Chapter 6 - The Ransom Demand
The doctor's words hit me like a physical blow to the stomach.
Brandon had taken my critically ill daughter out of the hospital.
Without her post-surgery antibiotics, the infection from the perforated intestine would kill her in hours.
I pushed past the doctor and ran back out into the chaotic, smoke-filled hallway.
I needed to find them before they left the city limits.
As I ran past the nurses' station, I spotted a forgotten cell phone sitting on the counter.
I snatched it up and dialed Brandon's personal number from memory.
He answered on the second ring.
"I wondered how long it would take you to break out," Brandon chuckled darkly.
"Where is she, Brandon? She needs her medicine!" I shrieked into the receiver.
"She is resting comfortably in the trunk of my car," he replied with chilling calmness.
I felt vomit rise in the back of my throat.
"Please, I'll do whatever you want, just take her back to the hospital," I begged, tears streaming down my face.
"I'm afraid it's too late for negotiations, Samantha," he stated smoothly.
"I need five million dollars to pay off men who would happily skin me alive."
"If I don't give them the money by tomorrow, they won't just kill me, they'll kill my mother too."
"I am at the abandoned shipping docks on Pier 44."
"Come alone, sign a typed confession saying you fed her the magnets, and jump off the bridge."
"If you do that, I will drop Nancy at the emergency room door."
"If you call the cops, I dump her in the ocean right now."
Before I could answer, a chaotic scuffle broke out over the phone line.
"Samantha, don't trust him!" Evelyn's voice suddenly screamed into the microphone.
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"He's lost his mind, he's going to kill all of us, please help me!" she sobbed.
The line went completely dead.
