Chapter 11 - The Third Bracelet
Helen Warren was held at the abandoned printing facility, but Cassandra and Price knew police had discovered it. The exchange would take place elsewhere.
Federal agents traced fragments of the call to an industrial district near Milwaukee. Too many warehouses stood within the radius to search quickly.
Evelyn admitted she had withheld one detail.
On the morning Robert brought Daniel home, he carried two hospital bracelets.
One read Harper.
The other read Ruiz Twin B.
Robert burned the second bracelet after Rebecca warned him never to question the exchange.
“Why would Helen remember more?” Daniel asked.
“She was the nurse who handed you to your father.”
Caroline studied Evelyn.
“You knew Daniel was Elena’s child?”
“Not then. Robert found the connection years later.”
“What else did he learn?”
Evelyn hesitated.
“That there may have been a third baby involved.”
Elena had delivered twins.
Evelyn had delivered one son.
Three infants entered the network in the same forty-eight-hour period.
Daniel was Elena’s son.
Adam Whitmore was likely Evelyn’s biological child.
But Elena’s daughter, Mara, had remained within the system.
The third bracelet could establish who had arranged each transfer and whether another family had knowingly paid for Daniel.
Cassandra did not care only about history. She feared Helen could identify her parents.
Her parents had raised Cassandra within the Red Umbrella network.
Cassandra herself might be one of the stolen children.
The distinction between perpetrator and victim became more complicated with every revelation.
“That doesn’t excuse what she did,” Mara said.
“No,” Daniel replied. “But it may explain what she’s afraid of.”
They planned the exchange using a false reconstruction code. Daniel would wear a transmitter. Evelyn would remain in an armored vehicle despite Cassandra’s demand.
At midnight, a message directed Daniel to an abandoned railroad terminal.
He entered alone carrying a drive.
Helen sat bound to a chair beneath a hanging work light. Samuel Price stood behind her with a gun.
Cassandra emerged from the shadows.
Her black-stone ring caught the light.
“Where’s Evelyn?”
“Safe.”
“That wasn’t the agreement.”
“You get me or no one.”
Cassandra held out her hand.
Daniel lifted the drive.
“First, Helen walks out.”
Price laughed.
“You’re not negotiating an audit.”
“No. Audits involve smarter criminals.”
Price struck Helen across the head.
Daniel fought the urge to move.
Cassandra stepped closer.
“Your wife said you were arrogant.”
“My wife lied about nearly everything.”
“She loved you.”
“Love that requires someone else’s suffering is ownership.”
The words affected Cassandra.
Daniel saw it.
“Who were your parents?” he asked.
“None of your business.”
“You think Helen knows.”
Cassandra’s expression tightened.
“She destroyed my family.”
“Or someone lied to you about what she did.”
Price snapped, “Take the drive.”
Cassandra reached for it.
Daniel pulled back.
“Helen tells us first.”
Price pressed the gun against the nurse’s neck.
Helen lifted her bruised face.
“Cassandra,” she whispered. “Your mother did not abandon you.”
Cassandra froze.
“She signed the papers.”
“She was told you needed surgery. Rebecca said the papers authorized treatment.”
“You’re lying.”
“Her name was Joanna Reed. She came back every day for three weeks. Rebecca had police arrest her for trespassing.”
Cassandra’s breathing became ragged.
“My parents said she was unstable.”
“Your adoptive father paid Rebecca ninety thousand dollars.”
Price fired.
The bullet struck Helen in the chest.
Cassandra screamed.
Federal agents surged from concealment.
Daniel threw himself behind a concrete pillar as gunfire tore through the terminal. Price ran toward the tracks. Cassandra stood frozen beside Helen.
Daniel crawled to the nurse.
Blood spread across her coat.
“Stay with me.”
Helen gripped his hand.
“The bracelet,” she gasped.
“What about it?”
“Robert didn’t burn it.”
“Where is it?”
“Inside the compass.”
Daniel’s silver compass—the one Caroline gave him before disappearing—was locked in evidence in Chicago.
Helen was rushed to surgery.
Price escaped through a maintenance tunnel. Cassandra surrendered, still holding Helen’s blood on her hands.
Inside the compass, technicians found a thin metal disk hidden beneath the needle.
It contained micro-engraved numbers matching three hospital case files.
The third file belonged to Cassandra.
Her biological mother, Joanna Reed, was alive in Minnesota.
When Cassandra learned the truth, she agreed to cooperate.
She identified Price’s financial contacts and revealed that he planned to flee through Canada with the archive fragments.
But first, he intended to kill the only person who could prove he had participated from the beginning.
Thomas Reddick.
Price had arranged for a corrupt transport officer to attack Reddick during a court transfer.
Federal marshals changed the route.
The attack came anyway.
A truck struck the prison convoy on an interstate bridge.
Two vehicles overturned.
Reddick survived the collision, crawled from the wreck, and disappeared before backup arrived.
Price had not tried to kill him.
He had freed him.
The two oldest surviving members of the network were now working together.
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Their target was the federal evidence vault containing Robert’s original cabinet files.
And Vanessa knew exactly how to access it.
