---- Chapter 42 Just as Michael accepted his utter defeat, a piercing scream cut through the air. It was the housekeeper, her voice shrill with terror. "Miss Liv! The baby! Finn is gone!" 4 Liv whirled around, her face a mask of pure, unadulterated panic. "What? What do you mean, gone?" She rushed out of the room, Michael scrambling to his feet, his own shock momentarily forgotten. They found the housekeeper wringing her hands in the nursery, the crib empty. An open window. A muddy footprint on the sill. "He was just here!" the housekeeper sobbed. "l stepped out for a moment... just a moment..." 1 Liv let out a strangled cry, her hands flying to her mouth. Michael's blood ran cold. Serena. Her threat. "An eye for an eye. A child for a child." She had found them. She had taken Finn. His phone, the burner phone he still carried, vibrated in his pocket. He pulled it out. Unknown number. ---- He answered, his hand shaking. "Well, well, Michael," Serena's voice, distorted, triumphant. "Looks like | got your attention." "Serena, you bitch!" Michael roared. "Where is he? Where's my son?" "Your son?" she laughed, a chilling, unhinged sound. "He's my bargaining chip now. And the price for his safe return... is Olivia's life." Liv, who had grabbed the phone from Michael, listened, her face ashen. "What do you want?" Liv demanded, her voice trembling but fierce. "l want you, Olivia," Serena sneered. "Meet me at the old lighthouse. North point of the island. Alone. If | see Michael, if | see anyone else, the baby pays the price. You have one hour." The line went dead. Despair, cold and absolute, descended. Serena had his son. And she wanted Liv dead. Vengeance, psychotic and terrifying, had arrived on their secluded shore. Michael looked at Liv, her face a canvas of terror and a dawning, terrible resolve. He knew, with sickening certainty, what she was thinking. Self-sacrifice.