Chapter 2 - My Son Vanished Before I Reached Home, and the Man I Saved Recognized the Symbol on the Kidnapper’s Car
I found Leo's dinosaur backpack beside the apartment door.
The zipper was open.
His medicine sat on the kitchen counter.
And my neighbor Mrs. Alvarez was crying.
"A woman came for him," she said.
I gripped the doorframe.
"What woman?"
"She said you sent her. She knew his middle name."
I had never sent anyone.
Roman arrived before the police.
His bandage showed beneath his shirt.
He did not look at the backpack first.
He looked at the black sedan outside.
Someone had scratched a silver crown into its rear window.
"Who owns that car?" I asked.
Roman's face closed.
"Someone who wants me to think he's dead."
I wanted to scream at him.
Instead, I demanded his phone.
He called his security chief, Elias Ward.
I listened as he ordered cameras preserved.
No threats. No theatrical promises.
Just addresses, timestamps, and a request for police cooperation.
Detective Nina Park arrived twenty minutes later.
She asked me to describe Leo's shoes.
I knew the scuff on his left sneaker.
I knew which sock he had worn backward.
Every answer felt like a small betrayal.
A message appeared on my phone.
A photograph showed Leo asleep under a blue blanket.
Underneath were seven words.
TELL ROMAN TO RETURN WHAT HE STOLE.
Roman read the message.
Then he whispered a name.
"Julian Mercer."
"Who is he?"
"My brother."
I stared at him.
"You said he was dead."
May you like
Roman shook his head.
"I said everyone believed he was."
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