Chapter 5 - Ridgeway’s Transport OrderGabriel returned home before Candice realized Cedar Vale had released its footage.
He pretended to accept a conversation about Ridgeway.
Candice laid medical reports across the dining table.
“Lucas needs structure.”
“He needs food.”
Her expression tightened.
“Wyatt says Lucas steals, lies, and becomes violent when corrected.”
Gabriel looked toward Wyatt.
The teenager sat rigidly beside the window.
“Is that true?” Gabriel asked.
Wyatt opened his mouth.
Candice answered for him.
“He is frightened of Lucas.”
Gabriel moved the documents aside.
“I want to hear him.”
Candice touched Wyatt’s shoulder.
The boy flinched.
Gabriel saw it.
Wyatt forced the words out.
“Lucas gets angry.”
“Did he attack you?”
Wyatt looked at Candice.
“Yes.”
The lie sounded rehearsed.
Candice produced an emergency transport order. Ridgeway would collect Lucas at eight the next morning. The form authorized physical restraint and medication if he resisted.
Gabriel’s forged signature appeared again.
“I never approved this.”
“You signed electronically.”
“No.”
Candice stared at him.
For a moment, neither pretended.
Then she smiled.
“You travel constantly, Gabriel. You forget what you authorize.”
He leaned toward her.
“I remember my son.”
“And I remember protecting this family while you were gone.”
That night, Gabriel moved Lucas to Evelyn’s guest apartment under police supervision.
He left the bedroom curtains closed and placed a figure beneath the blankets to make the room appear occupied.
At 7:55 a.m., a white Ridgeway van arrived.
Two employees entered using a key Candice had provided.
They carried restraints.
They did not knock.
Gabriel and Evelyn confronted them in the hallway while an officer recorded.
The employees claimed Candice told them Lucas had threatened suicide and violence.
Neither allegation appeared in the original intake form.
The transport supervisor called Candice.
Her voice came through the speaker.
“Remove him before his father interferes.”
Gabriel stepped closer.
“Candice, I’m listening.”
Silence.
She ended the call.
Police detained the transport team for questioning but did not make final arrests. The employees insisted they believed the order was legitimate.
Inside the van, officers found a prefilled medication log.
It stated Lucas had received a sedative at 8:20 a.m.
The time was 8:07.
The paperwork anticipated drugging him before it occurred.
Evelyn traced the prescribing physician.
Dr. Nathan Cole also treated Anna at Cedar Vale.
His payments came from accounts opened under Lucas’s identity.
The same trust funded Anna’s confinement and Lucas’s planned removal.
Gabriel confronted Wyatt privately after Candice left to speak with attorneys.
“Your mother took you to Cedar Vale.”
Wyatt began shaking.
“I wasn’t supposed to get out of the van.”
“Did you see Anna?”
“She grabbed my wrist.”
“What did she say?”
Wyatt looked toward the closed door.
“She called me Noah.”
Gabriel felt the room tilt.
“Who is Noah?”
“I don’t know.”
“She said anything else?”
Wyatt reached inside his sweatshirt and removed a photograph.
It showed Candice standing beside Anna in a hospital room. Wyatt was between them, approximately ten years old.
Anna’s hand rested against his face.
On the back, she had written:
May you like
MY SECOND SON. THEY CALL HIM WYATT.
👉 Anna’s photograph identified Wyatt as her child, suggesting Gabriel had been living with both sons without knowing the truth.
