Chapter 6
No one spoke for nearly a minute.
Marcus finally broke the silence.
“He wants you separated from us.”
I stared at my phone.
“That was my father.”
“Biologically, yes.”
“Don’t.”
Marcus glanced at me.
“I’m trying to keep you alive.”
“I heard his voice.”
My hands were shaking.
“I barely remember Dad’s voice, but I knew it.”
Daniel looked at me.
“So did I.”
Mom stared out the window.
She had stopped crying.
Her face looked empty.
I turned to her.
“Why did Dad say you should stay away from us?”
She didn’t answer.
“Mom.”
She flinched at the word.
I hated that I had said it.
But thirty-four years of habit didn’t disappear in one afternoon.
“Why?”
She looked at me.
“Because your father believes I stole you from him.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
Marcus laughed from the driver’s seat.
“Depends which kidnapping you mean.”
Rebecca snapped, “Can you stop?”
“No.”
Marcus’s eyes stayed on the road.
“Everyone has been lying for too long.”
I looked at Mom.
“Tell me everything.”
She shook her head.
“There isn’t time.”
“Make time.”
Marcus turned onto a narrow road.
Trees closed around us.
Daniel looked outside.
“This isn’t the way to Emily’s.”
“I know.”
“Then where are we going?”
“My place.”
Rebecca laughed.
“That seems safe.”
“Safer than hers.”
Noah lifted his head from Daniel’s chest.
“Will my mom be there?”
Marcus’s expression softened.
“No, buddy.”
Noah looked down.
Daniel held him tighter.
I hated every adult in that car for what we had dragged that child into.
Including myself.
Marcus drove another ten minutes before turning onto a gravel driveway.
A small cabin sat behind thick pine trees.
No neighboring homes were visible.
He parked beneath a metal carport.
“Inside.”
Rebecca stayed seated.
“You expect us to trust you?”
“No. I expect you to understand the men who came to your house know your vehicle.”
He tossed her the keys.
“If you want to leave, leave.”
Rebecca looked at Daniel.
Daniel shook his head.
“We stay together.”
That was the first thing anyone had said all day that made sense.
Inside, Marcus locked the door.
He closed the blinds.
Then he opened a safe hidden behind a pantry shelf.
Mom stared at it.
“What are you doing?”
“Showing them what you wouldn’t.”
He removed two folders and a small hard drive.
I looked at him.
“What is that?”
“Twenty years of reasons not to trust anyone.”
He spread photographs across the kitchen table.
I recognized my father immediately.
He looked older than the man in my childhood memories.
Gray at the temples.
Heavier.
But alive.
Every photo had dates.
Some were recent.
One was from four months earlier.
Dad stood outside a warehouse in Birmingham.
Another showed him entering an office in Savannah.
Another showed him beside Sarah.
Daniel grabbed the photograph.
“What is this?”
Marcus looked down.
“I took it eight months ago.”
“Sarah knew my father?”
“Yes.”
Daniel looked betrayed.
“She never told me.”
“Sarah was trying to find out what happened to your mother.”
“Catherine?”
Marcus nodded.
“Why?”
“Because of Noah.”
Daniel’s face changed.
“What does Noah have to do with Catherine?”
Marcus looked toward the boy.
“Maybe he shouldn’t hear this.”
Daniel picked Noah up.
“Rebecca.”
My sister looked surprised.
“Take him upstairs?”
“Please.”
Noah resisted.
“Dad.”
Daniel kissed his forehead.
“I’m not leaving.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
Rebecca took his hand.
For the first time, Noah didn’t pull away from her.
They went upstairs.
Daniel waited until they were gone.
“Talk.”
Marcus pulled out a medical report.
“Sarah started asking questions after Noah got sick two years ago.”
Daniel frowned.
“He had seizures.”
“Yes.”
“They stopped.”
“Because doctors changed his medication.”
“What does this have to do with Catherine?”
Marcus slid the report across the table.
