Chapter 2 - The Building Across the StreetThe responding officers arrived quietly.
Two patrol vehicles stopped around the corner while an ambulance waited out of sight.
Michael remained beside Annie.
He did not want uniforms surrounding her too quickly.
A female paramedic named Rebecca approached slowly with a blanket and medical bag.
“Hi, Annie,” she said. “I am going to check Ben while you hold him.”
Annie looked at Michael.
He nodded.
“I am staying right here.”
Rebecca examined the newborn without removing him from the sling.
Ben’s skin was cold.
His breathing was shallow.
He showed signs of dehydration and had not received enough food.
“We need to get both children warm immediately,” Rebecca whispered.
Annie heard her.
“Is Ben sick?”
“He needs a doctor,” Rebecca answered. “You helped him stay alive.”
Annie looked uncertain.
“I did?”
“Yes.”
Michael placed a thermal blanket around the little girl.
This time, she accepted it.
Across the street, Officers Daniel Brooks and Sarah Hayes approached the abandoned building.
They kept their movements quiet.
Michael watched the boarded windows.
The upstairs shadow disappeared.
Annie suddenly gripped his sleeve.
“Do not let them go inside.”
“Why?”
“The bad man sleeps there.”
Michael’s attention returned to her.
“What bad man?”
Annie pressed her lips together.
Fear filled her face.
Michael did not push.
“Did he hurt you?”
She shook her head.
“Did he hurt Ben?”
Another shake.
“Did he hurt your mother?”
Annie’s eyes dropped.
That was the answer.
Michael moved closer.
“You can tell me when you are ready.”
Annie stared toward the building.
“Mommy said we had to leave before he woke up.”
“When was that?”
“The night she went for food.”
Michael felt a chill that had nothing to do with the weather.
“Did your mom go into that building?”
Annie nodded.
“She said she knew where food was.”
“And she never came back?”
“No.”
A sound echoed from inside the abandoned building.
Something heavy struck the floor.
Officer Brooks raised one hand, signaling movement.
Police entered through a broken side door.
Michael lifted Annie and carried her toward the ambulance.
She kept Ben pressed between them.
The moment they reached the vehicle, shouting erupted across the street.
“Police. Show me your hands.”
A man appeared in a downstairs window.
Then vanished.
Another officer ran toward the rear alley.
Annie began shaking.
“He is coming.”
“No,” Michael said. “He is not coming near you.”
She buried her face against his shoulder.
Rebecca secured both children inside the ambulance.
Michael climbed in beside them.
Before the doors closed, he heard Officer Hayes call for another medical unit.
They had found someone.
At the hospital, doctors rushed Ben into a pediatric treatment room.
Annie refused to let go until Michael promised she could watch through the glass.
A nurse cleaned Annie’s feet and wrapped them in warm bandages.
She had small cuts, bruises, and signs of hunger, but no serious injury.
Michael sat beside her.
“You did everything you could.”
Annie looked toward the treatment room.
“Ben cries when I stop holding him.”
“He knows your voice.”
“I sing what Mommy sings.”
“What song?”
Annie hummed a few soft notes.
Michael recognized it as an old lullaby.
The same melody his own mother had sung when he was a child.
A detective entered.
Her name was Laura Bennett.
She spoke quietly with Michael before kneeling beside Annie.
“We found a woman inside the building.”
Annie’s face changed.
“Mommy?”
“We think so.”
“Is she awake?”
Laura paused.
“She is hurt, but doctors are helping her.”
Annie tried to stand.
Michael gently stopped her.
“You will see her when it is safe.”
The detective explained that the woman had been found in a locked storage room.
She was unconscious, badly injured, and severely dehydrated.
A man had fled through the rear alley but was arrested two blocks away.
Inside the building, officers found stolen food, drugs, identification cards, and several bags belonging to homeless families.
Annie’s mother had apparently entered looking for supplies.
The man discovered her and locked her inside.
Michael looked at Annie.
“Your mom did not leave you.”
Annie’s eyes filled.
“She was coming back?”
“Yes.”
The girl began crying with relief.
Not loudly.
Just small broken sobs from a child who had spent three nights believing she had been forgotten.
Michael held her while she cried.
A doctor entered moments later.
“Ben is responding well. He needs observation, but he is stable.”
Annie pressed both hands to her mouth.
“My baby is okay?”
“Your brother is okay because you kept him warm and fed.”
Michael watched the tiny girl absorb those words.
For three nights, she had become the only parent Ben had.
Now, at last, someone was taking care of her.
But Detective Bennett still looked troubled.
Michael noticed.
“What else did you find?”
The detective glanced toward Annie before lowering her voice.
“Documents with her mother’s name.”
“What kind of documents?”
“Court papers.”
Michael’s expression hardened.
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The papers showed that Annie’s mother had been trying to escape someone long before she disappeared.
Next: uncover the truth about Annie’s family, and Michael will learn why her mother was hiding with two children inside an abandoned laundromat.
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