Mark sprinted back inside the villa through the open sliding glass patio doors.
Sarah followed right behind him, her wet footprints smudging the marble entry floor.
Mark reached the main kitchen island and grabbed the brass landline phone receiver.
He dialed three numbers quickly and pressed the speaker phone button down hard.
Mark: Emergency services, my child has been taken from our private home!
The operator asked for their address while Mark paced across the living room.
Mark: Send officers right now to the palm estate on Ocean Drive!
Sarah: Mark, look at the door to your father's old private study!
The heavy oak door to the back office was standing wide open.
That room had remained locked ever since Mark's father died six months ago.
Mark rushed inside the dark room, his heart pounding in his chest.
The heavy iron wall safe behind the portrait was swinging wide open.
Mark: The legal papers for the family trust are gone from the shelf!
Sarah: How did Megan get the combination code to that private safe?
Mark reached into the back corner of the open safe with trembling fingers.
He pulled out a small leather diary that belonged to his late father.
He flipped open the yellowed paper pages under the dim desk lamp light.
On the final page, a name was written in bold black fountain pen ink.
The name written on the page was Megan Elizabeth Vance, listed as a beneficiary.
Mark: My father actually knew her before he died in the hospital.
Sarah: Why would your father leave money to our child's new nanny?
Mark: She was not just a nanny, Sarah, she was his former secretary.
Sarah felt the room spin around her as the horrible truth became clear.
Megan had changed her last name and hired an agency to get inside.
She had spent months planning her way into the center of their home.
Suddenly, the house landline telephone rang with a sharp, piercing chime.
Mark snatched up the receiver and pressed it against his ear tightly.
Mark: Megan, bring my son back right now or you die in prison!
Nanny Megan: Listen very carefully to me if you want your boy alive.