Chapter 8 - The Night My Sons Disappeared
I called Mercer before I reached the hospital corridor.
He answered immediately.
“Alexander?”
“Move the children.”
A pause.
“What's wrong?”
“Nicholas knows about Lake Briar.”
Mercer's voice sharpened.
“How?”
“Sophia just told me.”
“I'm contacting the team.”
I heard keys clicking.
Then silence.
Too much silence.
“Daniel?”
“I'm trying to reach the house.”
My pulse accelerated.
“Call Eleanor.”
“I am.”
Seconds passed.
No answer.
Mercer tried again.
Still nothing.
I felt the hospital walls closing around me.
“Get someone there.”
“Units are already moving.”
I gripped the phone.
“Daniel, those are my sons.”
“I know.”
His voice softened.
“I know, Alexander.”
I returned to Sophia's room.
She saw my face and understood immediately.
“What happened?”
“We can't reach the house.”
Her expression turned white.
“No.”
I moved toward her.
“The team is responding.”
“Nicholas said he'd take them.”
“Not if I can stop him.”
She began shaking.
I held her hand.
“Look at me, Sophie.”
Tears streamed down her face.
“Not again.”
“We're going to find them.”
“You don't understand what he's capable of.”
“I understand enough.”
She closed her eyes.
“He told me he was going to make you choose.”
“Choose what?”
“Your sons or your empire.”
I stared at her.
Sophia gripped my arm.
“He believes your father's second trust contains enough assets to restore his financial position. But he needs a legal connection to all four heirs.”
“Why all four?”
“Because your father designed the beneficiary provisions around your descendants. Nicholas tried to alter them, but the independent trustees refused.”
I shook my head.
“Father never told me.”
“He may have intended to, but he died before the final disclosure.”
I leaned forward.
“How did you find out?”
“Northstar kept copies of documents Nicholas was attempting to obtain. He made me review them.”
My jaw tightened.
“Did he force you to sign anything?”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“Statements about the boys. Medical authorizations. Guardianship forms.”
“Under threat?”
She nodded.
“I told him none of it would hold up.”
“Then why sign?”
Her eyes filled.
“Because he showed me photographs of them.”
I pulled her close.
I had spent years believing my family's wealth could protect anyone I loved.
Now that wealth had become the reason my children were hunted.
My phone rang.
Mercer.
I answered immediately.
“Daniel?”
His voice was grim.
“The Lake Briar property was breached.”
My blood went cold.
“The boys?”
“We're still checking.”
“Eleanor?”
“We found one guard injured. He's alive.”
I gripped the phone.
“Tell me my children are safe.”
Silence.
Then Mercer said, “They aren't at the house.”
I couldn't breathe.
The room seemed to disappear around me.
Sophia watched my face.
“No,” she whispered.
Mercer continued.
“There's evidence of a forced entry. The vehicles are gone. We're reviewing camera footage from the surrounding roads.”
I pressed my hand against the wall.
For the second time in five years, someone had taken my family.
I heard Sophia begin crying.
I looked at her.
And something inside me hardened.
Nicholas had stolen my wife.
He had stolen years from my sons.
He had stolen my brother.
My trust.
My father's memory.
Now he believed he could take my children and bargain with their lives.
He was wrong.
I turned toward Mercer.
“Get every available investigator working on this.”
“They are.”
“Preserve the evidence. Alert the interstate network. Contact the trustees. Freeze every legitimate company transaction Nicholas might exploit.”
“Understood.”
“And Daniel?”
“Yes?”
“I want Nicholas to know something.”
“What?”
“I'll sign away every dollar I own before I let him hurt those boys.”
Mercer was silent.
Then he said, “I believe you.”
Three hours later, investigators recovered security footage from a gas station near Lake Briar.
A dark van had passed at 10:17 a.m.
Behind it was a black SUV.
Both vehicles used stolen license plates.
The footage showed a woman in the passenger seat of the van.
Gray hair.
Eleanor.
She appeared conscious.
And she was holding Matthew on her lap.
I gripped the edge of the desk.
“They're alive.”
Mercer nodded.
“At the time of the footage, yes.”
“Can you see the other boys?”
“Not clearly.”
Then another image appeared.
A camera inside the gas station captured the same van stopping briefly.
