Chapter 10 - The Attempt to Take Ethan
Emma stared at the pediatric clinic manager.
“You’re saying someone changed my baby’s appointment?”
“Yes.”
“To an address you don’t use?”
The woman looked embarrassed.
“Our receptionist received a call from someone claiming to be you.”
Emma felt ice spreading through her chest.
“How did they verify my identity?”
“Date of birth. Address. Ethan’s date of birth.”
Information Victor could easily have obtained.
Emma immediately called Detective Collins.
Within an hour, federal agents searched the false appointment address.
The building was empty.
One security camera captured a black sedan arriving twice during the previous week.
The plates were stolen.
Claire remained with Emma and Ethan.
“You can’t stay here.”
Emma nodded.
The trust-owned guesthouse had seemed secure.
Not anymore.
Thomas arranged a private residence in the mountains.
Federal agents wanted Emma temporarily relocated.
Ryan volunteered to stay away.
“No one should be able to track her through me.”
His cooperation surprised investigators.
He moved into Melissa’s basement.
No luxury hotel.
No expensive apartment.
He sold his sports car.
Then the Aspen watch.
Then several designer items.
Melissa found him boxing expensive bottles of whiskey.
“What are you doing?”
“Getting rid of everything I used to think mattered.”
Melissa crossed her arms.
“Selling your stuff doesn’t make you a better person.”
“I know.”
“Then why?”
Ryan looked at her.
“Because every time I see it, I remember choosing those things over my family.”
He donated most of the money to a maternal emergency care fund at St. Matthew’s.
He did not tell Emma.
Melissa eventually did.
Emma remained quiet.
“Does that change anything?” Melissa asked.
“No.”
But that night Emma reread Ryan’s letter.
Meanwhile Patricia’s cooperation produced Victor’s likely destination.
He owned a private cabin outside Breckenridge under a shell company.
Agents arrived.
Empty.
But inside they found photographs.
Emma leaving the hospital.
Ryan entering the federal building.
Claire driving home.
Ethan in a car seat.
Dozens.
Victor had been tracking everyone.
Then investigators found one photograph that made Claire collapse into a chair.
Her father.
Samuel Bennett.
Taken the morning he died.
Victor had been watching him too.
Claire finally had confirmation.
Her father’s accident had likely not been random.
But Victor remained missing.
Three days passed.
Then Emma received a package.
No return address.
Inside was Ryan’s broken Aspen watch.
The one that shattered when he dropped his suitcase after discovering the bloody nursery.
Emma stared.
Police had logged the watch at the house.
Someone must have taken it before investigators secured the scene.
Underneath the watch was a note.
He left you once. He’ll do it again.
Then Ethan began crying upstairs.
Emma raced to him.
He was safe.
But the alarm system suddenly beeped.
SIDE DOOR OPEN.
Emma froze.
Claire grabbed Ethan.
Federal protection officers moved through the house.
“Stay here!”
A crash sounded downstairs.
Emma heard shouting.
Then footsteps.
An officer yelled.
“Stop!”
A man ran through the backyard.
He escaped into the trees.
Investigators found no weapon.
But they found a small medical cooler near Ethan’s diaper bag.
Inside were sedatives.
Emma’s knees weakened.
Victor had not been trying to kill Ethan.
He intended to take him.
Why?
Leverage.
A baby could force Emma to do almost anything.
Police tightened protection.
Ryan learned about the attempt and became frantic.
“I need to see them.”
Melissa blocked the basement stairs.
“No.”
“My son was almost kidnapped!”
“And Emma has agents with her.”
“I’m his father.”
Melissa stared.
“You don’t get to use that sentence whenever it becomes convenient.”
Ryan stopped.
She softened slightly.
“If Emma needs you, she’ll call.”
Ryan sat down.
Hours passed.
At 2:11 a.m., his phone rang.
Emma.
Ryan answered instantly.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes.”
“Ethan?”
“Safe.”
Ryan closed his eyes.
“Thank God.”
Emma was quiet.
Then she asked, “Do you still have the cabin keys?”
Ryan frowned.
“What cabin?”
“Your father’s old cabin near Breckenridge.”
Ryan sat upright.
“Why?”
“Victor used a cabin there.”
Ryan’s heart stopped.
“My father had one too.”
“Where?”
Ryan gave her the location.
Emma told Detective Collins.
Agents searched Richard’s property before sunrise.
They found nothing in the main cabin.
Then an investigator noticed fresh tire marks behind an old maintenance shed.
The shed door was locked.
Inside they found food.
Water.
Blankets.
A laptop.
And several passports.
Victor had been staying there.
But he was gone.
On the wall was a map.
One location circled.
Denver County Family Court.
The date beside it was two days away.
Emma’s preliminary divorce hearing.
Detective Collins immediately recommended remote appearance.
Emma agreed.
Ryan also agreed.
But Thomas noticed something strange.
Victor had circled not just the courthouse.
He had written a courtroom number.
4B.
Emma’s hearing was scheduled in courtroom 6A.
Thomas checked public records.
“What’s in 4B?”
The clerk answered.
“Probate hearings.”
Thomas searched the docket.
His face changed.
A petition had been secretly filed under Evelyn Brooks’s estate.
The petitioner claimed Emma Parker was medically incapacitated and requested emergency control over trust distributions.
The person seeking control?
Ryan Parker.
Ryan had never filed anything.
But someone had forged his signature.
And the hearing was in forty-eight hours.
Victor wasn’t planning to kidnap Ethan merely for leverage.
He was attempting to legally seize control of Emma’s fortune using Ryan’s identity.
If the court approved the emergency petition before the fraud was discovered, millions could be moved in hours.
For the first time, Emma understood Victor’s endgame.
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He did not need Ryan to cooperate.
He only needed Ryan to look guilty.
