The Third Child
1449 Words
Dr. Sloan arrived at the penthouse just after midnight in tears.
The moment Ellie opened the door, she knew something was wrong.
The woman looked destroyed.
Mascara streaked down her cheeks, her hands trembling violently as she clutched her purse against her chest like it was the only thing holding her together.
“They took her,” she sobbed before anyone could speak. “They took my daughter.”
Kael immediately guided her toward the living room while Ellie hurried to get water. Clara quietly ushered the children upstairs, though Kai lingered long enough to glance back suspiciously before disappearing down the hallway.
“Who took her?” Kael asked once Sloan sat down.
“Moreau.”
The name sounded poisonous coming from her mouth.
Dr. Sloan broke down again, covering her face with shaking hands.
“He said if I didn’t come to you… if I didn’t cooperate… he’d kill her.”
Ellie knelt in front of her gently.
“Tell us everything,” she said softly. “From the beginning.”
For several seconds Sloan couldn’t speak.
Then the truth finally poured out of her like blood from an open wound.
“The twins,” she whispered. “The delivery. Everything.”
Kael went completely still.
Ellie felt dread creep up her spine.
Dr. Sloan stared down at her trembling hands.
“Thorne approached me weeks before the birth. He offered me money.”
“How much?” Kael asked coldly.
“Fifty thousand dollars.”
Ellie’s stomach twisted.
“That’s what he paid me to lie,” Sloan choked out. “To tell you one of the babies died and hand him over instead.”
Silence filled the room.
Kael’s expression became unreadable.
“Which baby?” he asked quietly.
“The boy. The smaller one.” Sloan swallowed hard. “Thorne said he needed him for something special.”
Ellie’s chest tightened painfully.
“And Kai?” she asked.
“He was supposed to be taken too,” Sloan admitted. “But there were complications after delivery. He needed oxygen immediately, and too many nurses were around. Thorne couldn’t risk it.”
Ellie could barely breathe.
“So he took one child,” she whispered. “And left the other.”
Sloan nodded weakly.
“Yes.”
Kael paced away from the couch, jaw tight enough to crack.
But Sloan wasn’t finished.
“There’s more.”
The room froze.
Ellie slowly looked back at her.
“What do you mean?”
Dr. Sloan hesitated before speaking.
“There was a third baby.”
The words hit like a bomb.
Ellie felt the blood drain from her face.
“No,” she whispered immediately. “That’s impossible.”
“The ultrasounds only showed two heartbeats,” Sloan said shakily. “But during delivery… there were three sacs.”
Kael turned slowly toward her.
“One was empty,” Sloan continued. “At least that’s what I thought.”
Realization dawned across Kael’s face first.
“The baby had already been taken.”
Sloan nodded miserably.
“Before delivery. Someone inside the hospital induced labor early for the third sac just weeks before you gave birth.” Tears streamed down her cheeks again. “There was a nurse working for Thorne. She removed the baby before I even knew he existed.”
Ellie’s heart pounded violently.
“A boy or girl?”
“A boy.”
Dr. Sloan reached into her purse with trembling fingers and pulled out a folded document.
“I kept this all these years,” she whispered. “I don’t know why. Maybe because deep down I knew what we did was unforgivable.”
She handed it to Ellie.
A birth certificate.
Ellie’s hands shook as she unfolded it.
Name: Asher Vance
Date of Birth: Same as Grace and Kai
Parents: Kael Vance and Elara Martin
Status: Deceased at birth
But the word deceased had been violently scratched out.
In dark ink someone had written a single replacement word beneath it.
Taken.
Ellie stopped breathing.
Three children.
Three babies.
One she raised.
One she lost.
And one she never even knew existed.
“Asher,” she whispered.
Kael stared at the document with fury burning behind his eyes.
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know,” Sloan admitted immediately. “Thorne never trusted me with that information.”
“But Moreau knows,” Kael said.
Sloan looked up fearfully.
“Yes.”
“Then we find Moreau.”
