Chapter 6 - The Ransom
I backed away from the police desk, my mind racing through a million terrifying possibilities.
If the police didn't have Hannah, then she was entirely at the mercy of whoever Diane had hired.
I sprinted out of the precinct and frantically dialed Diane's cell phone number as I reached my car.
The line rang four times before she finally answered with a smug, highly arrogant sigh.
"I told you I was protecting my son from your terrible decisions, Claire," Diane said coldly.
"Where is she, Diane? Those weren't real cops, you committed a federal kidnapping!" I screamed into the phone.
Diane laughed, a hollow, cruel sound that made my blood run entirely ice cold.
"I don't have the little brat, Claire, her biological father does," she confessed without a shred of guilt.
She explained that she had contacted the prison weeks ago and paid for his expensive private lawyer to secure his early parole.
She orchestrated the entire fake police pickup to hand Hannah directly over to a dangerous felon.
"Why would you do something so evil to an innocent child?" I asked, completely horrified by her malice.
"Because Grandma was going to leave the family house to you and that foster kid," Diane sneered aggressively.
Diane had discovered Grandma's updated will and realized her inheritance was significantly reduced to accommodate Hannah.
She wanted Hannah permanently gone so she could force Grandma to sell the house and take the profit.
"He wants fifty thousand dollars by midnight, or he is taking her out of the state forever," Diane revealed casually.
She hung up the phone, leaving me standing alone in the dark police parking lot with a terrifying ransom demand.
I only had three hours to gather fifty thousand dollars and save my daughter from a violent criminal.
I immediately called Sarah, my social worker, and told her about the fake police officers and the ransom demand.
Sarah gasped in horror and promised to contact the FBI child abduction unit right away.
"Do not try to meet him alone, Claire, this man has a severe history of violent assaults," Sarah warned me.
I ignored her warning because I knew the FBI would take hours to mobilize a proper rescue team.
I drove straight to my bank and withdrew every single dollar from my life savings and emergency funds.
It was only twenty thousand dollars, far short of the massive ransom he had demanded.
May you like
I needed the rest of the money, and there was only one person left who could possibly help me.
I drove to Diane's massive, expensive suburban house and aggressively kicked the front door until it splintered.
