Chapter 8 - HE TOOK MY DAUGHTERFear is different when it involves your child.
Everything else disappears.
Money.
Marriage.
Reputation.
Pride.
There is only one thought.
Find her.
Federal agents contacted Chicago authorities.
Campus security pulled cameras.
Kyle had arrived using a rental car booked under another name.
Sophie came outside willingly.
Of course she did.
He was her stepfather.
He had helped raise her since she was twelve.
She trusted him.
That betrayal nearly broke me.
My phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
Kyle.
“Hello, Claire.”
“Put Sophie on.”
“She’s fine.”
“Put her on.”
“Not yet.”
My voice shook.
“If you touch her—”
“Stop performing.”
Performing.
I hated him more for that word than anything he had said before.
“What do you want?”
“You know.”
“Money?”
“My money.”
“You mean my father’s?”
Silence.
Then Kyle laughed.
“Norman gave it voluntarily.”
“You forged my name.”
“You can prove that later.”
“Where’s Sophie?”
“Safe.”
“I want to hear her.”
A pause.
Then my daughter’s voice.
“Mom?”
“Sophie.”
“I’m okay.”
“Did he hurt you?”
“No.”
Kyle took the phone back.
“She stays okay if you cooperate.”
Investigators were tracing.
Keep him talking.
“What do you want me to do?”
“Withdraw your complaint.”
“That won’t stop federal charges.”
“You can say Norman misunderstood.”
“I won’t.”
“Then Sophie and I take a long drive.”
My heart stopped.
“Kyle.”
“You always thought you were smarter than me.”
“No.”
I stared through the window at agents working behind me.
“I thought you were my husband.”
For the first time, he went quiet.
Then the call ended.
The trace placed him somewhere south of Chicago.
Highway cameras eventually located the rental vehicle.
Agents followed at a distance.
Kyle drove toward Indiana.
Then east.
Hours passed.
Dad sat beside me.
Nobody could make me eat.
At 2:17 a.m., Sophie sent a text.
Three words.
BLUE HORSE MOTEL
Then her phone went dark.
Agents searched.
There was no Blue Horse Motel nearby.
But Dad suddenly stood.
“Blue Horse.”
“What?”
“There’s a truck stop chain.”
He had driven cross-country for decades.
“Blue Horse Travel Centers.”
Investigators searched locations.
One sat forty miles ahead of Kyle’s last known route.
Police arrived.
The rental car was there.
Empty.
Then surveillance video showed Kyle forcing Sophie into a gray sedan.
He had switched vehicles.
The sedan belonged to a woman named Marla Bishop.
A former client.
Another victim?
No.
Accomplice.
Marla had invested with Kyle years earlier and then begun recruiting others.
She received commissions.
Her phone led police to a farmhouse outside Fort Wayne.
At sunrise, officers surrounded it.
I watched from a command center through a live feed I was barely allowed to see.
Then a door opened.
Sophie ran out.
Barefoot.
Crying.
Alive.
I collapsed.
Dad caught me before I hit the floor.
Kyle was arrested eleven minutes later.
He did not resist.
That almost made it worse.
As officers placed him in the cruiser, he looked toward the camera.
And smiled.
When Sophie called me, she was sobbing.
“Mom, I’m sorry.”
“No.”
“I should’ve known.”
“No.”
“He said you were sick.”
Of course he did.
“He told me you’d had a breakdown. That you needed us.”
Same weapon.
Same lie.
He told Dad I needed rescuing.
He told Sophie I needed rescuing.
Kyle understood something dangerous about love.
People will ignore warning signs when they think someone they love needs them.
Sophie came home the next day.
Dad met her at the airport.
She ran into his arms.
For the first time since Mom died, the three of us slept under the same roof.
Nobody slept much.
But we were together.
Kyle remained in custody.
Trevor cooperated.
Diane was charged.
Marla was charged.
Colin signed a cooperation agreement.
And investigators recovered more than thirteen million dollars in assets.
Dad’s money wasn’t guaranteed.
But there was hope.
Then my corporate attorney called.
“Claire, we found the source of the forged emails.”
“Good.”
“No.”
Her voice sounded worried.
“What?”
“They came from inside the company.”
“Colin?”
“No.”
“Who?”
She hesitated.
“Your board.”
May you like
One of the five people who voted for me to step down had been feeding Kyle information for nearly a year.
And when Rebecca told me the name, I realized Kyle had never been the only person trying to take my company.
