Chapter 10 - NOLAN TOOK LEONolan waited until the first supervised school day.
The campus used new security.
Officers checked vehicles.
Teachers received photographs.
No one expected a fire alarm.
At 10:12, smoke entered the west hallway.
Children evacuated through assigned exits.
A man wearing firefighter equipment took Leo’s hand.
He knew Leo’s name.
He said Mia was waiting near an ambulance.
Leo followed.
By the time teachers counted students, the vehicle had gone.
Mia saw the firefighter’s wrist.
A silver watch with a cracked face.
Nolan’s watch.
She told police immediately.
I received the call during a meeting with prosecutors.
For several seconds, no words existed.
Then paternal panic took control.
I overturned a chair.
Demanded roadblocks.
Threatened people who were already trying to help.
Detective Morris faced me.
“Your anger is slowing this room.”
The truth stopped me.
I sat.
“What do you need?”
“Every property Nolan knows.”
I listed them.
Homes.
Warehouses.
Marinas.
Construction sites.
Then Mia remembered Nolan asking about the family photographs.
He did not only want the hard drive.
He wanted Sophia’s final letter.
Why abduct Leo for a letter addressed to both children?
Because Nolan believed Sophia hid a second password inside it.
The hard drive police recovered contained encrypted files still unopened.
Nolan thought the children possessed the last code.
He was correct.
Mia and Leo had not opened the letter.
It remained inside a court evidence locker.
Nolan did not know that.
He called at noon.
A video showed Leo sitting inside an unfinished room.
Dark-blue shirt.
Tears on his face.
No visible injuries.
“Bring Sophia’s letter to the glass house,” Nolan said.
The glass house was our unfinished development near the river.
Police had searched it.
But Nolan designed hidden service levels.
“Let me speak to Leo.”
Nolan turned the camera.
“Dad?”
“I’m here.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You did nothing wrong.”
“I went with him.”
“He lied to you. That is his wrongdoing.”
Nolan ended the call.
Mia stood beside me.
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
“He wants the password.”
“You don’t know it.”
“I know Mom’s letter.”
“You haven’t opened it.”
“She taught us a poem.”
The final code was embedded in a bedtime rhyme Sophia repeated.
Mia knew the first half.
Leo knew the second.
Nolan needed both children.
Leo’s abduction was only the beginning.
The glass house exchange would be his opportunity to take Mia too.
We prepared a copy of the letter.
Mia recorded her half of the poem.
Police concealed trackers in the envelope.
I would make the exchange.
Detective Morris warned me:
“Nolan may not return Leo even if you comply.”
“I know.”
“Do not improvise.”
“I know.”
Mia took my hand before I left.
“Dad?”
“Yes?”
“Come before, not after.”
I understood.
She was not asking me to arrive before the police.
May you like
She was asking me to choose my children before Nolan forced another crisis.
“I will.”
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