Chapter 6: The Order They Couldn’t Refuse
“Both?” I whispered.
“What does he want with me?”
Nora looked at the forged document.
“Your signature was not only consent.
It made you guarantor for everything Martin took.”
Martin shook his head.
“That clause wasn’t there.”
Celia flipped through the pages.
“Victor added it after you signed.”
“So help us,” I said.
Celia looked toward the shattered phone.
“If I cross him, he’ll destroy my career.”
Lily wiped her face.
“He tried to destroy my life.”
Celia’s shoulders dropped.
“You’re right.”
She took out her own phone and photographed every page in the box.
Martin laughed bitterly.
“You think pictures will stop Victor?”
“No,” Celia said.
“But the federal prosecutor I send them to might.”
Before she could press send, two police officers entered with a uniformed supervisor.
“Helen Davis?” the supervisor asked.
“Yes.”
“You are being detained under suspicion of unlawful removal of a minor from her legal guardian.”
I stared at him.
“I am her mother.”
He showed me a court order.
“According to this, Martin Davis has sole custody.
Meridian is authorized to provide emergency treatment.”
Celia snatched the page.
“This order was issued twenty minutes ago.”
The supervisor held out his hand.
“Return it.”
“The courthouse is closed,” she said.
“No judge reviewed this.”
Martin smiled.
“Victor told you he knew everyone.”
I moved in front of Lily.
“You will have to take me first.”
The officers pulled my hands behind me.
Lily tried to climb from the bed, but Dr.
Shah stopped her.
“Your stitches could tear.”
“Don’t let them take my mother!”
Martin stepped close.
“Behave, Lily, and she goes home.”
I lunged toward him.
The officers tightened their grip.
“You threatened her in front of witnesses,” I said.
“I offered her a choice.”
Nora approached Lily with a folded sweater.
“The hospital is cold, sweetheart.”
One officer waved her back, but Nora draped it around Lily’s shoulders.
Her fingers slipped briefly into the sleeve.
“Keep your hand near the cuff,” Nora whispered.
Martin did not notice.
The police escorted me toward the elevator.
Celia walked beside us.
“Send the photographs,” I said.
“My phone has no signal.”
“Then find one that does.”
The doors opened on the ground floor.
Detective Grace Mercer stood beside an unmarked car.
“I’ll take Mrs.
Davis,” she told the officers.
The supervisor frowned.
“Meridian requested direct transfer.”
Grace showed her badge.
“Meridian does not direct my investigation.”
She placed me in the back seat, then leaned through the door.
“I received an anonymous package three weeks ago,” she said quietly.
“It contained the names of twelve missing children and one photograph of Lily.”
“Nora sent it.”
“I believe so.
But without Victor’s own words, the warrants keep dying on someone’s desk.”
My phone buzzed inside the evidence bag on the front seat.
Grace held it up.
A live audio file had appeared from an unknown device.
Nora’s voice came through first.
“Can you hear me, Lily?”
“Yes,” Lily whispered.
May you like
Then Martin spoke close to her hidden microphone.
“When we reach Meridian, you will tell Victor your mother knew everything—or she will never come home.”
