Chapter 45- THE TRADE AT ST. CATHERINE’SPeter demanded the flash drive and my father’s decryption key.
In return, he promised to release Emma and Natalie.
Mercer denied that Peter had taken them from the secure office until security footage showed a maintenance vehicle exiting the underground tunnel.
Someone had altered the cameras.
Mercer looked furious, but anger was not innocence.
My father wanted to disappear with the key.
I stood between him and the door.
“You already abandoned me once.”
“I was protecting you.”
“No. You were protecting evidence.”
His expression collapsed.
“If you leave now, Emma pays for every choice you made.”
He gave me the key.
It was not a password.
It was my mother’s wedding ring, engraved with a string of tiny numbers.
At midnight, Mercer, my father and I entered the abandoned hospital carrying a decoy drive.
The corridors smelled of mold and rust.
A child’s red sneaker sat in the middle of the lobby.
It belonged to Emma.
May you like
Beside it was a photograph taken minutes earlier.
Peter had tied her to an operating table.
