Emma didn’t think.

She grabbed the boy’s hand and ran.

The crowd scattered as the men chased them through the shopping district.

“Who are they?” Emma shouted.

The boy struggled to keep up.

“They work for him!”

“For who?”

The boy hesitated.

“My father.”

Emma stopped.

“What?”

The boy looked terrified.

“My mom said he isn’t a good man.”

The men were getting closer.

Emma pulled the boy into a parking garage and hid behind a concrete pillar.

“Tell me everything.”

The boy swallowed hard.

“My father is rich. Very rich. When my mom found out what he was doing, she tried to leave.”

Emma’s stomach tightened.

“What was he doing?”

The boy’s eyes filled with tears.

“Hurting people.”

Emma felt sick.

Years ago, Sophia had vanished without a trace.

Everyone assumed she had run away.

But now the truth was becoming clear.

She hadn’t disappeared.

She had been hiding.

The boy reached into his backpack.

“My mom told me to give you this if anything happened to her.”

He handed Emma a small flash drive.

Before Emma could respond, her phone rang.

An unknown number.

She answered.

A weak voice spoke.

“Emma…”

Her heart stopped.

“Sophia?”

“I’m sorry,” her sister whispered.

Emma began to cry.

“Where are you?”

There was silence.

Then Sophia said something that changed everything.

“They found me.”

A door slammed somewhere on the other end of the call.

Voices shouted.

Sophia gasped.

“Protect my son.”

The line went dead.

Emma stared at the phone.

The boy looked at her with frightened eyes.

“Was that my mom?”

Emma knelt beside him.

She wrapped her arms around him.

“Yes.”

“Is she okay?”

Emma looked toward the garage entrance where the black SUV slowly appeared.

The men had found them again.

She stood up.

Holding the boy’s hand tightly, she faced the approaching vehicle.

For eleven years she had searched for her sister.

Now she finally knew the truth.

And she was ready to fight for the only family she had left.