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Chapter Forty-nine
Amber opened the door to their ring, her face glowing. “Come in, please.” She closed the door behind them and motioned to the other room. “Something you said the last time you were here to question us stuck with me. I’ve been meaning to get back to you. Plus, I knew you’d want to know that my baby was brought back by his daddy.”
Kurt introduced Neal first and then added, “I’m so glad, Amber. I knew how destroyed you were when the baby went missing. I do have a few more questions for both of you… if you don’t mind?”
“Not at all. Come this way.” She led them to a living room where a man sat holding a baby wrapped in a blue blanket. He looked up from the child when he saw them, and then he stared at Amber. “Is he the FBI agent you were telling me about?”
Kurt reached out his hand. “Agent Kurt Storm and this is my partner Agent Neal Patter.”
“Chen Biao. I’m the father of this little guy.”
Once they’d shook hands all around, Amber invited them to sit before she made her way back to take the baby.
Once the child lay in his mother’s arms, she spoke. “Chen has something to tell you. As soon as I heard what happened, I knew he needed to share.”
Kurt smiled her way and then relaxed back, waiting for Chen to start.
“As you must be aware, my parents are very proud people, and knowing they have a grandson is particularly important to them. The firstborn male will be the next in our lineage, and therefore, as they put it, should be with his father’s family. So, after Amber disappeared, they approached a firm known to one of their employees who specializes in attaining American children with Chinese bloodlines. From what my father revealed before I left them, they were told that this establishment has connections in the States where they can promise any Chinese man a son or daughter from an American mother.” Chen obviously saw the shock on Kurt’s face and nodded. “I know. It’s horrific. But they’ve been in business for years and have brought back many babies to unmarried men who dream of having a family.”
Kurt sat stunned. “You’re saying that there are men in China who want to have a child with a white woman… an American?”
“Oh yes, it’s a popular idea over there. There are so many single men with no opportunity to have a child. As you must understand, carrying on such an endeavor in China would be nigh impossible without getting caught and dealt with very harshly.”
Neal cut in. “But over here, it just becomes another case of a missing baby, and no one’s any the wiser.”
“Yes. I really don’t know how the system is carried out here in the United States. But I can tell you that my parents hired this company to keep track of Amber, so they’d know when the baby was born and could kidnap it to be brought back to China.”
Amber cut in then. “Kurt, I remember you asking me if I was ever followed here in Texas. At the time, I didn’t really pay too much attention since I very seldom left the house. But on my last doctor’s visit, I do recall seeing a Chinese man who turned away when I appeared. At the time, it seemed weird, but I wasn’t well. The doctor had just put me on bed rest and the incident slipped my mind.”
“Do you recall if you’d ever seen him before?”
“Not really.”
“What about the night we left Shanghai?”
“Do you mean those men that tried to stop us?”
“Yes.”
Amber shook her head. “I never did see them. You told me to stay down, and I did.”
Kurt stood with his phone and flipped through recent photos to find the ones he’d taken outside of Jill’s restaurant. “Do either of these men seem familiar?”
Amber sat forward. “This one. It was him. Same haircut. Even the same coat.”
“Good. Thank you. That helps.”
Kurt thought back to the previous discussion before Amber had broken in. “So, Chen, when Amber gave birth, you believe they snatched it without anyone being the wiser and had it on a plane within hours.”
“Yes. They’d have set up all the fake documentation so no questions would be asked.”
Kurt looked at the baby in Amber’s arms but questioned Chen. “Okay, that makes sense. But how did you find out what was going on?”
“Back when Amber was first arrested, my mother warned me I wasn’t allowed to get in touch with her or I could mess up her chances to be returned to America. She said that the Chinese government frowned on anyone having relationships with a criminal, and if they believed she might have influenced me in a negative way, it would go badly for her. Best to stay away. I believed my mother. But only because she promised that when the baby was born, we would look after the child until they released Amber, and then we could be together again. Of course, neither my father nor my mother ever intended that to happen. They just said it to control me.”
Amber reached for Chen’s hand, and she spoke. “He hadn’t been ignoring me… just trying to protect me. And when he overheard his parents talking about what they’d done two nights ago, he was shocked. All that time, he’d believed I was still in detention in China. And that I would give birth to the baby there.”
“Yes. I was an idiot who believed the words of my parents. But when I understood they’d brought the baby back from Texas and was setting him up with foster parents for the time being, I freaked out. I found their papers and forced them to give me the baby. Then with a friend’s help, I caught the next flight to bring him back.”
