Chapter 6 - Camera FourteenCaleb called June before anyone could stop him.
She answered immediately.
“Theo is fine.”
“Where are you?”
“In the east nursery.”
“Leave.”
Silence.
“Mr. Sterling?”
“Take Theo and Marcus’s secondary security team. Go to the safe residence.”
“What happened?”
“I’ll explain later.”
“Caleb.”
It was the first time June had ever used his first name.
“Is someone coming here?”
He looked at Thomas Vane’s message.
“Yes.”
June did not panic.
That was one of the things Caleb had come to admire about her.
“All right.”
“Do not use the main driveway.”
“I know.”
“June.”
“Yes?”
“Thank you.”
A pause.
Then softly:
“Bring yourself home alive.”
The line ended.
Caleb looked at Marcus.
“Go.”
Marcus shook his head.
“My people can move Theo.”
“I need you with him.”
“My job is to protect you.”
“My son is me.”
Marcus didn’t argue again.
He left.
Caleb remained with Margaret and detectives while Thomas Vane was questioned downstairs.
Serena sat at one end of the boardroom beside her attorney.
She had stopped pretending to be outraged.
Now she simply watched Caleb.
Finally he walked toward her.
“Who is B?”
“I don’t know.”
“You saw Thomas regularly.”
“So did half of Connecticut.”
“You met him this morning.”
“To discuss your behavior.”
“Who is B?”
“I said I don’t know.”
Caleb leaned closer.
“Someone planned to take my child tonight.”
Serena’s expression barely changed.
But her left hand moved.
One finger pressed against her wedding ring.
A nervous habit.
He had seen it before every major lie.
“You know who B is.”
“No.”
“You’re afraid of him.”
That landed.
Serena looked away.
Caleb sat across from her.
For the first time, he did not see a mastermind.
He saw someone who had joined something larger than herself and suddenly realized it could swallow her too.
“Thomas is in custody.”
She said nothing.
“Bell will be next.”
Her eyes moved.
There.
Caleb caught it.
“Is B Bell?”
“No.”
Too quick.
“So you do know B.”
Serena closed her eyes.
Her attorney touched her arm.
“Do not answer.”
Caleb stood.
“Fine.”
He walked away.
Thirty minutes later, Marcus called.
“Theo is secure.”
Caleb exhaled.
“June?”
“With him.”
“Any trouble?”
“One vehicle followed them from the property.”
Caleb froze.
“What vehicle?”
“Black Mercedes. Plates came back to a rental company.”
“Did you lose it?”
“No.”
Caleb almost smiled.
“Where is it?”
“State police stopped it five minutes ago.”
“Who was driving?”
Marcus hesitated.
“Dr. Bell.”
Caleb gripped the phone.
“Warren Bell?”
“Yes.”
“What was in the car?”
Another pause.
“Baby supplies.”
Caleb went cold.
“What kind?”
“Diapers. Formula. Infant carrier.”
He could barely speak.
“He was planning to take Theo.”
“Looks that way.”
“And?”
“A passport.”
“For Bell?”
“No.”
Marcus’s voice hardened.
“For Theodore Sterling.”
Caleb’s vision blurred.
The passport had not been ordered by him.
Theo already had a passport locked in the family safe.
Which meant someone had created a second one.
A detective took the information and left immediately.
Margaret said, “They were going to move him out of the country.”
Caleb looked toward Serena.
She had heard.
For the first time, she looked genuinely shocked.
Caleb walked to her.
“You didn’t know.”
Her attorney spoke.
“My client—”
“You didn’t know Bell was taking Theo.”
Serena’s eyes filled.
Caleb felt no sympathy.
But he recognized truth.
“No,” she whispered.
“Then tell me who B is.”
Her attorney said, “Serena, stop.”
She turned on him.
“My baby was in that house!”
Caleb’s voice became hard.
“You put him there.”
“I never agreed to anyone taking him.”
“What did you agree to?”
Serena stood.
Her attorney tried to stop her.
She shook him off.
“I agreed to make you look unstable.”
The room went silent.
Caleb stared.
Serena continued.
“I agreed to file for temporary custody.”
“And the medical incidents?”
“I didn’t cause them.”
“Then who did?”
“Bell said he could make Theo appear medically fragile without causing permanent harm.”
Caleb’s stomach twisted.
Her attorney whispered, “Stop talking.”
Serena began crying.
“I didn’t know exactly what he was doing.”
Caleb could barely control himself.
“You let someone interfere with our child so you could win a custody case?”
“I thought it would be minor.”
“There is no minor version of that sentence.”
She flinched.
Caleb continued.
“Why?”
“Because Thomas promised me control.”
“Of the company?”
“Yes.”
“You wanted Sterling Global.”
“I wanted something that was mine.”
“You had everything.”
“No.”
Her voice rose.
“I had your name. Your houses. Your schedule. Your security. Your people. Everywhere I went, I was Mrs. Caleb Sterling.”
“You married me knowing who I was.”
“And then Theo was born and I disappeared completely.”
Caleb stared.
“So you tried to steal his trust?”
“I was never going to hurt him.”
“You already did.”
She started crying harder.
Caleb stepped back.
“Who is B?”
Serena wiped her face.
“I don’t know his real name.”
“Then what do you know?”
“Thomas called him Bishop.”
The name meant nothing.
Margaret asked, “A surname?”
“I don’t know.”
Caleb remembered the message.
They know. Move the child tonight.
“Where did you meet him?”
“Once.”
“When?”
“Four months ago.”
“Where?”
“Thomas’s house.”
“What did he look like?”
“Late fifties. Gray hair. Tall. American.”
“Anything else?”
Serena hesitated.
“He knew your father.”
Caleb felt another chill.
“How?”
“He talked about things from the early years of Sterling Global.”
“Did he work there?”
“I don’t know.”
A technician entered carrying a laptop.
“Mr. Sterling?”
Caleb turned.
“We recovered the missing fourteen minutes from the nursery camera.”
Serena looked up sharply.
The technician connected the laptop to the boardroom screen.
Video appeared.
Timestamp: 1:07 p.m.
Serena stood beside Theo’s stroller.
Caleb watched her remove something from her pocket.
The recorder?
No.
A folded paper.
She placed it under the stroller.
Then someone entered the room.
The camera showed only his back.
Tall.
Gray hair.
He wore a dark suit.
Serena turned toward him.
Even without audio, her body language changed.
Fear.
The man pointed toward the crib.
Then toward Serena.
He reached down.
And pushed Theo’s stroller toward the hallway.
Serena grabbed his arm.
They argued.
Then he shoved her backward.
The stroller continued rolling.
Caleb’s heart hammered.
The man moved toward the door.
For one second, his face turned toward the camera.
Samuel Gray gasped.
Caleb looked at him.
“You know him.”
Samuel’s face had gone white.
“Yes.”
“Who is he?”
Samuel whispered the name.
“Benjamin Cross.”
Caleb frowned.
“Who?”
Samuel looked as if he had seen a ghost.
“Your mother’s brother.”
Caleb stared.
“My mother didn’t have a brother.”
May you like
Samuel’s answer changed everything.
“That’s what your father wanted you to believe.”
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