Chapter 10 - THE BOARDROOM TRAPThe board meeting began at nine.
This wasn’t.
I didn’t scream.
I couldn’t.
I stood staring at Lily’s stuffed rabbit while every sound inside my body disappeared.
Daniel grabbed the back door.
“Lily!”
He ran outside barefoot.
“LILY!”
I finally moved.
I ran after him.
The backyard was empty.
Gate open.
No child.
No vehicle.
Nothing.
Detective Monroe arrived within minutes.
Police flooded the neighborhood.
Cameras were checked.
Neighbors questioned.
An Amber Alert prepared.
Then one security camera three houses away captured a gray delivery van turning onto our street.
It left four minutes later.
The plate was stolen.
I wanted to rip the world apart with my hands.
Dad blamed himself.
“They want me.”
“No.”
“They took her because of me.”
“They took her because they’re monsters.”
The red note demanded Dad attend the board meeting.
No police.
No public accusations.
No missed vote.
The implication was obvious.
Charles needed Dad physically present, but weak enough to control.
Maybe they believed Dad could still be pressured into approving something.
Maybe Susan wanted one last chance to restore the appearance of natural illness.
Monroe refused to let Dad walk into the meeting unprotected.
Dad refused not to go.
“That’s my granddaughter.”
“You’re also a target.”
“I don’t care.”
“I do.”
He stood with his walker.
His legs trembled.
“I already spent months letting them decide whether I was capable of making my own choices.”
He looked at Monroe.
“That ends today.”
Rebecca stepped forward.
“There might be another way.”
She had been studying Susan’s habits.
Years earlier, Susan and Charles had used an abandoned vacation property belonging to one of Charles’s companies.
A hunting lodge eighty miles outside the city.
Police searched it.
Empty.
But a neighbor reported seeing a gray van there that morning.
SWAT moved.
I begged to go.
They refused.
The next two hours destroyed me.
Then Monroe’s phone rang.
The lodge was empty.
But they found one of Lily’s shoes.
And a handwritten address.
Not for us.
For Susan.
Apparently Charles planned to move her again.
The address belonged to a warehouse near the river.
Police converged.
At the same time, Dad received a video call.
Unknown number.
Susan appeared.
Behind her was darkness.
“Robert.”
Dad’s face changed.
“Where’s Lily?”
“Safe.”
“Show me.”
The camera moved.
Lily sat on a folding chair.
She wasn’t tied.
She was crying.
“Grandpa!”
Dad gripped his walker.
“I’m here, Bug.”
Susan turned the camera back.
“You attend the meeting tomorrow.”
“I will.”
“You vote to retain Charles.”
Dad’s jaw tightened.
“And?”
“You sign the temporary proxy.”
“To you?”
“Yes.”
“And Lily comes home?”
“After the documents are executed.”
Dad looked at Monroe.
She nodded.
“Fine.”
Susan smiled.
“Good.”
I stepped into view.
“Susan.”
Her expression darkened.
“You should have minded your own business.”
“You threatened my child.”
“You raised a nosy child.”
Rage nearly blinded me.
Lily screamed, “Mommy!”
“I’m here!”
Susan jerked the phone.
“Enough.”
“Let me talk to her!”
“Tomorrow.”
The call ended.
Police traced only part of it.
Susan had moved again.
The warehouse address was a decoy.
But Lily had helped us.
During the call, she kept tapping her foot.
Three taps.
Pause.
Three taps.
Pause.
I thought she was frightened.
Dad understood.
“That game.”
“What?”
“When she was three, I taught her a tapping game.”
He demonstrated.
Three taps.
Pause.
Two.
Pause.
Four.
Numbers.
Lily had been tapping numbers.
3-1-7.
“Address?” Monroe asked.
Dad shook his head.
“Maybe.”
Rebecca suddenly stood.
“Room number.”
Everyone looked at her.
“There’s a motel Susan used years ago.”
She gave the name.
A run-down place near the interstate.
Room 317.
Police surrounded it within twenty minutes.
But room 317 was empty.
Again.
My hope collapsed.
Then an officer noticed something scratched into the dusty television stand.
A child’s handwriting.
GPA SAID FOLLOW WATER
Dad stared at the photograph.
“I told her once that if she ever got lost hiking, follow water downhill.”
The motel sat beside a drainage creek.
Police followed it.
Half a mile away stood an abandoned municipal pumping station.
The gray van was parked behind it.
This time Susan was there.
So was Lily.
So was Charles Vane.
The rescue happened fast.
Charles ran.
Susan tried to use Lily as leverage.
But Lily bit her hand.
Hard.
Susan screamed.
Lily dropped to the floor.
Officers rushed in.
Charles was caught near the riverbank.
Susan was arrested inside.
When Monroe called me, I couldn’t understand the words at first.
“She’s safe.”
“What?”
“Emily, Lily is safe.”
My knees hit the floor.
Daniel caught me.
Dad covered his face.
Forty-five minutes later, a patrol vehicle brought my daughter to the hospital for evaluation.
I ran toward her.
“Mommy!”
I lifted her so hard she squealed.
“I knew you’d find me.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You always say sorry now.”
I laughed and cried at the same time.
Dad knelt as best he could.
Lily hugged his neck.
“I did the taps.”
“You sure did.”
“I remembered.”
“You’re the smartest girl I know.”
Then she whispered something into his ear.
Dad’s face changed.
“What?”
Lily looked at me.
“The angry man said Susan was stupid.”
“Charles?”
She nodded.
“He said he had another plan.”
Monroe crouched.
“What plan?”
“He said even if they got caught, Grandpa already signed everything.”
Dad went still.
“I didn’t sign the proxy.”
Lily shook her head.
“He said you signed it a long time ago.”
Dad looked terrified.
Then his phone rang.
Samuel Price.
His attorney.
Dad answered.
Samuel didn’t bother greeting him.
“Robert, we have a serious problem.”
“What?”
“I just received notice from the board.”
Dad’s face drained.
“They have a signed proxy transferring your voting authority.”
“That’s impossible.”
Samuel’s voice lowered.
“The signature has been notarized.”
“When?”
“Three months ago.”
Dad whispered, “I never signed it.”
Samuel answered:
“I believe you.”
May you like
Then he added the part that changed everything.
“But legally, unless we can prove fraud before tomorrow morning, Charles may still control the company.”