A hollow laugh escaped her.
“You don’t find Moreau,” she whispered. “He finds you.”
That afternoon Leo started drawing again.
For hours he sat silently on the living room floor sketching while Grace colored beside him.
When he finally turned the paper around, Ellie’s breath caught instantly.
A little boy stared back from the page.
Dark hair like Kai’s.
Serious eyes like Grace’s.
But softer somehow.
Lonelier.
Sadness seemed to live inside the drawing itself.
Grace leaned closer curiously.
“Who’s that?”
Leo answered without hesitation.
“My brother.”
Grace frowned. “You have a brother?”
Leo shook his head.
“Our brother.”
The room fell silent.
“He wants to come home,” Leo added quietly.
Kai slowly crossed the room and took the drawing from him.
For several seconds he stared at it silently.
Then, for the first time since arriving at the penthouse, the calm mask he wore cracked slightly.
“I dreamed about him before,” Kai whispered.
Ellie looked up sharply. “What?”
“At the school.” Kai swallowed hard. “There was another boy in a different building. Sometimes at night he’d tap on the walls.”
Kael crouched beside him immediately.
“What did he say?”
Kai closed his eyes tightly, remembering.
“Morse code.”
“And?”
Kai’s voice became almost inaudible.
“He kept saying one word.”
Ellie’s chest tightened.
“What word?”
Kai opened his eyes.
“Help.”
That single word haunted the penthouse for the rest of the day.
Kael immediately activated every contact he had left.
Private investigators.
Former intelligence officers.
Hackers.
Men who specialized in finding people who didn’t want to be found.
Money stopped mattering.
Only Asher mattered.
Meanwhile Ellie sat in the living room watching Kai teach Leo how to pick a lock using a bent paperclip.
Both boys worked with terrifying precision.
Too natural.
Too practiced.
They’re learning survival skills, Ellie thought painfully.
Children their age should’ve been learning cartoons and playground games.
Not escape techniques.
Clara eventually found Ellie standing alone on the balcony long after midnight.
“You’re thinking about running again,” Clara said quietly.
Ellie didn’t deny it.
“It’s what I do,” she admitted. “When things get dangerous, I disappear. I convince myself I’m protecting them.”
“And did it work?”
Ellie laughed bitterly.
“No. It gave us five years of hell.”
Clara stepped beside her.
“And now?”
Ellie looked through the glass doors into the penthouse.
Grace slept curled beside Leo on the couch.
Kai sat awake near the window standing guard without being asked.
And Kael paced endlessly with his phone pressed to his ear, still fighting for children he refused to lose again.
Her family.
Broken.
Complicated.
Still hers.
“Now I stay,” Ellie whispered.
“Even if it kills me.”
At exactly 2:03 AM, Kael’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
The entire room went silent as he answered.
A man’s voice drifted through the speaker.
Smooth.
Cultured.
Amused.
“Mr. Vance,” the voice said pleasantly. “I believe you’re looking for something I have.”
Kael’s eyes darkened instantly.
“Moreau.”
“The same.”
Ellie moved closer instinctively.
“What do you want?” Kael demanded.
“I simply wished to reassure you.” Moreau sounded almost entertained. “Your son is perfectly safe. Well-fed. Educated. Comfortable.”
Kael’s grip tightened around the phone.
“What do you want?”
“A meeting.”
“No.”
“You misunderstand,” Moreau replied calmly. “That wasn’t a request.”
Ellie felt cold fear crawl down her spine.
“Tomorrow night,” Moreau continued. “Come alone.”
“And if I don’t?”
A soft chuckle echoed through the line.
“Then Asher disappears forever.”
The call ended immediately afterward.
Seconds later Kael’s phone buzzed with a text message.
Coordinates.
And a photograph.
A small dark-haired boy sat alone inside a stark white room reading a book.
Ellie stopped breathing the moment she saw him.
Kael’s eyes.
Her smile.
Asher.
The boy looked directly toward the camera.
Then smiled.
- Writer
