Chương 2
“No.”
She picked up her coffee.
“You just keep giving people reasons to.”
Marcus wanted to dismiss her.
He wanted to stand up, call his lawyers, call security, call anyone who could turn the situation back into something manageable.
Instead, he looked at the baby.
The child had stopped crying.
That was the problem.
The quiet made him notice everything else.
The missing answers.
The fear in Claire’s eyes.
The message from someone who knew exactly where he was.
The possibility that the woman who had trusted him with this child had not been running from a mistake.
She had been running from someone.
“His name is Noah,” Marcus said.
Elena looked at him.
“You finally asked?”
“I did not ask.”
“Then why tell me?”
Marcus looked toward the crowded terminal.
Because he had spent the last hour pretending the baby was a temporary responsibility.
Because saying the name made it real.
Because somewhere in the middle of a place filled with strangers, he had become the only person standing between Noah and whatever had made Claire disappear.
“I do not know,” he said.
Elena studied him, and for the first time her expression softened.
Not with trust.
Not yet.
Just recognition.
The kind that came when someone saw another person struggling with something they could not put down.
Marcus’s phone vibrated again.
This time there was no photograph.
Only an address.
And beneath it, three words.
Bring him alone.
Marcus stood slowly.
The baby shifted against him.
Elena looked at the screen reflected in his face.
“You are not going there alone.”
Marcus turned toward her.
“You do not know me.”
“No.”
She picked up her bag.
“But I know what people look like when they are about to make a mistake because they think they have no other option.”
The announcement overhead called another flight.
People moved around them, carrying luggage, arguing about gates, rushing toward ordinary lives.
Marcus looked at Elena.
Then at Noah.
Then back at the message waiting on his phone.
For the first time that morning, he understood the most dangerous part of the situation.
It was not that someone wanted the baby.
It was that someone already knew Marcus would try to protect him.
And whoever that person was had planned for him to do exactly that.
The thought stayed with Marcus as he walked away from the terminal and into the moving crowd.
Elena followed beside him without asking permission, which annoyed him almost as much as the fact that he did not tell her to leave.
“I said I was going alone,” Marcus said.
“And I said you were about to make a mistake.”
“You have a habit of ignoring what people tell you?”
“I have a habit of noticing when people are lying to themselves.”
Marcus stopped near the airport bookstore and turned toward her.
The baby shifted against his shoulder, making a small sound that immediately changed the tension in Marcus’s face.
Elena noticed.
“You are already attached.”
“That is not true.”
“You looked more offended by my comment than by the threat.”
Marcus glanced away.
He hated that she was right.
He hated even more that he could not find a simple argument against it.
“Noah is not my child,” he said.
“I did not say he was.”
“I have responsibilities.”
“So do I.”
The answer came quickly.
Too quickly.
Marcus studied her.
“You have no idea what you are involving yourself in.”
Elena looked down at the baby.
“I know enough.”
“No, you do not.”
“You are right.”
Her honesty caught him off guard.
“I do not know who sent that message.”
She looked back at him.
“I do not know why that woman gave you the baby.”
She paused.
“And I do not know why you look like you have been waiting fifteen years for someone to ask you to care about something.”
Marcus felt something tighten in his chest.
The sentence touched a place he had carefully kept untouched.
“Do not do that.”
“Do what?”
“Pretend you understand me.”
Elena nodded once.
“Fair.”
She did not argue.
That bothered him too.
Most people either tried to impress him or fight him.
Elena simply accepted the boundary and stayed standing there.
His phone vibrated again.
This time it was his assistant, Daniel.
Marcus answered immediately.
“Where are you?”
Daniel’s voice came through with obvious panic.
“I was trying to find you.”
“You were gone for twenty minutes.”
“I know.”
“That is not an explanation.”
There was silence.
Then Daniel lowered his voice.
“Marcus, I need you to listen before you get angry.”
“I am already angry.”
“Claire Holloway was not supposed to be here.”
Marcus looked toward the airport windows.
“What does that mean?”
“It means someone accessed your office security records this morning.”
The baby began moving again, and Marcus adjusted his grip.
“Who?”
“We do not know.”
“Then find out.”
“I am trying.”
Daniel hesitated.
That hesitation was unusual.
Daniel was rarely afraid of giving Marcus bad news.
“What else?”
“Your office camera system showed Claire entering the building.”
Marcus waited.
“She did not come alone.”
The noise around him seemed to disappear again.
“Who was with her?”
“We are still checking.”
“Daniel.”
“I saw him for maybe three seconds.”
Marcus closed his eyes.
“Describe him.”
“Older guy.”
“That is not a description.”
“I know.”
Daniel exhaled.
“He looked familiar.”
Marcus opened his eyes.
“Familiar how?”
“I do not know.”
“That is not good enough.”
“I know.”
The frustration in Daniel’s voice sounded different.
Not defensive.
Worried.
“Marcus, there is something else.”
“What?”
“The man who entered with Claire was using an old access code.”
Marcus felt his fingers tighten around the phone.
“Whose code?”
Daniel did not answer immediately.
That was the moment Marcus knew the answer mattered.
“Whose code, Daniel?”
“Yours.”
For several seconds, Marcus said nothing.
The airport moved around him.
A child laughed near the security line.
May you like
Someone dropped a suitcase and apologized.
A couple argued quietly about a missed connection.
