Chapter 9 - Edmund’s Bargain
Callum put the phone on speaker.
Maren stood in the middle of the empty road, clutching Owen’s rabbit so tightly that the recorder pressed into her palm.
“You gave them my son?” she asked.
Edmund’s breathing trembled through the speaker.
“I believed I could control the exchange.”
“Where is he?”
“At Blackwood House.”
The name was different from Blackwood Point.
Callum looked toward the rusted facility.
“This is a decoy.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Patricia’s people wanted you away from the estate.”
“Patricia is in police custody.”
“She prepared instructions before the wedding.”
Maren could barely force the words out.
“Why did you help?”
“Because they have Adrian.”
Elias seized the phone.
“Where is my father?”
“At Saint-Rémy. But they are moving him tonight.”
“You knew he was alive.”
“I knew only after Patricia’s arrest. A message was delivered to me with a photograph.”
“Send it.”
Edmund did.
The image appeared on Callum’s screen.
An elderly man sat in a wheelchair beside a window. His hair was white, his body thin, but the crescent-shaped mark beside his eyebrow remained visible.
Adrian.
He held a newspaper dated that morning.
Beside him stood a masked attendant.
Maren felt Elias sway.
Helena covered her mouth.
Edmund continued.
“They offered Adrian in exchange for Owen and the ledger.”
“You traded a five-year-old child,” Callum said.
“I intended to bring the ledger and take both of them.”
“You don’t have it.”
“Yes, I do.”
Silence followed.
Maren remembered the black book in the bookstore cellar.
The tall man with gray hair and a cane.
“You bought it from me.”
“Yes.”
“You knew who I was.”
“I knew Elias had been watching you. I feared Patricia would find the ledger first.”
“So you hid it.”
“In the estate chapel.”
Callum looked toward Helena’s car.
“How far is Blackwood House?”
“Forty minutes north of the estate.”
“We’re more than an hour away.”
“There is a faster route along the old military road.”
“Send the location.”
“I am already going there.”
Callum’s voice became deadly calm.
“You will stop your car and wait.”
“I cannot.”
“Grandfather.”
“If I stop, they move Adrian.”
“And if you arrive, they may kill Owen.”
“I will not allow that.”
“You already allowed them to take him.”
The line went quiet.
Then Edmund spoke softly.
“I have spent my life believing I could make one terrible choice to prevent a worse one. Every choice created another.”
“Then stop choosing for everyone.”
“I am sorry.”
The call ended.
Callum immediately tried to reconnect.
Edmund’s phone was switched off.
They returned to the car.
Helena directed them toward the military road, a narrow route cutting through forested hills.
Maren sat with Owen’s rabbit in her lap.
Elias stared at the photograph of Adrian.
“He looks old.”
Helena’s voice cracked.
“He is old.”
“I remember him.”
She turned.
“You said you didn’t remember the night.”
“I don’t remember the night. I remember before.”
“What?”
“A room with green walls. He used to draw ships on paper and make them move by pulling strings.”
Helena began to cry silently.
Elias watched her.
“Why didn’t you find me?”
“I searched.”
“Not hard enough.”
“I believed you were dead.”
“You believed Patricia.”
“I believed the police report. The burned car. The child’s coat they found in the sea.”
Elias looked down.
“They put another child’s coat in the water.”
“I know that now.”
Maren could not bear the years lost between them, but she had no space left for their grief.
“Who took Owen from the house?”
Helena wiped her face.
“The cut backpack strap suggests a professional extraction. Patricia may have used former security staff.”
“Names.”
“Victor Sloane ran corporate security for fifteen years.”
Callum’s expression changed.
“He was dismissed after my father’s death.”
“By Patricia?”
“Officially by the board.”
“Where is he now?”
Callum used his phone to search archived company records.
Victor Sloane lived under a consulting license registered to an address near Blackwood House.
They had their answer.
The military road narrowed.
Ahead, red lights flashed between the trees.
A fallen truck blocked the lane.
Callum stopped.
Two men in reflective jackets stood beside it.
Neither wore a company logo.
One raised a hand.
“Road closed.”
Callum began reversing.
The man reached inside his jacket.
The rear window shattered.
Helena screamed.
Callum accelerated backward as another shot struck the side of the car.
Elias leaned across the seat and pulled Maren down.
The vehicle spun onto a gravel path.
Branches scraped the doors.
Callum drove blindly between the trees until the road vanished behind them.
The car struck a ditch and stopped at an angle.
Smoke rose from the engine.
For several seconds, no one moved.
Then Maren heard a sound from beneath the rabbit in her lap.
A faint electronic beep.
She turned the toy over.
Inside the torn seam was a tracking device.
May you like
And beneath it, written in blue crayon, were four words.
Grandpa is not alone.
