Chapter 3 - THREE BLACK SUVS AT SUNRISE
Avery reached the twins before Celeste did.
She did not think about it.
She stepped between the girls and the approaching woman.
“Stop.”
Celeste Ward stopped twenty feet away.
She looked nothing like the monster Avery had imagined.
That disturbed her more.
Celeste appeared to be somewhere in her early forties, dressed in dark slacks, a cream sweater, and a camel-colored coat that probably cost more than Avery earned in a month. Her blonde hair was neatly styled despite the rain.
She looked like a parent arriving late to a school conference.
Not a woman two terrified children had been hiding from.
“Thank God,” Celeste breathed.
She put a hand against her chest.
“Emma. Ella. Come here.”
The twins moved behind Avery.
Celeste’s expression changed for half a second.
It vanished quickly.
But Avery saw it.
Anger.
Not concern.
“You’re frightening them,” Avery said.
“They’ve been missing for days.”
“Eleven days.”
Celeste looked at her sharply.
Avery knew then that she had expected ignorance.
“I know who they are.”
Celeste recovered quickly.
“Then you know they belong with me.”
Ella grabbed the back of Avery’s uniform.
“No.”
Celeste smiled painfully.
“Honey, you’re confused.”
“No!”
Emma began crying.
Avery turned slightly.
“You don’t have to go anywhere this second.”
Celeste took another step.
Avery raised a hand.
“I said stop.”
“You have absolutely no authority to keep those children from me.”
“And you have no authority to walk up and take them without explaining who you are.”
“I’m their legal guardian.”
Avery’s stomach dropped.
Celeste reached inside her handbag.
Avery tensed.
Celeste slowly removed a folded document.
“Emergency guardianship order.”
She held it up.
Avery could not read the text from that distance.
“You expect me to trust a piece of paper in a parking lot?”
“I expect you to obey the law.”
Behind Avery, the diner door opened.
Bobby stepped outside carrying a cast-iron skillet.
Celeste stared at it.
Bobby shrugged.
“I was cleaning.”
Avery almost laughed.
Then Gavin appeared.
His phone was still in his hand.
Celeste looked at him.
It lasted perhaps one second.
But Avery saw it.
Recognition.
“You two know each other.”
Gavin immediately said, “No.”
Celeste said, “Of course not.”
Too fast.
Avery turned toward Gavin.
“You got a message asking if the girls were here.”
Celeste's expression remained controlled.
Gavin stepped backward.
“You’re making things up.”
“I saw it.”
Sirens became audible in the distance.
Celeste’s head turned.
For the first time, real panic crossed her face.
She looked toward the twins.
Then at Avery.
“You have no idea what you’re interfering with.”
Avery stepped closer to the girls.
“I think I’m starting to.”
Celeste returned to her SUV.
Before getting inside, she looked directly at Gavin.
Not Avery.
Gavin.
Then she drove away.
Police arrived less than two minutes later.
Emma was taken by ambulance because of her fever and cough.
Ella refused to leave her sister.
Avery rode with them.
At the hospital, the story became larger by the minute.
Detectives arrived.
Then state police.
Then a child welfare investigator.
Then three men in dark suits who identified themselves as private security working for Henry Hartwell.
Avery sat beside the twins in a pediatric treatment room while doctors treated Emma for pneumonia and dehydration.
Ella refused to let go of Avery’s sleeve.
At 4:18 a.m., a detective finally confirmed that the children were indeed Emma and Ella Hartwell.
Their mother had been Grace Hartwell.
The name meant nothing to Avery until the detective explained.
Grace was the only daughter of Henry Hartwell, founder of Hartwell Industries, a transportation and infrastructure corporation worth billions.
Ten years earlier, Grace had publicly separated from her father after a family dispute.
She disappeared from the society pages.
Stopped attending company events.
Changed cities repeatedly.
And apparently never told Henry she had given birth to twins.
Henry learned about Emma and Ella only six months earlier.
Grace had died after a brief battle with cancer.
Before her death, she mailed her father a letter.
It arrived three weeks after her funeral.
Inside were photographs of the twins and six handwritten pages.
Grace apologized for disappearing.
She admitted she had made mistakes.
And she asked her father for one thing.
Find my daughters if they ever need you.
By the time Henry found the apartment listed in the letter, the girls were gone.
They had been placed temporarily with Celeste Ward, a woman Grace had listed years earlier as an emergency contact.
Then Celeste disappeared with them.
For months, lawyers battled over jurisdiction and guardianship.
Eleven days ago, Celeste reported the twins missing.
She claimed they had run away from a rental house.
Henry believed she was lying.
A national search began.
Avery looked toward Ella.
“What happened?”
Ella stared at her shoes.
“Dean got mad.”
“Who is Dean?”
“Miss Celeste’s brother.”
The detective leaned closer.
“What did Dean do?”
Ella looked at Emma.
Emma was sleeping with an oxygen tube beneath her nose.
“He said we cost too much.”
Avery felt sick.
Ella continued.
“They locked the food.”
The detective's jaw tightened.
“What do you mean?”
“The kitchen cabinets.”
“Did they hurt you?”
Ella stopped talking.
Avery saw her disappear behind that protective silence again.
She did not push.
At 6:03 a.m., the hallway outside the room changed.
