“Your brother?” I repeated, my mind reeling. “What brother?”
“I don’t have a brother,” David said.
He was staring at Maria.
Horror dawned on his face.
“Where is he, Maria?” he demanded, grabbing her arm. “What did you do?”
Maria pulled free. She looked wild, cornered.
“I sent him away!” she cried. “Before we came back downstairs! I didn’t know she had the journal! I had to make sure—if everything went wrong—we still had something to bargain with!”
“Where?” I screamed, grabbing her shoulders. “Where is my son?”
“To the airport!” Maria sobbed. “A flight to my cousin. In another country.”
The lead officer spoke into his radio, voice sharp and urgent.
“Alert the airport. Ground all flights. Watch for a man with a three-year-old boy.”
I looked at David.
“Who took him?” I demanded.
Maria wiped at her tears.
“A man we hired. To help with… things. He was supposed to take Jacob, wait for us to join him. If we didn’t come… he was supposed to leave.”
“Leave him there?” I said, horrified. “Alone?”
“He’s not a bad man!” Maria said. “He just does what we pay him to do!”
I stepped back, shaking.
“You would trade that child for money?” I said. “You would send him away with a stranger… just so you could keep stealing from me?”
Maria looked at the floor.
“He is the only leverage we have left.”
Sirens wailed in the distance—approaching fast.
More officers arrived. Statements were taken. The house was searched. David and Maria were separated and placed in handcuffs.
As the officers led them toward the patrol cars, David stopped and looked back at me.
“I did love you, Elena,” he said quietly. “Once.”
I looked at him—this stranger I had married. The man who had almost destroyed everything I loved.
“You never loved anyone but yourself,” I said. “And look where it got you.”
He looked away, defeated.
Maria said nothing. She kept her head down as they led her away.
Then my phone rang.
It was the airport police.
My hands shook as I answered.
“Mrs. Elena?” said the voice on the line. “We found them. The man. And the boy. He’s safe.”
I gripped the phone so hard my fingers ached.
“Can I speak to him?” I whispered.
There was a pause.
Then a small, sleepy voice came on the line.
“Mommy?”
Tears spilled over.
“Jacob,” I sobbed. “I’m coming. I’m coming right now.”
