Chapter 6 - The Night Naomi Refused to Be Protected
The old church was empty.
Marcus was waiting.
The stolen chip lay on the altar.
He held a gun.
“You came.”
Adrian stood beside Naomi.
“Let her go.”
Marcus laughed.
“She isn't leaving.”
Naomi stepped forward.
“What do you want?”
“You.”
“Why?”
“Because your mother betrayed me.”
Naomi froze.
Marcus revealed the truth.
Evelyn had once worked with him.
She discovered the trafficking network.
She betrayed him.
She took the ledger.
She ran.
Naomi's father helped her.
But Marcus caught them.
He killed them both.
Or so he thought.
Adrian looked at him.
“You killed nobody.”
Marcus laughed.
“Your mother is alive.”
Naomi froze.
“What?”
A side door opened.
An older woman walked in.
Naomi stared.
Her mother.
Alive.
For years.
She had been hidden in another city.
Marcus had kept her alive as leverage.
Naomi ran to her.
They embraced.
Twenty years of grief collapsed into one moment.
Catherine whispered:
“I tried to find you.”
Naomi cried.
“I thought you were dead.”
“I know.”
Adrian stood back.
He understood something.
The woman who had entered his family as an enemy had never been one.
She was a daughter trying to find her mother.
A wife trying to save her marriage.
And soon, a mother trying to protect her unborn child.
Marcus raised his weapon.
Adrian moved.
A struggle followed.
Police entered.
Marcus was arrested.
The ledger was recovered.
The Vale network was exposed.
But one mystery remained.
Catherine looked at Adrian.
“There's something you don't know.”
“What?”
“The child I was carrying before Naomi was born.”
Adrian frowned.
“Your second child?”
Catherine nodded.
“She wasn't a girl.”
“She was a boy.”
Naomi stared.
“What happened to him?”
Catherine looked at Marcus.
“He was taken.”
Marcus smiled.
“Too late.”
Adrian's expression changed.
The missing child was alive.
May you like
And Marcus knew where he was.
---
