His voice faltered on the last words, and I paused for a moment.
I let him go.
Before I could do anything, I looked at Chris again. He hadn’t moved. He stood frozen next to the cameras, fidgeting with his hands as if he didn’t know what to do with them. I slowly walked over to him.
‘You said something to me. At the hospital. Do you remember?’
‘What?’ Chris asked, looking wary.
‘You muttered something. After I accidentally dropped the biscuit tin. What did you mean?’
‘Man… I wasn’t going to say anything. It wasn’t my business,’ he said.
‘Say it anyway.’
Chris shifted position and lowered his voice.
‘That day, I was cleaning up trash on the maternity ward floor. Room 212, your wife’s room.’
He paused for a moment. His eyes slid to the side, avoiding my gaze as he said it.
‘I walked in and saw her kissing a guy. Not just a quick kiss. It was… something else. She was holding his face. He was stroking her back. It was real.’
‘Ryan?’ I asked, but I already knew.
‘I didn’t know who he was at the time. But later, when I recognised him in the hallway, laughing with one of the nurses, I remembered. He looked like you. He’s your brother, right?’
I didn’t say anything.
‘I didn’t know what to do,’ Chris continued. ‘I just went in to take out the rubbish. I didn’t say anything to anyone. But when you bumped into me, I looked at you and it just came out. That you’d regret it. I didn’t mean it as a threat. I just… knew.’
‘You should have told me,’ I said, but my voice came out hoarse.
He looked at me with something like pity.
‘Would you have believed me?’
I didn’t answer.
Then the whole picture began to fall into place. It wasn’t about the ransom. It was a smokescreen.
And suddenly every moment of the last 24 hours began to fall into place.
Claire’s insistence on not involving the police. The way she held her stomach, not in grief, but out of nerves. The fact that she begged me to go alone.
Her growing distance over the past year. And that one argument months ago that suddenly came back to me: the one where she said, with tears and resentment, that she didn’t believe I could get her pregnant.
The air around me turned cold.
I wasted no time. I rushed to the hospital and found Dr. Channing, Aiden’s doctor, in the lobby, looking at his phone near the snack machines.
‘Lawrence,’ he smiled when he saw me.
‘I need your help,’ I said urgently. ‘Call my wife. Tell her you’re reviewing the results and that there’s been an emergency with Aiden. Tell her he needs to come here right away.’
‘Why?’ he asked. ‘I can’t lie until I know the truth.’
I told him everything, including how my own brother had been involved in my son’s abduction.
Twenty minutes later, she arrived. Claire walked through the door, holding Aiden in her arms… and Ryan, my younger brother, by her side.
Seeing them together stirred something in me.
They looked like a family who had just walked into the place together.
I stayed in the shadows for a moment longer, clenching my fists. As I stepped forward, I gave a small signal to the two officers I had spoken to earlier. No FBI, just two local police officers who took me seriously.
They approached without hesitation.
‘You are both under arrest for kidnapping,’ one of the officers said, stepping between them.
‘Wait! He’s sick! He needs medical attention! I’m his mother…’ Claire shouted, shielding Aiden with her arms.
‘No,’ I said, stepping closer. ‘He’s perfectly fine. I just asked Dr. Channing to lie to get you to bring him here. You were faking… everything.’
Ryan lowered her eyes, refusing to meet my gaze.
‘You don’t understand,’ she blurted out. ‘Ryan and I have loved each other for years. Ever since before class, when you tried and failed to make me a mother. Aiden… isn’t yours.’
‘Then why stay married to me?’
‘Because you were safe,’ she said flatly. ‘You had a job, a home, you were responsible.’
‘You passed Aiden off as my son.’
‘We didn’t think it mattered, Lawrence. The child needed to grow up in comfort. You have wealth. We were going to take £200,000 and start our life together.’
‘You weren’t just lying. You wanted to steal from me. My son… and my money,’ I said, taking a deep breath.
‘He’s not your son, Lawrence,’ Claire said, her jaw clenched.
I looked at Aiden, who was crying in her arms.
‘According to his birth certificate, I’m his father, Claire. I’m the only father he’ll ever have, and I won’t let you or him hurt him again.’
One of the officers took Aiden from his mother.
The officers dragged Claire away as she shouted something else, but I couldn’t hear her. I couldn’t hear anything anymore. I had just seen and heard my child.
His cries were no longer panicked or sharp. Now they were soft—weary, uncertain sobs that touched something primal in me. I stepped forward and gently took him in my arms. He was warm, lighter than I remembered, and he clung to the fabric of my shirt with a strength that didn’t match his size.
‘Hey, buddy,’ I whispered, rocking him slowly. ‘You’re okay. Daddy’s here now.’
He changed, his head pressing against my collar as if he remembered me too. His body relaxed and the cries stopped.
Dr. Channing appeared beside us.
‘Let’s give him a quick check-up, Lawrence,’ he said. ‘Just to make sure everything’s okay.’
I nodded and followed him down the corridor, still holding Aiden close.
No matter what happens next, I won’t let him go. Not now. Not ever.