Chapter 5 - THE BOY WITH TWO PASSPORTS
5
For the first time since my arrest, I lost control.
I grabbed my mother by both shoulders.
“What did you say?”
Christopher stepped toward us.
Rachel did too.
I barely noticed.
Mom repeated it.
“Chad filed paperwork stating you were deceased.”
“That’s impossible.”
“He submitted a death certificate.”
“I’m standing here.”
“I know.”
“Where did he get a death certificate?”
“I don’t know.”
My voice rose.
“Where is Toby?”
“With Chad.”
“Where?”
She hesitated.
I shook her.
“WHERE?”
Christopher pulled me back.
“Genevieve.”
“Let me go.”
“You will not get your son back by strangling the only person telling us what Chad is doing.”
I released Mom.
My hands shook violently.
Rachel was already on the phone with our custody attorney.
Christopher’s security director began contacting airports through legitimate legal channels.
I paced.
Toby hated long car rides.
He slept with a dinosaur night-light.
He still asked me to cut the crusts off sandwiches.
The thought of Chad putting him on a plane while telling authorities his mother was dead made something primitive wake up inside me.
Rachel ended her call.
“The passport system shows an application.”
My knees weakened.
“Approved?”
“No.”
I exhaled.
“But expedited.”
“How?”
“Supporting documents claimed urgent relocation due to parental death and employment abroad.”
“Where?”
“Portugal.”
I stared at her.
“Chad doesn’t work in Portugal.”
“Canyon Ridge owns a consulting subsidiary there.”
Of course it did.
Every path led back to another company.
Another document.
Another lie.
Christopher’s attorney returned.
He had found something worse.
“Toby already has a second passport.”
“What?”
“Not American.”
I stared at him.
“How?”
“Dual citizenship documentation.”
“That’s impossible.”
“Apparently a birth registration was filed abroad three years ago.”
I looked at Christopher.
“Toby has never lived outside Arizona.”
“No.”
“Then whose citizenship?”
The attorney put a document on the table.
A Caribbean nation that offered citizenship through investment.
Applicant: TOBIAS MERCER.
Sponsor: Canyon Ridge Advisory.
Chad had bought our son another citizenship.
Without telling me.
Three years earlier.
Around the same time he began paying my mother.
I felt sick.
“This wasn’t a recent plan.”
“No,” Rachel said.
“He has been preparing exit options for years.”
Christopher’s security director interrupted.
“We have Chad’s current vehicle.”
My heart jumped.
“Where?”
“North Scottsdale.”
“Address?”
He looked at Christopher.
“A private school.”
I grabbed my purse.
Rachel stepped in front of me.
“Listen first.”
“No.”
“Genevieve.”
“He’s taking my son.”
“We know.”
“Move.”
“The custody judge issued an emergency order twelve minutes ago.”
That stopped me.
“What order?”
“Toby cannot be removed from Maricopa County pending review.”
“Will Chad obey it?”
“No.”
Rachel’s bluntness helped.
“So we don’t rely on him obeying it.”
She explained that the school had been contacted and instructed not to release Toby without authorization.
I barely heard the rest.
Then my phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
A photograph appeared.
Toby.
Sitting in a back seat.
Holding his dinosaur backpack.
Below it:
YOU SHOULD HAVE STAYED QUIET.
My blood froze.
Another message followed.
YOUR FATHER’S PEOPLE CAN FREEZE MONEY. THEY CANNOT FREEZE TIME.
I showed Christopher.
His face changed.
Rachel said, “Don’t respond.”
I typed anyway.
LET ME TALK TO HIM.
Three dots appeared.
Then vanished.
Appeared again.
Finally my phone rang.
Video call.
Chad.
I answered.
His face filled the screen.
Calm.
Fresh shirt.
Sunglasses.
Behind him I could see bright desert light.
“Where is Toby?”
“Hello to you too.”
“Put him on.”
“He’s fine.”
“Put him on.”
Chad turned the camera.
Toby sat behind him.
“Mommy?”
My chest broke.
“Hi, baby.”
“Daddy said you’re not going to prison anymore.”
“Not tonight.”
“Are you coming home?”
“Yes.”
Chad moved the camera back.
“That’s enough.”
“Chad.”
“What?”
“The court ordered you not to leave the county.”
He smiled.
“Which court?”
“You know which court.”
“The same system that convicted you?”
I stared at him.
He enjoyed that.
