you like
His father did not care whether Mason survived this.
He only cared about the child.
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