A guard stepped out.
He bought water and snacks.
As he returned, the side door opened slightly.
A small hand appeared.
Benjamin.
He dropped something onto the pavement.
The guard didn't notice.
A moment later, the van left.
Investigators later recovered the object.
It was a small plastic wheel.
From Benjamin's favorite toy truck.
I held it in my palm.
My son had left a clue.
Four years old.
Terrified.
But thinking.
Just like his mother.
Mercer examined the footage.
“The van continued north.”
“Toward Wisconsin?”
“Yes.”
“Nicholas is taking them to another property.”
“Likely.”
Then my phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered immediately.
Nicholas laughed softly.
“Hello, Alex.”
My body went rigid.
“Where are my children?”
“Safe.”
“Let me speak to them.”
“In time.”
“Nicholas.”
“You sound tired.”
“If you've hurt them—”
“You always threaten before you listen.”
I gripped the phone.
“What do you want?”
“Your company. Your voting shares. Your rights under Father's trust.”
“You can have the company.”
Silence.
Nicholas sounded genuinely surprised.
“Just like that?”
“Yes.”
“Billions of dollars?”
“Yes.”
“Your hotels? Your investments? Your precious towers?”
“All of it.”
He laughed.
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I want my family.”
His tone changed.
“You really have become sentimental.”
“No,” I said quietly. “I've become a father.”
For a moment, he said nothing.
Then he spoke.
“Tomorrow. Noon. The old Moretti lodge.”
I knew the property.
Our father had owned a hunting lodge near Eagle River.
Nicholas and I had spent summers there as boys.
After his disappearance, Father had sold it.
Or claimed he had.
“Come alone,” Nicholas said.
“Bring the transfer documents.”
“Let me speak to the boys.”
He hesitated.
Then I heard movement.
A muffled voice.
And Matthew shouted, “Daddy Alexander!”
My heart stopped.
“Matty!”
“We're in a big house!”
“Are you hurt?”
“No! But Eleanor's crying!”
“Listen to me, sweetheart. I'm coming.”
“Promise?”
I closed my eyes.
“I promise.”
A rough voice interrupted.
Then Nicholas returned.
“No police, Alex.”
The call ended.
I stood motionless.
Matthew's voice echoed in my head.
Daddy Alexander.
Promise?
I had made too many promises to those boys to fail them now.
Mercer entered with two investigators.
“We have the location,” he said.
“The lodge?”
He nodded.
“The property was transferred to a trust twenty years ago. Nicholas controls it through intermediaries.”
I looked at the map.
The lodge stood beside a lake surrounded by woods.
Only one main road led in.
There were service paths.
An old boathouse.
A maintenance trail.
I remembered every part of that property.
Nicholas and I had played hide-and-seek there when we were children.
We had raced bicycles down the gravel road.
We had caught fish from the dock.
We had built a treehouse behind the old barn.
Now he was using our childhood home to hold my sons hostage.
The cruelty was almost unbearable.
Mercer explained that the authorities would plan the operation, prioritizing the hostages' safety.
I listened.
I answered questions.
I signed the necessary documents.
And that evening, I returned to Sophia's bedside.
She was sitting near the window.
Her face looked pale.
But her eyes were steady.
“Did you find them?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Father's old lodge.”
She closed her eyes.
“Nicholas used to talk about that place.”
“I know.”
She turned toward me.
“Lex, promise me something.”
“Anything.”
“Don't let him turn you into him.”
I sat beside her.
“He has our sons.”
“I know.”
“He stole five years from us.”
“I know.”
“He nearly destroyed you.”
Sophia touched my face.
“And he doesn't get to destroy what's left.”
Tears burned behind my eyes.
She leaned closer.
“Bring our boys home. Let the law deal with Nicholas. We have already lost too much.”
I pressed my forehead against hers.
“I don't know how to forgive him.”
“I'm not asking you to.”
“Then what?”
“I'm asking you to survive him.”
I held her for a long time.
Then she whispered the words I needed most.
“You're not alone anymore, Lex.”
The following morning, I prepared to meet my brother.
Not as a billionaire.
Not as the head of Moretti Holdings.
May you like
Not as the man who had spent thirty years protecting an empire.
But as a father who had promised four little boys he would come back.
