Chapter 11 - HER REAL BIRTHDAY
Emily wanted to run straight to her apartment.
Ruiz stopped her.
“He expects that.”
“He has Jenna.”
“And he wants you.”
“So I’m supposed to do nothing?”
“No. We do it smart.”
Thomas called thirty seconds later.
Emily answered.
“You touch her and I swear—”
“Still working that waitress vocabulary?”
“Go to hell.”
Thomas chuckled.
“You sound exactly like Margaret when she was young.”
Emily looked at Margaret.
“What do you want?”
“Meet me at St. Matthew’s.”
“Let Jenna go.”
“When you arrive.”
“No.”
“Then she loses a finger.”
Margaret grabbed the phone.
“You coward.”
Thomas became silent.
Margaret’s voice shook with rage.
“You stole my child and spent twenty-two years telling me I was sick for missing her.”
“I kept you alive.”
“You kept me weak.”
“I gave you a life.”
“You gave me a cage with nice furniture.”
Thomas’s voice hardened.
“Bring Emily.”
Margaret whispered, “I will kill you.”
“No, you won’t.”
“Try me.”
Thomas laughed.
“That’s why I always won, Margaret. You still think becoming me would mean beating me.”
The call ended.
Emily stared at her mother.
“He knows you.”
Margaret handed back the phone.
“He used to.”
At 11:30 p.m., they approached the abandoned hospital complex.
Emily’s real birthday would begin in thirty minutes.
The trust transfer would activate at midnight.
Ruiz had obtained a warrant, but a judge delayed tactical entry because Thomas’s attorneys challenged ownership jurisdiction.
Emily was furious.
“He’s holding a hostage!”
Ruiz slammed the car door.
“Welcome to what money buys.”
Claire gave them an access route through an old service tunnel.
Margaret, Emily, Samuel and Ruiz entered.
Nora remained with police.
The tunnel smelled of rust and standing water.
At 11:47, they reached the old maternity wing.
A sign still hung crooked on the wall.
NEWBORNS — AUTHORIZED STAFF ONLY.
Margaret stopped walking.
Emily noticed.
“You okay?”
“No.”
“Want to wait outside?”
“No.”
Emily took her hand.
Margaret looked down at their joined fingers.
Twenty-two years vanished from her face.
For one second, she was simply a terrified young mother again.
They entered.
Old bassinets sat under dusty sheets.
Margaret whispered, “This was the hallway.”
Emily squeezed her hand.
A speaker crackled overhead.
Thomas’s voice filled the wing.
“Happy birthday, Emily.”
The lights flickered on one by one.
At the end of the hall sat Jenna.
Tied to a chair.
A man stood behind her.
Not Thomas.
Eric Danner.
Ruiz froze.
“You were arrested.”
Danner smiled.
“Money buys bail too.”
Samuel muttered, “Not that fast.”
Claire’s expression changed.
“He was never booked.”
Ruiz looked at her phone.
No signal.
Emily realized it.
“The cops outside…”
A metallic slam thundered behind them.
The tunnel door locked.
Thomas appeared on the upper walkway.
He held a gas can.
Margaret stared up at him.
“No.”
Thomas smiled.
“You came into this world in a fire, Emily.”
He poured gasoline along the railing.
May you like
“I thought it was fitting you leave it the same way.”
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