Chapter 6 - The Day Sadi DisappearedDiane did not scream.
Later, she would remember that.
She had imagined losing Sadi thousands of times during the years after their parents died.
Every guardian knew that fear.
A car accident.
A stranger.
An illness.
A terrible phone call.
But when Ezra said Sadi had never arrived at school, Diane did not scream.
She simply stopped functioning.
“What do you mean?”
Her voice sounded far away.
Ezra stepped toward her.
“The driver picked her up at seven-thirty.”
“I watched her leave.”
“I know.”
“Then where is she?”
“We don’t know.”
Diane turned toward Ravi.
For the first time since meeting him, she saw pure terror on his face.
Not anger.
Not calculation.
Terror.
“Find her.”
Diane’s voice broke.
“Ravi, find my sister.”
He moved immediately.
Within minutes, the mansion transformed into a command center.
Security footage.
Phone records.
Traffic cameras.
Every contact Ravi possessed.
Every favor owed.
Every person capable of finding a vehicle in the city was activated.
The car carrying Sadi had disappeared six blocks from her school.
The driver’s phone was found beside the road.
There was no blood.
No body.
No sign of a struggle.
Diane stood in the middle of Ravi’s office, staring at a photograph of Sadi.
Thirteen years old.
Brown hair.
Bright smile.
The little girl Diane had raised since she was eight.
The child who had once worried that Diane worked too hard.
The child Ravi loved like his own sister.
Gone.
Ravi approached.
“We’ll find her.”
Diane turned.
“You promised.”
He stopped.
“You promised no one would get near her.”
“I know.”
“You promised!”
Her fist struck his chest.
Ravi did not defend himself.
“You said your security would protect us!”
She hit him again.
“Diane—”
“Where is she?”
Her anger collapsed into grief.
“Where is my baby?”
Ravi caught her as her knees weakened.
She cried against him.
“I can’t lose her.”
“You won’t.”
“I promised Mom.”
Ravi closed his eyes.
“I promised Mom I would protect her.”
“You have protected her.”
“Then where is she?”
He had no answer.
Across the room, Adrian stood silently.
Guilt covered his face.
“This happened because I came back.”
Ravi looked at him.
“No.”
“If I hadn’t—”
“No.”
Ravi’s voice hardened.
“This happened because Marcus is afraid.”
Ezra entered.
“We found the car.”
Everyone turned.
“Where?”
“Industrial district. Abandoned.”
“And the driver?”
“Alive.”
Diane ran toward him.
“Where’s Sadi?”
“He doesn’t know.”
“What does that mean?”
“They blocked the road with a delivery truck. Two men pulled him from the car. Hit him from behind. When he woke up, Sadi was gone.”
Diane covered her mouth.
Ravi looked at Ezra.
“Any cameras?”
“One.”
Ezra showed him footage.
A dark van.
No visible plate.
But there was something else.
One kidnapper appeared briefly.
His face was hidden.
His hand was not.
A distinctive tattoo covered his wrist.
Ravi recognized it.
“Marcus.”
Ezra nodded.
“One of his old men. Thomas Vale.”
“Find him.”
“We are.”
Diane stepped forward.
“What does Marcus want?”
As if answering her question, Ravi’s phone rang.
Marcus again.
Ravi put the call on speaker.
“Where is she?”
Marcus sighed.
“You always were impatient.”
“If you hurt her—”
“I haven’t.”
Diane moved closer.
“Let me speak to her.”
Marcus paused.
“Diane Harper.”
Her skin crawled hearing him say her name.
“Let me speak to my sister.”
“You’re much stronger than Ravi’s usual women.”
“Let me speak to her.”
A few seconds passed.
Then they heard breathing.
“Diane?”
Diane nearly collapsed.
“Sadi!”
“I’m okay.”
Sadi sounded frightened but conscious.
“Did they hurt you?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m okay.”
A man took the phone.
Marcus.
“You heard her.”
“What do you want?”
Ravi asked.
“The records.”
“What records?”
