My only thought was: She’s going after Ethan.
I sped to Ray’s apartment. The door was half open. A single sheet of paper lay on the floor, written in Ethan’s uneven handwriting:
“Gran, I’m okay. Mom is taking me to the house near the lake. I’m sorry.”
The world seemed to fall away beneath me.
Then my phone rang—from an unknown number. Ethan’s tiny whisper crackled through the line:
“Grandma… Lake View Farm… the big house… by the water.”
The call dropped.
The police traced the signal and we raced there together. Every second felt like an hour. When we arrived, we found Caroline inside an abandoned lake house—one arm around Ethan, the other holding a gun.
“Mom, please let him go!” I shouted without thinking.
She looked at me with a bitterness I didn’t recognize.
“You ruined everything. That money was our only chance.”
But Ethan acted with a courage far beyond his years. He bit her arm and slipped free, running straight into my arms. I held him as tightly as I could.
Police stormed in seconds later. Caroline was restrained, screaming and sobbing as everything unraveled.
