Chapter 712

The screech of tires against asphalt shattered the night.

Evelyn Carter felt the world spin violently as inertia slammed her against the car door. When the airbag deployed, she instinctively shielded the baby in her arms.

"Dr. Carter!" Lily Waters' terrified scream was drowned by the deafening crunch of twisting metal.

The roof smashed into the ground as glass rained down like hail. Blinking through the pain, Evelyn saw their vehicle overturned in a grassy median.

"Help! There are injured people here!"

Voices of bystanders grew closer. Shadowy figures swarmed around the wreck, fists pounding against the shattered windows.

"Are they alive in there?"

Fighting dizziness, Evelyn realized her arm was pinned by the mangled door. Gritting her teeth, she handed the wailing baby to Lily in the backseat. "Get the child out first!"

The door was jammed beyond recognition. A man in a baseball cap wrenched it open with brute force, allowing Lily to scramble out with the infant.

"Lotus, go!" Evelyn pushed the teenage boy toward the exit.

The moment Lotus Waters cleared the wreckage, the situation turned.

The helpful strangers' faces darkened. Two men seized Lily and Lotus with practiced efficiency, clamping hands over their mouths.

"What are you doing?!" Evelyn's pupils contracted violently.

The baseball cap man smirked, producing a stun gun from his waistband. Lotus thrashed but collapsed when electricity coursed through him.

"Let them go!" Evelyn strained against the wreckage trapping her.

A van's engine roared closer. Lily and the baby were shoved inside like cargo, Lotus tossed in after them.

"Dr. Carter, help—" Lily's scream was cut short.

The van doors slammed shut, tires squealing as it vanished into the night.

Only Evelyn and the baseball cap man remained in the grassy ditch. Streetlights stretched his shadow into a drawn blade.

"You're Lydia Laurent's people." Evelyn's voice trembled with certainty.

The man crouched, tilting her chin up with a wrench. "Mrs. Hamilton's as sharp as they say. But you're coming with us now."

As he yanked her arm, Evelyn wedged her wristwatch into the door seam. The band snapped clean off.

"No tricks!" He raised the wrench threateningly.

Evelyn suddenly smiled. "You grabbed the wrong hostage."

The man froze.

"Didn't Lydia tell you?" Her gaze locked onto his. "Alexander Hamilton and I divorced months ago. Using me as leverage? How naïve."

Two more thugs emerged from the shadows. One held up a phone displaying Lily, Lotus, and the baby bound to chairs.

"What about these brats then?" He tapped play, releasing the children's screams into the night. "Think the great Mr. Hamilton will ignore them?"

Evelyn's nails bit into her palms.

Sirens wailed in the distance. The baseball cap man snarled, grabbing her collar—"Move!"

Pain exploded at the base of her skull. Before darkness swallowed her, Evelyn caught a familiar scent on his cuff—the iris perfume Lydia always wore.

Drip. Drip.

Consciousness returned to the rhythm of water droplets.

Evelyn found herself bound to a metal chair under blinding fluorescent lights. Mold streaked the concrete walls, the air thick with damp decay.

"Awake?"

High heels clicked from the shadows. The woman wore a mask, but those upturned phoenix eyes were unmistakable.

"Lydia." Evelyn's voice scraped raw. "Finally dropped the innocent act."

A gloved hand removed the mask.

"Don't be like that, Evelyn." Lydia Laurent tilted her head, twirling a scalpel. "Alexander always loved me best when I played sweet."

The blade traced Evelyn's cheek, drawing a crimson line.

"Where is he?" Evelyn held her gaze.

Lydia backhanded her hard enough to draw blood. "You don't get to ask!"

Evelyn licked her split lip and smiled. "You're scared."

"Shut up!" The scalpel trembled near Evelyn's eye. "I'll carve up that pretty face!"

"You won't." Evelyn remained calm. "Kill me, and Alexander will tear you apart limb by limb."

The scalpel clattered to the floor.

Lydia's face twisted. She snatched a walkie-talkie. "Bring them in!"

Rusted hinges groaned. Three bound children were shoved forward—Lily tear-streaked, Lotus bleeding from his forehead, the baby screaming itself hoarse.

"Choose." Lydia accepted a pistol from a guard. "You die, or they do."

Evelyn's breath stopped.

The gun muzzle touched each child's forehead. Lydia's finger curled around the trigger, her smile poison-sweet. "Counting down—"

"One."

The baby's cries echoed through the warehouse.

"Two."

Lotus lunged—only to be kicked aside.

"Three."

Bang!

The gunshot shattered the silence.