“Everything you recovered.”
Ravi understood.
Marcus wanted the evidence destroyed.
“You give me every document and every copy, and Sadi comes home.”
“How do I know you’ll keep your word?”
“You don’t.”
Marcus ended the call.
Diane turned toward Ravi.
“Give him the records.”
Adrian stepped forward.
“If you do that, we lose our only proof.”
Diane looked at him.
“I don’t care.”
“Diane—”
“My sister is thirteen years old!”
Adrian stopped.
“I don’t care about your father. I don’t care about Ravi’s father. I don’t care what happened sixteen years ago.”
Her voice shook.
“I want Sadi home.”
Ravi took her hand.
“We’ll give him what he wants.”
Adrian stared.
“That evidence could clear my father’s name.”
Ravi looked at him.
“And Sadi is alive.”
The words ended the argument.
For the next four hours, Ravi prepared the exchange.
Marcus demanded Ravi come alone.
No weapons.
No trackers.
No police.
The meeting would happen at an abandoned freight terminal shortly before midnight.
Diane wanted to go.
Ravi refused.
This time she did not fight him.
Because someone needed to stay with Noah.
At eleven-thirty, Ravi prepared to leave.
Diane found him in their bedroom.
He was checking a small hidden blade inside his boot.
“You said no weapons.”
“I lied.”
Normally she might have argued.
Instead she walked toward him.
“Bring her home.”
Ravi looked at his wife.
He saw fear in her eyes.
And trust.
Trust was worse.
Because he could fail fear.
He could not bear to fail trust.
“I will.”
Diane touched his face.
“Ravi.”
“Yes?”
“If you have to choose between the evidence and Sadi—”
“I know.”
“If you have to choose between revenge and Sadi—”
“I know.”
“If you have to choose between Marcus and—”
“Diane.”
He kissed her forehead.
“I choose Sadi.”
She nodded.
Then Ravi left.
The freight terminal was almost completely dark.
Marcus stood beneath a single industrial light.
He was sixty-two now.
His hair had turned gray.
But Ravi recognized the same man who had taught him how to drive.
The same man who had attended his graduation.
The same man who had stood beside three graves after Ravi’s parents and Dominic Moretti died.
“Where is she?”
Marcus smiled sadly.
“You’ve become very much like your father.”
“Where is Sadi?”
“You don’t even ask why.”
“I don’t care why.”
“You should.”
Marcus stepped forward.
“I saved you.”
Ravi stared at him.
“After your parents died, you were eighteen. Terrified. Angry. You had two boys depending on you.”
“I remember.”
“Who taught you?”
“You.”
“Who protected you?”
“You.”
“Who kept your father’s enemies from tearing you apart?”
“You.”
Marcus opened his arms.
“I made you.”
Ravi’s expression hardened.
“And did you kill my parents?”
Marcus became silent.
Ravi felt his heart pounding.
“Did you?”
“I never intended your mother to die.”
That was the answer.
Ravi staggered backward.
For sixteen years, he had imagined his parents’ final moments.
For sixteen years, he had blamed Dominic Moretti.
Now the truth stood in front of him.
“My father?”
Marcus sighed.
“Vincent discovered the payments.”
“You betrayed him.”
“He was destroying the organization with pride and pointless wars. Moretti and I made an arrangement.”
“And Victor Kane?”
“He discovered it.”
“So you framed him.”
Marcus looked away.
“Yes.”
Ravi felt sick.
“You convinced my father to kill an innocent man.”
“Victor would have exposed everything.”
“And then you killed my father.”
“I arranged an attack meant for Vincent.”
“My mother was in the car.”
“I didn’t know she would be.”
Ravi wanted to kill him.
Every muscle in his body demanded it.
Then he remembered Diane.
No attacking because you’re scared.
No letting pride decide everything.
And Sadi.
“Where is she?”
Marcus smiled.
“Still focused.”
“Yes.”
“You always did love your family too much.”
“There is no such thing.”
Marcus’s smile disappeared.
