16
G abriel was packing up his desk, ready to leave the office after another stressful workday. The lack of sleep and constant worry were beginning to take their toll, affecting his already faltering productivity. He carefully placed some files into his briefcase, snapped it shut, and then stood to leave when his partner, Dr. Samuel Lucas, popped his head into the office.
“Got a minute?” Dr. Lucas asked.
Gabriel sighed, “I was just leaving. Can this wait till tomorrow?”
Dr. Lucas stepped fully into the office and closed the door behind him. “I’m afraid it can’t,” he replied, his tone serious.
“What is it now?” Gabriel asked, sinking back into his chair. He was too fatigued to stand, anticipating the long conversation that was sure to follow.
“What’s going on with you, Gabriel? “You haven’t been yourself lately,” Samuel said, concern etched on his face.
“Nothing. I’ve just been a little stressed,” Gabriel replied, attempting to downplay the situation.
“I’ve noticed, and frankly, we all have,” Samuel said, his voice steady but firm. “Several nurses have mentioned that they’ve been spotting some amateur mistakes.”
Gabriel’s frustration boiled over. He slammed his fist on the desk. “Who?” he demanded.
“It doesn’t matter who,” Samuel responded, studying Gabriel intently. After a moment, he asked, “Are you having problems in your marriage?”
Gabriel shook his head, trying to dismiss the concern. “No, Emily and I are fine,” he insisted.
Samuel raised an eyebrow. “I’ve heard the rumors, Gabe,” he said pointedly. “Is there something going on with you and Maggie?”
“No!” Gabriel exclaimed, but the weight of the past week finally overcame him. His whole body began to tremble as he broke down. “She left me,” he confessed, his voice cracking under the strain.
Samuel rose from his seat and walked around the desk, placing a comforting hand on Gabriel’s shoulder. “I’m sorry,” he said softly.
Tears welled up in Gabriel’s eyes as he choked out, “I have to get her back.”
Suddenly, the shrill sound of their cell phones alarming broke the silence. Both men quickly reached for their phones and saw it was an Amber Alert—a child had been abducted. Gabriel’s heart stopped when he opened the alert and saw his daughter’s name flash across the screen. In an instant, urgency propelled him out of his chair, and he sprinted out of the office.
“Where are you going?” Samuel shouted after the fleeing Gabriel unaware that it was his daughter who was missing.
Gabriel arrived at the police station in record time, hurtling past the reception desk and disregarding the officer chasing after him and shouting, “Sir, you can’t go back there!”
Without hesitation, he made his way straight to the detective’s desk— the same detective who had taken his kidnapping report. “What the hell is going on?” Why didn’t you call me?” he demanded, his voice edged with frustration.
“I just learned about it myself,” Detective Johnson tried to explain, his tone steady but urgent. “If you’ll calm down, I’ll take you to your wife and the officer who processed the disappearance.”
A look of surprise washed over Gabriel’s face. “My wife is here?”
Detective Johnson stood up and nodded. “Yes. I’ll take you to her.”
Gabriel followed Detective Johnson down the corridor to an interrogation room. The detective knocked softly on the door before gently opening it. As they entered, Gabriel’s eyes zeroed in on Emily. Approaching her with clenched teeth, he hissed, “This is all your fault.”
Emily placed her hands on the table, slowly pushed her chair back, and stood up, visibly struggling to maintain her composure. The sound of his voice, a reminder of his betrayal, boiled her blood, but her anger would have to wait. Their daughter was in danger. She lifted her eyes from the table and fixed them on him, her voice trembling. “Let me explain.”
Emily cast a pleading glance at the officer she had spent the last several hours with. “Can we have a minute?” she asked.
“Sure.”
The two officers exited the room, closing the door softly behind them. The moment they were out of earshot, Gabriel erupted. “I hope you’re happy! Look at the mess you’ve created.”
“I didn’t know what else to do,” Emily said, her voice heavy with guilt. “I was only trying to protect her.”
Gabriel’s eyes widened in disbelief. “By running off with your boyfriend?”
“He’s not my boyfriend. He was helping me,” Emily insisted.
“Some help,” Gabriel muttered, pacing the room in frustration.
“Sit down, and I’ll explain everything,” Emily urged.
Gabriel reluctantly took a seat, his tone dripping with sarcasm. “I can’t wait to hear this.”
“It all started that night at the hotel,” Emily began. “Sydney got a call—Kevin had fallen, and Mark was rushing him to the hospital.”
Gabriel cut her off impatiently, “You should have left with her, and none of this would have happened.”
“I was going to leave, but Sydney convinced me to stay. The room was already paid for, and I was so mad at you. I wasn’t ready to go home yet,” Emily admitted.
“I’m not having an affair,” Gabriel shouted, his frustration boiling over. “If you had given me a chance to explain, you would have known that!”
“I did give you a chance to explain, but you chose not to come home!” Emily shot back, her voice seething with anger.
“I got stuck at work,” Gabriel replied defensively.
