CHAPTER 24: THE EMPTY HOSPITAL BED
Claire’s room was locked from the outside.
The guard had remained at the door.
Yet when nurses entered, the bed was empty.
The window did not open.
There were no hidden doors.
Only an air vent large enough to carry medical equipment between rooms.
Security footage showed a nurse entering with medication.
The nurse’s face was hidden by a mask.
Her badge belonged to an employee who had died two years earlier.
On Claire’s pillow was a message written in blood.
MORALES KNOWS WHERE EVELYN IS.
Detective Grant issued a citywide alert.
Captain Morales had not reported to work since the mill explosion.
His phone was found beneath a bridge.
His vehicle had been abandoned near the river where Evelyn’s car was discovered eight years earlier.
Noah received a message from an unknown number.
COME ALONE IF YOU WANT THE TRUTH ABOUT THOMAS REED.
The location was the basement of the Monarch Grand Hotel.
Amelia saw the message.
“You’re not going.”
“It could lead us to my father.”
“It could be a trap.”
“It probably is.”
“And you still want to go?”
“My father spent his last moments trying to save your mother.”
Noah looked toward Theo.
“I can’t spend the rest of my life wondering whether I was too afraid to learn the truth.”
Amelia understood the words too well.
Fear had controlled Ethan.
Fear had controlled Claire.
Fear had allowed William Carter to build his secrets for decades.
Noah left before police arrived.
Two hours passed.
Then four.
At midnight, his tracking signal disappeared beneath the hotel.
Detective Grant prepared a search team.
Ethan put on his firefighting gear.
“You’re suspended,” the detective reminded him.
“I know the building better than your officers.”
Amelia refused to remain at the hospital.
Mara argued.
Ethan argued.
Even Dr. Shah argued.
Amelia looked through the NICU glass.
“They have been making decisions about my life since before I met Ethan.”
She took her coat.
“I’m done waiting for men to return with answers.”
She entered the hotel beside the search team.
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Deep beneath the ballroom, they found Noah’s firefighter badge.
It was covered in fresh blood.
