Chapter 2 - THE RACE TO HAWTHORNE RIDGE
The Blackwood helicopter lifted from the estate lawn seven minutes later.
Ethan sat opposite Samuel while Lily remained wrapped in a blanket beside one of the female security officers.
He had wanted her to stay behind.
Lily had refused.
“If Mommy wakes up, I want her to see me.”
Those words ended the argument.
Nora was transported separately under guard.
Ethan could not decide whether she was a criminal, a witness, or both.
Perhaps she was all three.
Samuel studied Hawthorne Ridge on his tablet.
“The main building has four floors.”
“There is also an underground medical level.”
“Can we access it?”
“Not through the public entrance.”
Ethan stared through the helicopter window.
“Then we won’t use the public entrance.”
Twenty-three minutes later, the helicopter landed in a field beyond the facility’s perimeter.
Three Blackwood security vehicles were waiting.
Ethan’s team had already contacted state authorities.
But Ethan did not trust local police yet.
Victor had spent decades buying politicians, prosecutors, executives, and judges.
Until Ethan knew who was clean, he trusted only people who had worked directly for him.
The convoy approached Hawthorne Ridge without lights.
The facility looked peaceful from the outside.
Warm windows.
Stone walls.
Landscaped gardens.
It looked more like a luxury resort than a prison.
At the gate, the director stepped outside.
Dr. Warren Pike was sixty, silver-haired, and visibly terrified.
“This is private property.”
Ethan climbed from the SUV.
“So is my wife.”
Pike’s face twitched.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Ethan showed him the photograph from Lily’s phone.
“I have a live recording of Amelia Blackwood inside your building.”
Pike stared at the image.
“I have never seen that woman.”
Samuel stepped forward.
“Then you won’t mind if we look.”
Pike backed away.
“You need a warrant.”
A siren suddenly sounded inside the facility.
Red emergency lights began flashing.
Samuel looked up.
“That’s not a fire alarm.”
Pike ran.
Ethan’s security team caught him before he reached the door.
Then a nurse burst from the building.
“Someone cut power to the lower level!”
Ethan pushed past her.
“Where is the stairwell?”
She pointed toward the western corridor.
They ran.
Lily stayed outside with security.
Ethan descended two flights below ground.
The air became colder.
The hall smelled of antiseptic and metal.
Several rooms were empty.
Others contained patients whose names had been replaced by numbers.
Samuel stopped outside Room B-17.
The lock had been broken.
Ethan entered.
The bed from the video was there.
The restraints were still hanging from the sides.
A strand of long dark hair rested against the pillow.
But Amelia was gone.
Ethan touched the sheet.
Warm.
“She was here.”
Samuel noticed a syringe on the floor.
He picked it up using a glove.
“It’s empty.”
Ethan’s chest tightened.
“Was it used?”
“I can’t tell yet.”
A weak sound came from behind the wall.
Ethan froze.
“Amelia?”
Another sound.
He followed it to a utility closet.
Inside, a nurse lay on the floor with blood running from a cut above her eyebrow.
She opened her eyes.
“He took her.”
“Victor?”
The nurse nodded.
“There’s an underground service tunnel.”
“Where does it go?”
“To the old ambulance garage.”
Ethan turned and ran.
By the time he reached the garage, the doors were open.
Tire tracks crossed the wet pavement.
A black SUV had disappeared into the darkness.
One of Ethan’s guards ran toward him holding a tablet.
“We pulled the gate footage.”
The screen showed Victor’s SUV leaving the property.
Ethan leaned closer.
Amelia was visible in the back seat.
Alive.
Then the guard paused the video.
“Sir.”
“There’s someone else in the vehicle.”
Ethan studied the passenger seat.
The man sitting beside Victor turned toward the camera for only one second.
Ethan recognized him.
His blood ran cold.
May you like
It was Dr. Malcolm Reed.
The surgeon who had signed Amelia and Lily’s death certificates seven years earlier.