Emily, clearly in no mood for excuses, snapped, “Do you want to hear what happened or not?”
Gabriel rolled his eyes and said, “Go on!”
“After Sydney left, a man took her seat beside me,” Emily recounted, studying Gabriel’s reaction. She hesitated, weighing whether to be completely honest or to withhold some details. Noticing his flared nostrils and clenched jaw, she decided to hold back. “He must have tampered with my drink when I went to the ladies’ room. The next thing I remember is waking up in my hotel room, alone.”
Gabriel’s eyes narrowed; suspicion and hurt flickering across his face. “Did you sleep with him?” he demanded.
His words ignited a blaze of fury within her, even more intense than when she had seen the credit card statement. “I don’t think so,” she said, her eyes burning into him, searing him with every gaze. “You have some nerve to even ask me that, given your extramarital affairs.”
Unable to face him any longer, she stood up and walked across the room, putting as much distance between them as possible. With her back to him, she crossed her arms tightly over her chest and let out a long, shaky breath.
“I already told you I’m not having an affair,” Gabriel insisted.
She whirled around, eyes flashing with defiance. “And I don’t believe you,” she spat back.
Gabriel opened his mouth to deny it, but Emily held up a hand, stopping him. “Now is not the time to discuss this with you. Ava is in danger.”
That caught his attention, and he sat up straighter, curiosity piqued at the mention of proof.
Emily returned to the table and sat down. “The next morning, I knew immediately something was wrong. The room looked like there had been a struggle,” she explained.
His expression shifted to one of genuine concern. “Why didn’t you report it to the police or go to the hospital?” he asked, his voice filled with both worry and confusion.
“I thought about it,” she muttered, her head dropping. “But I just wanted it to go away.” She hesitated, the painful memory making it difficult to continue. “Then Sydney called. She could sense that something was wrong. I asked if I could come over to talk. But when I went to leave, I found an envelope at my door.”
Tears welled up in her eyes, and she struggled to speak, her words catching in her throat. “It contained a note demanding $500,000. She claimed to be pregnant with your child.”
Gabriel ran his hands through his hair, attempting to digest everything he had just heard. Then he reached across the table and gently placed his hand on hers, “It’s not true,” he said quietly.
Emily wanted to believe him.
“Why didn’t you go to the police?”
“The note said if I went to the police, they would hurt Ava.” Gabriel withdrew his hand from hers, hurt evident in his eyes. “So, you turned to Roman instead of me?”
“He’s an ex-cop. He has experience in these types of things,” Emily explained.
“Go on,” he said.
Emily continued, “I wanted to come home to be with Ava and keep her safe, but Roman convinced me we needed protection.”
A lightbulb went off in Gabriel’s head, his eyes widening in realization. “It was Roman who broke into our house that night?”
Emily nodded, “Yeah.”
“And when that didn’t work, you went to the daycare and picked her up?”
Emily nodded again. “We thought you might have gotten the license plate number, so we couldn’t stay at Roman’s place any longer. He took me to his friend’s cabin on Oak Tree Road. I watched Ava while Roman worked on tracking down who was behind all of this.”
“You should have called to let me know what was happening. I was frantic with worry. I thought you were leaving me. I left you so many voice messages pleading for you to come home.”
Emily’s face clouded with guilt; the weight of the pain she had caused him was evident in her eyes. “I’m sorry,” she said softly. “I never got them. Roman took my phone and turned it off. He insisted that no one should be able to track my location. He said it was to keep us safe.”
She continued, “One day, while he was out, I found a photo album. It had pictures of the homeowner, Travis, and his family, and Roman was in many of them, too. He told me he’d spent many summers at the cabin. But when I reached the end of the album, I was stunned. The homeowner—Roman’s friend—was the same man who had sat beside me at the bar that night.”
Gabriel’s jaw dropped. “What did you do?”
“I couldn’t believe it,” Emily replied, her voice thick with disbelief. “I needed to know what Roman’s involvement was. I wanted to believe he had nothing to do with it. So, I used Roman’s phone, pretending to be him, and told the man we needed to meet. Naturally, he denied drugging me. He claimed he wasn’t working for Roman or anyone else. He said he remembered seeing a photo of me at Roman’s house, and when he realized I was drugged, he texted Roman for help. Roman met us in the lobby and helped take me to my room. Once there, the man—Travis—said Roman told him he could handle it from there, so Travis left.”
“You don’t believe that?” Gabriel asked, skepticism written all over his face.
“I don’t know what to believe,” Emily admitted. “Travis might just be trying to pin it on Roman. That’s when I decided to go to the police. But they didn’t take me seriously because I had left Ava with Roman. They said maybe they just went somewhere and suggested I call him. When I went back to the cabin, they were gone. I went to the neighbor’s house to use the phone to call the police, but no one was home.” Emily broke down, her voice choked with sobs. “Something bad happened there. There was blood, and Ava’s toy was there. Oh my God, what have I done?”
Gabriel rushed to her side, wrapping her in his arms. “They will find her,” he murmured, trying to reassure her. “They have to.”