Chapter 6 - The Hidden Ledger
"Trace that cell tower!" Detective Vance barked into his radio, sprinting out of the NICU room. "All units respond to 412 Maple Ridge Road! Suspect is on site, armed and hostile!"
The hospital room erupted into chaos. Nurses moved in to carefully return baby Leo to his incubator for his safety, while Marcus gripped my wheelchair handles.
"Sloane, stay here," Marcus urged. "The police are handling this."
"No!" I said, forcing myself out of the wheelchair despite the sharp pain tearing across my abdomen. I leaned heavily against the wall, breathing through the physical agony. "Gavin is desperate now. He’s cornered. He will do something terrible if he feels he has nothing left to lose. I have to go!"
"Sloane, you just had a C-section yesterday!" Dr. Vale protested, rushing to support my arm.
"I don't care if my stitches burst!" I yelled, tears streaming down my face. "My stepdaughter is in that house! Claire is in that house! I am going!"
Seeing the unyielding fire in my eyes, Dr. Vale realized there was no stopping me. "Then I’m coming with you in an ambulance," she declared fiercely. "If you pop an artery, I’m not letting you die on the driveway."
Ten minutes later, I was in the back of an emergency transport ambulance, speeding through the city streets with red lights flashing and sirens wailing. Dr. Vale monitored my vitals while Marcus rode up front with the driver.
Every second felt like an eternity. My mind raced through every horrible possibility. Gavin was a narcissist who built his entire identity on control and status. Now that his illusion was crumbling, he was capable of absolute destruction.
When we pulled into the long, winding driveway of our suburban home on Maple Ridge Road, the scene looked like a war zone. Four police cruisers were parked at angled blockades, their emergency lights flashing blue and red against the twilight gloom.
Detective Vance stood behind the open door of his cruiser, a megaphone in hand, surrounding the heavy oak front doors of our house.
I pushed open the rear door of the ambulance, ignoring Dr. Vale’s warning, and stepped onto the damp asphalt. The cold evening air whipped through my hospital gown and light jacket.
"Mrs. Mercer, stay back!" an officer ordered, but I pushed past him, heading straight toward Vance.
"What’s happening?!" I demanded.
"He’s barricaded inside with the little girl and Claire Dalton," Vance said, his face grim. "He’s refusing to talk. He says if any officer breaches the door, he’ll start shooting. He claims he has a firearm."
"Gavin doesn't own a gun," I said, my voice cutting through the panic. "He’s terrified of weapons. He’s bluffing about a firearm to buy time! What he really wants is to get to his vehicle in the garage!"
Vance looked at me sharply. "Are you sure?"
"He has a private underground access from the basement study that leads directly into the secondary garage stall," I explained, the memory of our house renovations flashing in my mind. "He built it years ago for privacy. He isn't planning a standoff in the living room—he’s heading underground to get to his SUV!"
"Cover the garage exits!" Vance roared into his radio. "Team B, move to the north side structure now!"
Just as the tactical officers began moving, a sharp sound of shattered glass echoed from the side of the house, followed by a woman's scream.
"Claire!" I yelled, running toward the side garden, Marcus and Vance right on my heels.
We rounded the corner of the house just in time to see Claire tumbling through a low basement window onto the soil, blood dripping from cuts on her arms. In her hands, pressed tightly against her chest, was a heavy, square steel box wrapped in floorboard dust.
"Claire!" I knelt beside her, ignoring the fiery pain in my stomach. "Are you okay?!"
"I got it..." Claire gasped, coughing, blood smeared across her cheek. She thrust the heavy metal box into my hands. "I got the ledger... he tried to kill me, Sloane... he locked me in the furnace room, but I broke the window..."
"Where is Ruby?!" Vance demanded, helping Claire to her feet.
"He’s taking her through the basement tunnel to the garage SUV!" Claire cried out. "He’s going to ram through the garage door!"
At that exact moment, the roar of a high-horsepower engine thundered from inside the attached garage. The heavy wooden garage door rattled as the engine revved higher and higher.
"Block that driveway!" Vance screamed over his radio.
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I stood up, holding the heavy black box against my chest, staring at the garage door. The man who had tried to steal my life, my baby, and my freedom was about to destroy everything to escape.
But he wasn't taking Ruby. Not today. Not ever again.