“Catherine had the same symptoms.”
Daniel stared at it.
I leaned closer.
The name on the top read Catherine Hale Carter.
My real mother.
The report was from fourteen years earlier.
Neurological symptoms.
Memory loss.
Seizures.
Muscle weakness.
Daniel looked up.
“So it was hereditary?”
“No.”
Marcus pulled out another page.
“There was no genetic marker.”
Mom sank into a chair.
“Stop.”
I looked at her.
“You knew?”
She whispered, “I suspected.”
“Suspected what?”
Marcus answered.
“Catherine wasn’t sick naturally.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“What happened to her?”
Marcus hesitated.
“She was being poisoned.”
Silence.
I felt sick.
“By who?”
Marcus looked at Mom.
She shook her head.
“No.”
“Tell them.”
“No.”
“Victoria.”
She slammed her hand against the table.
“I SAID NO!”
The upstairs floor creaked.
We all lowered our voices.
I stared at her.
“Was it Dad?”
She cried.
“I don’t know.”
Marcus scoffed.
“You know.”
“I never saw him do it.”
“But?”
She covered her face.
“I found medication in his office.”
“What medication?”
“A compound Catherine’s doctors later found in her system.”
Daniel leaned forward.
“And you still helped Dad disappear?”
Mom looked at him.
“You don’t understand your father.”
“I’m beginning to.”
“He can be charming.”
Marcus laughed.
“That’s one word.”
Mom ignored him.
“When Catherine realized something was wrong, she wanted to leave him.”
“With us?”
“Yes.”
“So why didn’t she?”
“She tried.”
Mom looked at me.
“You were six.”
A memory surfaced.
A dark car.
Rain on a windshield.
My mother—or the woman I thought was my mother—pulling me from a back seat.
A woman screaming somewhere behind us.
I had always believed it was a nightmare.
My heart began pounding.
“Did you take us that night?”
Mom stared.
“What?”
“I remember rain.”
Her face went white.
“You remember that?”
“A woman was screaming.”
Mom began crying.
“That was Catherine.”
I couldn’t breathe.
“You took us.”
“She begged me to!”
Marcus went quiet.
Mom continued desperately.
“Catherine knew she was getting weaker. She believed your father was watching her. She asked me to take the three of you for one night.”
“One night?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“Your father found her before I could come back.”
“What did he do?”
“I don’t know.”
“You always say that!”
“Because I don’t!”
Mom stood.
“I went back the next morning. Catherine was gone. Your father told me she had left.”
“And you believed him?”
“No.”
“So you kept us.”
“I was terrified.”
“Why change your name?”
“Because Catherine called me.”
I froze.
“When?”
“Three weeks later.”
“What did she say?”
“She said she was alive. She said your father had people looking for us. She told me to disappear with you.”
Daniel looked stunned.
“She asked you to raise us?”
“Yes.”
“Then why didn’t you tell us she was alive?”
“Because she made me promise.”
Marcus shook his head.
“She made you promise to protect them. Not erase her.”
Mom glared at him.
“You weren’t there.”
“I was looking for them.”
“You were working for Thomas!”
The name hung in the air.
Our father.
Thomas Carter.
Marcus’s face hardened.
“At first.”
Daniel tapped the photograph of Sarah.
“What happened to my wife?”
Marcus looked at him.
“Sarah found Catherine’s medical records.”
“How?”
“She worked in healthcare billing, right?”
Daniel nodded.
“She noticed a payment connected to the facility where Catherine died.”
“What payment?”
“Monthly transfers.”
“From who?”
“Thomas.”
My stomach dropped.
Dad had been paying the facility.
For years.
Daniel whispered, “Sarah started investigating.”
“Yes.”
“And she found you.”
“She found me.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“She didn’t trust you yet.”
Daniel stared.
“My own wife didn’t trust me?”
“She didn’t know whether your disappearance had been voluntary.”
“It was.”
“Exactly.”
