Chapter 4 – THE CABIN IN THE WOODS

“Throw it out the window!” Sebastian shouted.

I rolled down the glass and hurled the stuffed bear into the rain.

It bounced into a storm drain just as a pair of black headlights swung around the corner behind us.

They had tracked us.

Sebastian floored the accelerator.

The heavy SUV roared down the wet pavement.

Leo was struggling to breathe, his chest heaving.

“He needs a nebulizer!” Anna cried. “We can’t just keep running.”

“There’s a safe house,” Sebastian said grimly. “Forty minutes north. It has medical supplies.”

We drove in terrified silence.

Sebastian lost the tailing cars in a maze of industrial backroads.

Eventually, the city lights faded, replaced by towering pine trees and pitch-black rural roads.

We pulled up to a secluded wooden cabin hidden deep in the forest.

Sebastian punched a code into the keypad on the door.

It clicked open.

Inside, the cabin was fully stocked.

Sebastian immediately went to a locked medical cabinet in the bathroom.

He returned with an emergency asthma inhaler and a portable oxygen tank.

Anna administered the medicine to Leo.

Within minutes, the boy’s breathing slowed.

The blue tint left his lips.

He fell asleep on the leather sofa, exhausted.

Anna slumped against the wall and slid down to the floor, burying her face in her hands.

Sebastian stood near the fireplace, watching her.

He looked like a ghost.

I went to the kitchen and made a pot of tea.

I poured two mugs and brought them out.

I handed one to Anna.

She looked up at me, her eyes bloodshot.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

I sat in the armchair.

“You said you lost that buckle in a fire at an orphanage,” Sebastian said, breaking the silence. “Anna, you were never at an orphanage. You were taken from your bed in our family home.”

Anna shook her head slowly.

“I don’t remember a house. I just remember the fire. And a man carrying me out. He told me my family didn’t want me anymore.”

“Who was the man?”

“I don’t know. He wore a mask.”

Sebastian paced the floor.

“Camille orchestrated this. But she was only twelve when you disappeared. She couldn’t have done it alone. Someone helped her.”

I took a sip of my tea.

My mind was racing.

“Mr. Blackwood,” I said hesitantly.

He looked at me.

“Camille didn’t have the buckle,” I said. “Margaret received it in the mail. If Anna didn’t send it, who did?”

Sebastian froze.

He pulled his phone from his pocket.

He dialed a number.

He put it on speaker and set it on the coffee table.

It rang three times before a voice answered.

“Sebastian?”

It was Margaret. Her voice sounded thin and frightened.

“Maggie,” Sebastian said gently. “Are you safe? I sent guards to your apartment.”

“Yes, I’m safe,” she said. “But… Sebastian, I didn’t tell you the whole truth at the dinner.”

The room went completely still.

“What do you mean?” Sebastian asked.

“The person who sent me the buckle,” Margaret whispered, her voice cracking. “They called me tonight. Right after you left for the hospital.”

“Who was it?”

“He said his name was Arthur Sterling.”

Sebastian’s jaw locked.

Camille’s father.

The head of the rival Sterling family.

A man who had supposedly retired ten years ago.

“What did he want, Maggie?”

“He wants a trade,” Margaret cried. “He said if you want to know who really kidnapped your sister, you have to bring her to him. Tonight.”

“And if I don’t?”

Margaret let out a choked sob.

“He said he’ll tell the police what’s buried under the foundation of this apartment building.”

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