CHAPTER 3 — THE MAN AT THE DOOR
CHAPTER 3 — THE MAN AT THE DOOR
Neither of us moved.
The knock came again.
Three slow taps.
Measured.
Patient.
Like whoever stood outside already knew we weren't going anywhere.
Colette backed away from the window so quickly she nearly stumbled into the table.
"No..." she whispered. "He wasn't supposed to know."
I kept my voice low.
"Who is he?"
"I've never seen him."
"You just said they found you."
"I've only spoken to them through emails. Burner phones. Anonymous messages."
Another knock.
This time harder.
"Colette."
The man's voice carried through the old cabin.
"We're wasting time."
My hand instinctively reached for my phone.
No signal.
One lonely bar flickered before disappearing completely.
The cabin sat inside a dead zone.
Perfect.
Whoever had chosen this place knew exactly what they were doing.
Colette looked toward the back door.
"We can leave through the woods."
Before she finished the sentence, headlights flashed through the side window.
Another SUV rolled into the dirt driveway.
Then another.
My stomach dropped.
"We're surrounded."
The front door handle turned.
Locked.
A chuckle came from outside.
"You always forget that old cabins have weak locks."
CRACK.
The first kick splintered the frame.
The second sent the door flying inward.
Three men walked inside.
None wore masks.
That was somehow more frightening.
The man in front was in his late fifties, neatly dressed in a navy sport coat despite the summer heat.
Gray hair.
Thin smile.
Expensive watch.
He looked less like a criminal than someone's trusted financial advisor.
He glanced at me politely.
"You must be Sarah."
I said nothing.
"My name is Victor."
"I don't care."
"No," he smiled. "But you should."
His eyes shifted toward the journal still lying open on the table.
"I see you've been reading."
Colette stepped between us.
"You said no one else would get involved."
Victor sighed.
"You involved her."
"You lied to me."
"I omitted details."
"You told me my daughter was alive."
Victor's expression didn't change.
"I told you we had information."
"WHERE IS SHE?"
His smile faded.
"I'll ask the questions."
He turned toward me.
"Your husband created a problem yesterday."
My pulse quickened.
"What does Bennett have to do with this?"
Victor folded his hands behind his back.
"He recognized someone."
"The obstetrician?"
A flicker of amusement crossed Victor's face.
"So he told you."
"He said Dr. Harmon looked alarmed."
Victor nodded.
"He should have."
"Why?"
"Because Dr. Harmon wasn't invited to celebrate a pregnancy."
The room went silent.
Victor continued almost casually.
"He was invited to confirm whether Colette could continue convincing people she was pregnant."
I felt sick.
"He knew?"
"He was paid to say nothing."
Colette gasped.
"No..."
Victor looked at her almost sympathetically.
"My dear, everyone has a price."
The words shattered something inside her.
"You said this was only about raising money."
"It was."
"You promised no one would get hurt."
"We've kept that promise."
I stared at him.
"You stole donations."
He smiled.
"Borrowed generosity."
"You manipulated grieving people."
"They volunteered."
"You destroyed lives."
His shoulders lifted slightly.
"That's subjective."
I suddenly understood something.
"This isn't your first scam."
Victor laughed.
"No."
He walked toward the wall covered with photographs.
"Pregnancies."
"Medical emergencies."
"Rare illnesses."
"Disaster relief."
He tapped one framed newspaper article.
"People are remarkably generous when they're emotional."
I looked closer.
There were dozens of smiling faces.
Different families.
Different fundraisers.
Different tragedies.
One organization connected them all.
The Hope Tomorrow Foundation.
My blood froze.
"The charity..."
Victor smiled proudly.
"Our charity."
Colette stared at him.
"You told me Hope Tomorrow helped reunite families."
"It does."
"How?"
"It reunites their money with our accounts."
A vehicle roared into the driveway.
Victor frowned.
One of his men hurried to the window.
"Boss..."
"What?"
"Police."
Victor's expression darkened.
"Impossible."
He looked at me.
"You brought someone."
I shook my head.
"I came alone."
His eyes narrowed.
"No."
Then realization struck him.
"The phone."
Bennett.
He had never trusted the location-sharing app alone.
He had hidden something.
Victor lunged toward me.
Before he could reach me—
BANG!
The front window exploded inward.
"FEDERAL AGENTS!"
Chaos erupted.
The men scattered.
One reached for a handgun.
Another dove behind the couch.
Victor sprinted toward the back door.
Colette screamed.
I hit the floor as glass rained across the cabin.
Outside, voices shouted.
"DOWN!"
"HANDS WHERE WE CAN SEE THEM!"
Gunfire echoed through the trees.
Then silence.
Five minutes later I sat wrapped in a blanket on the porch.
My hands wouldn't stop shaking.
Bennett ran toward me.
He pulled me into his arms so tightly I could barely breathe.
"I told you not to come alone."
"I wasn't."
He pulled a tiny black device from beneath my jacket collar.
"A tracker."
"You..."
"I slipped it into your necklace this morning."
I stared at him.
"You tracked me?"
"I promised I'd let you go."
He looked toward the cabin.
"I never promised I'd stop protecting you."
Behind him, FBI agents escorted Victor away in handcuffs.
But he was smiling.
As he climbed into the vehicle, he looked directly at Colette.
Then he spoke one sentence.
May you like
One sentence only she seemed to understand.
"You still don't know where Lillian is."