“You framed me.”
“Prove it.”
“We will.”
“Then enjoy the process.”
“Why Toby?”
His smile faded.
“Don’t pretend this is about parenting.”
“He’s my son.”
“He’s my son too.”
“You bought him a second citizenship.”
Silence.
There.
A tiny reaction.
I had surprised him.
“Mom told me,” I said.
His jaw tightened.
“Eleanor talks too much when she gets scared.”
“She also kept your contract.”
That hit harder.
I saw it.
“What contract?”
“The one where she paid you to meet me.”
He looked away for half a second.
I continued.
“I know what you were before you were my husband.”
He recovered quickly.
“And yet you still married me.”
“Because I didn’t know.”
“Would it help if I said some of it became real?”
My stomach turned.
“Don’t.”
“I did love you.”
“No.”
“I still do in my way.”
“People who love someone don’t send them to prison.”
“People who understand money know sometimes you remove an obstacle.”
I nearly stopped breathing.
“You called me an obstacle?”
“To the structure.”
There it was.
Not even a person.
A structure.
A trust.
A succession line.
A financial problem.
I forced myself to remain calm.
“What do you want?”
“Your father stops challenging the trustee appointment.”
Christopher moved closer to hear.
“What else?”
“He releases the collateral objection.”
“You want the thirty million.”
“I want what I earned.”
I almost laughed.
“By marrying me?”
“By spending eight years dealing with your family.”
“You were paid to do it.”
“At first.”
“And then?”
“Then I realized Eleanor was thinking too small.”
My mother flinched.
Chad continued.
“Your family built an empire around trusts nobody talks about and companies nobody fully owns. Yet everyone expects me to accept a salary and smile because I married the secret daughter.”
“You had a good life.”
“I had proximity.”
His voice hardened.
“Proximity isn’t ownership.”
The sentence explained him better than anything else ever had.
I swallowed.
“And Brenda?”
He smiled again.
“Brenda understands ambition.”
“Does she understand you plan to leave the country with my son?”
No answer.
Interesting.
“Does Brenda know about Portugal?”
His expression shifted.
“Goodbye, Genevieve.”
“Wait.”
He paused.
“Let Toby stay with Mom tonight.”
“No.”
“He needs stability.”
“He needs a parent who isn’t facing ten years.”
“My sentence is under review.”
“But not erased.”
I stared into the screen.
Then I chose the one weapon Chad never expected from me.
I smiled.
He frowned.
“What?”
“You made a mistake.”
“What mistake?”
“You think this is still about the trust.”
His eyes narrowed.
“It isn’t?”
“No.”
I leaned closer.
“You kidnapped my son.”
“I am his father.”
“A judge ordered you not to remove him.”
“I haven’t.”
“Then where are you?”
He didn’t answer.
“Chad.”
Nothing.
I smiled wider.
“Exactly.”
His face changed.
He ended the call.
Christopher stared at me.
“What did you see?”
“The road behind him.”
Nobody understood.
“During the video, a highway sign reflected in his sunglasses.”
The security director leaned forward.
“What did it say?”
I closed my eyes, recreating the letters.
“Something ending in Canyon.”
He pulled up a map.
Several possibilities appeared.
Then my mother whispered, “Black Canyon.”
We looked at her.
“There’s a private airfield north of the city,” she said. “Chad took me there once when Canyon Ridge leased a hangar.”
The security director was already moving.
Rachel caught my arm.
“You stay here.”
“No.”
“This is not negotiable.”
“My son is at an airfield.”
“And if Chad sees you arrive, he may panic.”
I hated her because she was right.
Twenty-seven minutes later, Christopher’s security director called.
They found the SUV.
They found the charter plane.
They found Chad’s luggage.
But not Chad.
And not Toby.
The plane had never taken off.
The pilot had been told the passengers were delayed.
Security footage showed Chad arriving with Toby.
Seven minutes later, another vehicle entered through a service gate.
A woman stepped out.
Blonde.
Brenda.
She argued with Chad.
Then Brenda took Toby.
They left together in her car.
Chad stayed behind.
I stared at the footage.
“Why would he give Toby to Brenda?”
Nobody knew.
Then another camera angle appeared.
Before Brenda drove away, she looked directly toward the security camera.
She held something against the windshield.
A sheet of paper.
Three words written in black marker.
HELP ME, GENEVIEVE.
May you like
And below it:
HE LIED TO ME TOO.
