Chapter 14 - THE CHILDREN THEY PLANNED TO STEALThe false passports showed Ruby and Mateo as siblings.
New names.
New birth dates.
A private aircraft waited in New Hampshire.
The destination was a country without an extradition treaty.
Dominic planned to force Vincent and Elena to cooperate by keeping the children alive but unreachable.
Mateo stared at his passport photograph.
“When did they take this?”
Elena recognized the shirt.
School picture day.
Graham obtained it from administrative files.
Ruby’s photograph came from a charity event.
Adults built entire escape plans from ordinary childhood records.
Naomi moved both families again.
This location had no Moretti staff.
No private guards.
Federal protection only.
Vincent struggled with the loss of command.
When an agent refused him access to a security monitor, his face hardened.
Then he looked at Ruby.
He stepped back.
Change often happened in small humiliations.
Being told no.
Not retaliating.
Isabella watched him carefully.
“You are learning.”
“Too late.”
“For us, perhaps.”
The words hurt.
She did not soften them.
“For Ruby, not too late.”
Dominic contacted Vincent directly.
“Brother.”
Vincent listened without speaking.
“You let federal agents put a leash on you.”
“You tried to throw my daughter from a balcony.”
“The railing was Graham’s idea.”
“You pushed her.”
“She was supposed to die quickly.”
Vincent’s hand tightened around the phone.
Naomi signaled for him to continue.
“Why?”
“Because you became weak after Isabella.”
“You kept her alive.”
“We needed the account.”
“You let me bury another woman.”
“A nameless body solved the identification problem.”
Vincent closed his eyes.
Someone else’s daughter had been buried beneath Isabella’s name.
The body was later identified as Lydia Grant, a woman who disappeared from a shelter.
Dominic and Graham selected her because few people searched publicly.
Even the false grave contained another stolen story.
“What do you want?” Vincent asked.
“The Cruz evidence.”
“You have Rafael’s phone.”
“Not the code.”
Mateo’s brass key opened South Station.
The first-aid box opened the estate archive.
But Graham believed Rafael hid one final code with his family.
He was right.
Inside the box’s lid, beneath layers of red paint, investigators found numbers.
They opened an encrypted cloud archive.
Rafael had uploaded everything.
Original vehicle records.
Audio of Isabella.
Financial transfers.
Photographs of Dominic alive after his supposed death.
Enough to convict both men.
Dominic wanted the code destroyed.
Vincent lied.
“Elena has it.”
Dominic replied immediately.
“No. The boy does.”
Mateo became the center again.
Vincent looked toward him through the glass.
“I will give you the code,” Vincent said, “if you release Graham’s location.”
Dominic laughed.
“You still think Graham works for me.”
The line disconnected.
Vivian studied the call.
“What if neither leads?”
Naomi understood.
“Each thinks the other controls the escape route.”
Their alliance was failing.
Distrust created an opening.
A false message was sent to Graham using Dominic’s channel:
VINCENT AGREED. MEET AT THE ESTATE BALCONY. BRING THE BOY’S FILE.
A second went to Dominic:
May you like
PIKE HAS ISABELLA. BALCONY AT 9:16.
Both men were invited to the place where the conspiracy became visible.
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