Chapter 4 - OWEN'S FIRST THREE DAYS
The message changed everything without explaining enough.
Gideon wanted to trace it.
Police were already doing that.
Mallerie wanted Adrian found.
Police wanted that too.
For once, nobody needed Gideon’s private methods.
He struggled with that.
Mallerie watched him pace.
“You’re going to wear a trench into the floor.”
“I can find him faster.”
“Maybe.”
“You think I shouldn’t?”
“I think if you scare him underground, we lose answers.”
Gideon stopped.
“You assume he’ll fear me.”
“You told me he ran from you.”
“Fair.”
Adrian sent a second message two days later.
VOSS HAS A WOMAN INSIDE THE HOUSE.
Jonah immediately locked down the nursery.
Mallerie’s face hardened.
“Rule one.”
Gideon caught himself.
“Right. Nobody is locked in. Security is increased around Owen, not around you.”
They reviewed everyone with access to the penthouse and mansion.
The pediatric nurse was cleared.
Household staff underwent voluntary interviews.
One temporary nanny had used false references.
She disappeared before police reached her apartment.
Security footage showed her entering Gideon’s home twice before the gala.
Once she stood outside Owen’s nursery for eleven minutes while another employee was inside.
The second time she photographed his medical folder.
Why?
The answer came from Voss’s financial records.
Dr. Voss had been blackmailing Adrian.
The original scheme was his.
But once Voss realized Gideon Vale had unknowingly adopted a stolen child, she possessed leverage against one of the most powerful men in Chicago.
She demanded money from Adrian to keep the fraud hidden.
When Adrian’s illness worsened and payments stopped, she began planning to move Owen again.
A second disappearance would make the paper trail nearly impossible to reconstruct.
The fake hotel employee had been sent to take Owen during the gala.
Mallerie’s presence accelerated the plan.
Ruth Kaplan insisted Owen’s routine remain as normal as possible.
So Gideon learned to conduct security briefings while stacking blocks.
Mallerie learned Owen hated peas.
Gideon looked offended when she told him.
“My mother hated peas.”
“Genetic tragedy.”
Owen threw one onto the floor.
They both laughed.
Those ordinary moments complicated everything.
Mallerie was falling in love with her son in real time while grieving the ten months stolen from her.
Gideon was preparing for the possibility that the law might undo his adoption.
Neither could afford to make the other an enemy.
One night, Owen woke screaming at two.
Mallerie reached the nursery at the same time as Gideon.
They stopped in the doorway.
“You go,” Gideon said.
Mallerie shook her head.
“He’s used to you at night.”
So they both went.
Gideon lifted Owen.
Mallerie sat beside them and hummed.
Owen eventually fell asleep with one hand gripping Gideon’s shirt and the other wrapped around Mallerie’s finger.
Neither adult moved.
“This is ridiculous,” Gideon whispered.
“What?”
“My arm is numb.”
“Fatherhood.”
He looked at her.
“You keep calling me that.”
“You are that.”
His eyes lowered.
“What if the court says I’m not?”
“Courts decide legal status. They don’t delete ten months.”
He was quiet.
Then he asked, “What do you want?”
Mallerie knew he meant custody.
“I want my son.”
His jaw tightened.
“And I don’t want him to lose you to get me.”
Gideon exhaled.
For the first time, they began discussing a future not built around winning.
Shared parenting.
Gradual transitions.
Legal recognition if possible.
Therapy.
A truthful story for Owen when he was old enough.
Ruth encouraged it but warned them not to make private agreements that ignored the court.
They listened.
Then Dr. Voss surfaced.
Not in another country.
In Chicago.
She walked into a police station with an attorney.
Her reason was simple.
May you like
Adrian Vale had returned.
And according to Voss, he wanted his son back.
