Chapter 5 - The Shadow in His EyesJulian stood frozen on the stairs. His face was unnaturally pale, his jaw clenched tight as he looked at the boy.
For a fleeting second—a fraction of a moment that Eleanor was too blinded by joy to notice—an expression of pure, icy horror flashed across Julian’s eyes.
"Leo?" Julian stammered, his voice sounding hollow as he slowly stepped over the broken glass. "That's... that's impossible. Eleanor, the police said he was gone. Are you sure? Have you lost your mind?"
"Look at him, Julian!" Eleanor yelled, her voice trembling with emotion as she turned Leo to face his father. "Look at his eyes! Look at the scar on his brow from when he fell off the porch when he was three! It’s him!"
Leo looked up at the tall man in the suit. But instead of reaching out or smiling, Leo shrank back against Eleanor’s neck, his body tensing with a sudden, deep-seated terror.
Julian noticed the boy's reaction and quickly forced a warm, tearful smile onto his face, stepping forward to touch Leo's shoulder. "My God... it really is you. Son... you're safe now."
That night, after Dr. Mercer completed a preliminary exam, treated Leo's mild malnutrition, and drew blood for an official rush DNA confirmation, Leo was tucked into a massive, warm bed in the west wing.
Downstairs in the dimly lit study, Julian stood by the floor-to-ceiling windows, talking on a burner phone in a harsh, angry whisper.
"I don't care how it happened!" Julian hissed into the receiver, his knuckles white as he gripped the phone. "My wife found him in an alley on 4th Avenue! You were paid half a million dollars four years ago to make sure he was taken out of the state and never seen again! If that DNA test comes back positive tomorrow... we are both going to prison."
May you like
Upstairs, in his soft bed, Leo lay awake in the dark, clutching his white blanket, staring at the door with wide, terrified blue eyes.
Here are Chapters 6 through 10, stepping up the tension as the truth about Leo’s disappearance begins to crack the polished facade of the Vance empire.
Related Stories