People straightened.
Security moved.
A nurse stepped aside.
Henry Hartwell entered.
He was seventy-one.
Tall despite a slight stoop in his shoulders.
Silver hair.
Dark overcoat.
No tie.
He looked nothing like Avery expected a billionaire to look at six in the morning.
He looked terrified.
His eyes immediately found the twins.
He stopped.
Ella stared.
Henry did not move closer.
“Hello,” he whispered.
Ella looked at Avery.
Avery nodded slightly.
Henry's eyes filled with tears.
“I’m Henry.”
Ella said nothing.
“Your grandfather.”
Silence.
Henry swallowed.
“I knew your mother when she was your age.”
That made Ella look at him.
“She climbed trees in dresses because she knew it annoyed her grandmother.”
A tiny change passed over the girl's face.
“Mommy climbed trees?”
“Constantly.”
Emma opened her eyes.
Henry froze.
Emma looked at him.
Then at the necklace around her own neck.
She pulled out the pendant.
Her eyes moved between the photograph and the man standing beside the bed.
“You’re older.”
Avery covered her mouth.
Henry laughed and cried at the same time.
“Yes.”
Emma considered him.
“Mommy said you were stubborn.”
Henry nodded.
“She was right.”
For ten minutes, nothing dramatic happened.
No speeches.
No instant reunion.
Henry sat in a chair several feet away and answered every question the twins asked.
Did he have dogs?
Two.
Did he live in a castle?
No.
Did he have pancakes?
He promised he could obtain pancakes.
Ella finally asked the question that mattered.
“Did you hate Mommy?”
Henry's face broke.
“No.”
“Miss Celeste said you did.”
“I was angry with your mother for leaving.”
He paused.
“And angry with myself for giving her reasons to believe she had to.”
Ella studied him.
Henry whispered, “But I never stopped loving her.”
Later that morning, after the twins had fallen asleep, Henry found Avery near the vending machines.
He held out an envelope.
She looked at it.
“What’s that?”
“A check.”
“No.”
“You haven’t even looked.”
“I don't need to.”
“You saved my granddaughters.”
“I bought soup.”
“You protected them.”
“Anyone should have.”
“But you did.”
Avery pushed the envelope back.
“I don’t want money.”
Henry stared at her.
“You have an overdue electric notice sticking out of your purse.”
Avery looked down.
Wonderful.
“Then apparently I also need a better purse.”
Henry almost smiled.
“You could use this.”
“Yes.”
“But you won’t take it.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because Emma and Ella were hungry, Mr. Hartwell. I didn’t make an investment.”
Henry looked at her for a long moment.
Then he folded the envelope and put it away.
“All right.”
Avery expected him to leave.
Instead, he asked, “What do you want?”
“For what?”
“For helping them.”
She thought about Gavin.
The soup.
The look between him and Celeste.
“I want you to find out why my manager knew that woman.”
Henry’s expression changed.
“I already have people doing that.”
Avery blinked.
“Of course you do.”
At 8:15 a.m., she finally returned to the diner.
She had not slept.
She still wore the burgundy uniform from the night before.
When she reached the parking lot, she stopped.
Three black SUVs were parked across the front of the Red Lantern.
Employees stood by the windows.
Customers were taking pictures.
Henry Hartwell stepped out of the center vehicle.
Avery stared.
“You followed me?”
“No.”
“Then why are you here?”
Henry looked toward the diner.
“Because one of my investigators found something.”
Avery’s stomach tightened.
“What?”
“The text on Gavin’s phone came from a prepaid number connected to Dean Ward.”
The rain had stopped.
Avery felt suddenly cold anyway.
Henry continued.
“And there’s something else.”
“What?”
“Gavin received three deposits totaling eighteen thousand dollars over the last four months.”
“From Dean?”
“We don’t know yet.”
Avery looked through the diner window.
Gavin was standing behind the counter.
Watching them.
Henry said quietly, “My investigator believes someone was paying your manager to report sightings of two little girls.”
Avery turned toward him.
“Why would Gavin even know to look for them?”
Henry did not answer.
One of his security men approached quickly.
“Mr. Hartwell.”
Henry turned.
The man handed him a tablet.
Whatever Henry read drained the color from his face.
Avery stepped closer.
“What is it?”
Henry looked at her.
“Celeste filed an emergency petition twenty minutes ago.”
“For what?”
“To regain immediate custody.”
Avery stared at him.
“She can’t.”
“She can if her existing guardianship order is still recognized.”
“But the girls are terrified of her.”
“That’s not the worst part.”
Henry handed Avery the tablet.
A hearing had already been scheduled.
3:00 p.m.
Emergency Family Court.
And beneath Celeste Ward’s name was another line.
Allegations:
UNLAWFUL INTERFERENCE, CHILD ABDUCTION, AND COERCION BY AVERY MORRISON.
Avery read her own name twice.
Then Henry's phone rang.
He answered.
Listened.
His jaw tightened.
“Understood.”
He ended the call.
“What happened?” Avery asked.
Henry looked through the glass toward Gavin.
“Child Protective Services is on the way to the hospital.”
“For the girls?”
“Yes.”
“To keep them safe?”
May you like
Henry’s silence answered first.
Then he said, “They have an order to remove Emma and Ella from my custody.”
