Chapter 162 CCTV Footage

Chapter 162 CCTV Footage
Sarah’s POV

“WHERE IS MY BABY?!”

The scream tore out of me before I even realized it was mine—raw, guttural, echoing off the nursery walls like a stranger’s voice.

Everything blurred.

My chest seized so violently I couldn’t draw air. The room tilted. I stumbled back toward the empty cot, legs shaking, nearly collapsing over the edge. The soft blue blanket lay crumpled in a heap. One tiny sock rested on the floor like it had been kicked off in a hurry.

But no Kendrick.

No Michelle.

Just silence.

Cold, suffocating panic flooded my veins. I thought I might vomit.

“Kendrick?” My voice cracked, splintering into something desperate and broken. “Baby?”

Nothing.

The walls closed in. The room spun.

“Sarah?”

Heavy footsteps thundered up the stairs behind me.

Aaron. Edward. Mom. Faces blurred in my eyes as they burst into the nursery.

Aaron’s expression shattered the second his eyes landed on the empty cot. “What happened?”

I spun toward him, barely able to form words, my hands trembling so hard they looked foreign. “The baby…” The sentence strangled itself in my throat. “My baby… he’s gone.”

For one frozen, terrifying second, no one moved.

Then the room exploded into chaos.

“What?” Edward lunged toward the cot, yanking the blanket aside as if Kendrick might be hiding beneath it.

“What do you mean, gone?”

“He was here!” I cried, voice rising into a sob. “Michelle brought him up—she said he was tired!”

Aaron’s face hardened like stone, eyes flashing with something dangerous. “Michelle?”

I grabbed fistfuls of his shirt, fingers digging in, desperate for something solid to hold onto. “Find him. Please.”

Something shifted in Aaron’s eyes—raw fear breaking through the calm facade. He turned sharply, barking orders.

“Edward—downstairs. Check every room.” He pointed at one of the staff hovering in the doorway. “Lock the gate. No one leaves.” Another sharp gesture. “You—outside, now!”

The house that had pulsed with laughter and music minutes ago had become a nightmare. Music cut off mid-note. Conversations died. Pale, confused faces turned toward us as we rushed downstairs.

“What happened?”

“Where’s the baby?”

Whispers rippled through the small crowd. Aaron already had his phone pressed to his ear. “Call Michelle.”

I shook my head frantically. “She’s not answering.” My voice sounded hysterical, high-pitched and fraying.

“She’s not answering!”

Edward burst back through the front door, breathing hard. “Nothing outside.”

My stomach plummeted. Mom clutched the wall for support, her face drained of color. “Oh God…”

I turned in frantic circles, the panic swallowing me whole. “Somebody took my baby,” I whispered. Then louder, sharper, as if volume could make it untrue: “Somebody took my baby!”

Tears streamed down my face unchecked. The floor seemed to sway beneath me. Aaron caught my shoulders before my knees buckled, his grip firm but gentle.

“Sarah.” His voice was steady, grounding. “Look at me.”

I couldn’t. My eyes darted everywhere, searching for any sign of my son. “My son,” I sobbed, the words shattering. “Aaron… my baby…”

“He’s okay,” Aaron said, though I saw the terror flickering behind his eyes. He was holding himself together for me.

“We’re going to find him.”

“How do you know that?” I snapped, panic sharpening into anger. “How do you know he’s okay?” My voice broke again. “He’s only four months old… What if he’s crying? What if he’s scared? Hungry? What if someone—”

The possibilities clawed at my mind. My chest tightened until I thought it might crack.

Edward reappeared, jaw set. “No sign of Michelle’s car.”

Aaron cursed under his breath. “She planned this.”

The certainty in his tone stopped me cold. Planned.

No.

Why would Michelle—

Then a memory slammed into me, cold and ugly: Mom’s slurred words from months ago.

Zara knows.

I stumbled backward. Aaron noticed immediately. “What?”

I stared at him, the horrifying pieces clicking together with sickening clarity. Michelle’s unexpected arrival. Her strange comments. The way she’d offered to take Kendrick upstairs without hesitation.

“Oh my God.” My hand flew to my mouth.

Aaron frowned. “Sarah.”

I looked up at him, eyes wide with dawning horror. “I think I know who took him.”

The room went deathly still.

“Who?” Edward asked carefully.

I swallowed hard, the name tasting like ash. “Zara.”

Mom let out a soft, broken gasp. “No…”

Aaron’s jaw clenched, his expression darkening as the truth settled over him.

“She’s been gone for months,” Edward said slowly. “Why would she—”

“She warned me,” I whispered. Every cruel post, every veiled threat, every sharp smile flashed through my memory. She had told me, she would ruin me. This wasn’t random. This was revenge—for Aaron, for the baby, for everything that had shattered between us.

Aaron dragged a hand through his hair and pulled out his phone. “I’m calling the police.”

“No!” The word exploded from me.

Everyone turned.

“No police,” I repeated, shaking my head violently. Tears spilled faster. “You know Zara. If she thinks we’re coming after her… if she panics…” My voice cracked. “What if she hurts him?”

Heavy, suffocating silence blanketed the room. Everyone understood. Zara was unstable. Desperate. And desperate people were capable of terrible things.

Aaron looked away, jaw tight, thinking. Then his eyes lit with sudden focus. “Security cameras.”

Hope—small, fragile, almost painful—ignited in my chest. We rushed to the security room downstairs. The footage loaded agonizingly slowly, each second stretching like torture.

Then it appeared.

Michelle, moving quickly down the hallway, Kendrick wrapped tightly in a blanket against her chest.

“She took him,” I whispered, voice hollow.

We watched in frozen horror as she slipped through the side gate. A black SUV waited just outside. The driver stepped out, face obscured by a hoodie. Michelle handed over my baby with carefully.

Aaron leaned closer to the screen, eyes narrowing. “What the hell…”

The hood shifted—just for a split second.

A silver bracelet glinted on the driver’s wrist. Delicate. Familiar.

Too familiar.

My blood turned to ice. I had bought that bracelet myself. For my sister.

“No.” My knees nearly gave out.

Aaron turned to me slowly, his face unreadable but his voice low, cold, and deadly.

“Sarah…”

He paused, the truth settling like lead between us.

“That was Zara.”