Chapter 5 - June's Missing Children
The next morning, June didn't show up.
That wasn't like her.
She had never missed work.
I called.
No answer.
I sent Ethan to her apartment.
He called me ten minutes later.
“She isn't there.”
“Her mother?”
“Gone too.”
My blood went cold.
I checked the security footage from the mansion.
At 11:42 p.m., a black sedan had entered the driveway.
A man got out.
He spoke to June.
She looked frightened.
Then she left with him.
I recognized the vehicle.
Victor.
We found June's phone abandoned near a train station.
Inside was one message.
Bring the files, or your children disappear.
My stomach dropped.
“Lila and Micah.”
We contacted authorities.
Then I made a decision.
I was going after her.
Ethan tried to stop me.
“You can't.”
“She's my employee.”
“She isn't property.”
“I know.”
“Then don't make this about your guilt.”
I looked at him.
“This isn't guilt.”
“What is it?”
“Responsibility.”
We traced Victor's vehicle to an abandoned warehouse outside Chicago.
The police surrounded it.
We entered through the rear.
The building was empty.
Except for one room.
June was there.
Tied to a chair.
Alive.
She looked terrified.
I ran toward her.
“June.”
She lifted her head.
“Mr. Blackwell.”
“Where are your children?”
Her face crumpled.
“I don't know.”
A speaker crackled overhead.
Victor's voice.
“You shouldn't have come.”
I looked around.
“Where are they?”
“Safe.”
“Let them go.”
“Bring me Lena's files.”
I stared at the camera.
“You killed my wife.”
Silence.
Then:
“She found things she shouldn't have.”
My heart stopped.
“You admit it?”
“No.”
“You just did.”
He laughed.
“You've always been too emotional, Daniel.”
I looked at June.
Then at the camera.
“You made one mistake.”
“What?”
“You underestimated her.”
I held up the flash drive.
Victor went silent.
“I copied everything.”
That wasn't true.
But he didn't know that.
His voice became tense.
“Give it to me.”
“First, the children.”
“They're not here.”
“Then where?”
He hung up.
A moment later, Ethan found something.
A second camera.
A live feed.
It showed a motel room.
Two children.
Lila and Micah.
Alive.
We traced the signal.
The police moved immediately.
Within twenty minutes, they found them.
June collapsed when she saw her children.
She held them so tightly that none of us spoke.
Later, she looked at me.
“Why did you do this?”
I looked at her children.
“Because no one should ever have to choose between feeding themselves and feeding their kids.”
She cried.
Then she said:
“My mother always told me powerful people don't care about people like us.”
I looked toward the police vehicles.
“She was wrong.”
June shook her head.
“Not all powerful people.”
I smiled faintly.
“Maybe.”
But deep down, I knew something.
This wasn't over.
May you like
Victor was still free.
And he had just learned that I knew everything.