“That was your father’s weakness too.”
Ravi heard movement behind him.
Men appeared.
Four.
Then six.
Marcus had never intended an exchange.
Ravi understood instantly.
“You were going to kill me.”
“I was going to remove the final problem.”
“And Sadi?”
“She would have been released afterward.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“No.”
A voice came through the darkness.
“You shouldn’t.”
Adrian Kane stepped from behind a shipping container.
Marcus looked shocked.
Then Ezra appeared from the opposite direction.
Ravi almost smiled.
Marcus looked between them.
“You were followed.”
“No,” Ravi said.
“I lied about coming alone.”
Chaos erupted.
Marcus’s men moved.
So did Ravi’s.
The confrontation was fast and brutal.
Ravi reached Marcus.
He slammed him against a metal wall.
“Where is Sadi?”
Marcus laughed despite the blood on his lip.
“You’ll never find her.”
Ravi hit him.
“Where?”
Another blow.
“Ravi!”
Adrian grabbed his arm.
“You kill him, we lose our best chance.”
Ravi stopped.
He hated that Adrian was right.
Ezra searched Marcus.
A phone.
Keys.
Wallet.
Nothing.
Then Adrian noticed something.
“His watch.”
Ravi looked.
A smart watch.
Connected.
Ezra understood.
“Location history.”
Within minutes they had an address.
A farmhouse forty miles outside the city.
Diane received the call at 1:17 a.m.
“We found her.”
She nearly dropped the phone.
“Is she alive?”
“We don’t know yet.”
Those words almost destroyed her.
Twenty-seven minutes later, Ravi’s vehicles reached the farmhouse.
Two guards surrendered immediately when they realized Marcus had been captured.
Ravi ran inside.
“Sadi!”
No answer.
He searched the first floor.
Then the second.
“Sadi!”
A faint sound came from behind a locked door.
“Ravi?”
He broke the door open.
Sadi was sitting on a mattress.
Her hands were tied.
But she was alive.
Ravi crossed the room in seconds.
She threw herself into him.
“I knew you’d come.”
He held her.
His eyes filled with tears.
“I’m sorry.”
“You came.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You came, Ravi.”
He carried her outside.
At home, Diane was waiting at the front door.
When the vehicle stopped, she ran barefoot across the driveway.
“Sadi!”
The girl jumped from Ravi’s arms.
The sisters collided.
Diane held her so tightly Sadi could barely breathe.
“You’re okay.”
“I’m okay.”
“You’re really okay.”
“I’m okay.”
Diane kissed her forehead again and again.
Ravi stood several feet away.
Watching.
Then Sadi reached one hand toward him.
“Come here.”
Ravi approached.
She pulled him into the embrace.
The three of them held each other beneath the porch light.
Later, after Sadi had been examined by a doctor and finally fallen asleep beside Diane, Ravi sat alone downstairs.
Adrian entered.
“Marcus is secured.”
Ravi nodded.
“The police?”
“Not yet.”
Ravi looked at him.
For years, problems in Ravi’s world had been solved privately.
Violently.
Quietly.
But now Noah existed.
Sadi existed.
Diane existed.
“What would happen if we gave everything to federal investigators?”
Adrian looked surprised.
“Everything?”
“Marcus. The records. My father’s organization. Mine.”
“You could expose yourself.”
“I know.”
“You could go to prison.”
“I know.”
Adrian studied him.
“Why?”
Ravi looked toward the stairs.
“Because I’m tired.”
His voice was quiet.
“I’m tired of telling Diane I can protect her while keeping her inside the same world that keeps putting her in danger.”
He looked down at his hands.
“My father built an empire.”
“Marcus corrupted it.”
“And I inherited it.”
Ravi raised his eyes.
“But Noah won’t.”
For the first time, Adrian saw something in Ravi he had not expected.
Not a rival.
Not Vincent Greedy’s son.
A father.
“What are you going to do?”
Adrian asked.
May you like
Ravi looked toward the sleeping family upstairs.
“End it.”
Related Stories
