Chapter 6 - The Child’s Drawing
The library walls seemed to close in on me. I couldn’t breathe.
“Maya?” Marco grabbed my shoulders, his eyes wide with panic. “What happened? Was it the hospital?”
“They took her,” I gasped, my chest heaving. “Julian Vale took Mom.”
Damian moved instantly. He grabbed his head of security by the collar. “Lock down the city. I want every private ambulance company, every medical transport chopper, and every private airfield monitored. Find Julian Vale now!”
“It won't be that easy,” Elena said quietly from her wheelchair. “Julian operates in the blind spots. He will contact us when he is ready to trade.”
“I’m not waiting for a trade!” I shouted, the terror boiling over into pure rage. “She’s still recovering! Her heart can’t take the stress of being moved! He’s going to kill her!”
“Maya, look at me,” Damian said, stepping directly in front of me. He placed his large, warm hands on my shoulders, grounding me. His pale gray eyes were fierce. “I protect what is mine. You saved my mother. You are mine to protect now. I will tear this city apart to find her. I swear it.”
For a second, the billionaire armor fell away, and I saw the raw, desperate man underneath. I nodded, swallowing a sob.
We raced to St. Jude’s Medical Center in a heavily armed convoy. The hospital administration was in a panic, but Damian’s lawyers immediately bullied them into handing over the security footage.
I stood in my mother’s empty recovery room. The bed was unmade. Her monitors were dark.
I walked over to the pillow, my heart shattering at the indentation where her head had rested just hours ago.
But resting in the center of the pillow was a piece of paper.
I picked it up. It was old, yellowed at the edges, and covered in messy crayon.
It was a drawing of a large, black steam train.
I frowned, staring at the drawing. I recognized it instantly. Marco had drawn this when he was six years old. We used to keep it pinned to the refrigerator in our old apartment before we got evicted.
“Did Julian leave this to taunt us?” Damian asked, looking over my shoulder. “A train?”
“Answer one, open two,” I whispered to myself, an old puzzle-solving habit kicking in.
“What?”
“Julian took her. That answers how she disappeared,” I said, my mind racing. “But why leave Marco’s old childhood drawing? Julian wouldn't have this. This was packed in a box in Marco’s closet.”
I turned around, a sudden, horrifying realization hitting me.
“Where is Marco?” I demanded.
Damian’s security chief checked his earpiece. His face went completely pale. “He... he was waiting in the SUV downstairs with two guards. But they just reported in. The boy slipped out the back door while they were securing the perimeter.”
“He didn't leave the drawing,” I gasped, sprinting for the door. “Marco left it!”
Marco had taken the silver coin from my pocket while we were in the SUV. He had sneaked out of the hospital to trade the SD card to Julian Vale himself, hoping to save our mother.
May you like
And he had left the drawing of the train to tell me exactly where he was going.
“Grand Central Terminal,” I yelled, running down the hospital corridor. “He’s at the old maintenance tunnels under Grand Central!”