Daniel looked crushed.
I touched his arm.
“Keep going.”
Marcus nodded.
“Sarah discovered something bigger than Catherine.”
He opened another folder.
Inside were business registrations.
Property records.
Photographs.
“Thomas owns private care homes under shell companies.”
“How many?”
“Eleven that I know of.”
“For what?”
Marcus looked at us.
“People who need to disappear without officially dying.”
The room went silent.
Daniel whispered, “Sarah.”
Marcus nodded.
“She believed he used the facilities to hide witnesses, family members, anyone he needed controlled.”
I thought of Catherine.
“Like our mother.”
“Yes.”
My stomach turned.
“And maybe Sarah.”
“Yes.”
Daniel stood so quickly the chair fell.
“Where are the facilities?”
“I have addresses.”
“Then we go.”
“There are eleven.”
“We search all eleven.”
Mom whispered, “He’ll know.”
Daniel turned on her.
“I don’t care.”
“You should.”
He laughed.
“You taught me to be afraid for eleven years. I’m done.”
My phone rang.
Unknown number again.
I looked at everyone.
Marcus nodded.
“Answer.”
I put it on speaker.
“Hello?”
Dad spoke immediately.
“You shouldn’t be at Marcus’s house.”
My blood ran cold.
Marcus looked toward the windows.
“How does he know?”
Dad laughed softly.
“I know everything Marcus does.”
Marcus grabbed the hard drive and turned it over.
His face changed.
“What?”
He pried at the plastic case.
A tiny device fell onto the table.
Tracker.
Dad’s voice continued through my phone.
“Emily, I’m trying to help you.”
I stared at the little device.
“You’ve been tracking us?”
“I’ve been protecting you.”
“Where is Sarah?”
“I told you. She’s safe.”
“Give me an address.”
“Come alone.”
Daniel shook his head violently.
I said, “No.”
Dad sighed.
“Then she stays where she is.”
Daniel grabbed the phone.
“You touch her and I swear—”
Dad interrupted.
“Daniel, you abandoned your family once. Don’t pretend to be a hero now.”
Daniel went silent.
I took the phone back.
“What do you want?”
“You.”
“Why?”
“Because you don’t know what Victoria did.”
Mom whispered, “Hang up.”
Dad heard her.
“Ask her about the fire.”
I looked at Mom.
“What fire?”
She shook her head.
Dad continued.
“The one that killed Catherine.”
Marcus went pale.
I stared at him.
“You said Catherine died in a care facility.”
“She did.”
Dad laughed.
“Did Marcus forget to mention it burned down the night she died?”
Mom started backing away.
My chest tightened.
“Who started the fire?”
Dad answered quietly.
“Victoria.”
Mom screamed, “He’s lying!”
Dad didn’t raise his voice.
“Come to your house, Emily.”
“No.”
“I left something for you.”
“What?”
“The truth.”
The call ended.
Mom grabbed my arm.
“You cannot go.”
I pulled away.
“Did you start that fire?”
“No.”
“Were you there?”
She hesitated.
That was enough.
“You were.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I went to get Catherine.”
Marcus whispered, “I didn’t know that.”
Mom looked at him.
“No one did.”
“What happened?”
Mom’s voice cracked.
“I found her room empty.”
“And then?”
“The alarm started.”
“Did you set the fire?”
“No.”
“Who did?”
She looked at me.
“I saw your father in the hallway.”
Daniel went still.
“You saw Dad?”
“Yes.”
“He was supposed to be dead.”
“I know.”
“Did Catherine see him?”
Mom nodded.
“She was with him.”
My hands shook.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
Mom swallowed.
“She looked at me and screamed one thing.”
“What?”
Mom’s eyes met mine.
“She screamed, ‘He has Emily.’”
I stopped breathing.
“What did that mean?”
Mom whispered, “I never knew.”
Marcus stared at me.
Then at the photographs.
He grabbed one.
It showed Dad outside my workplace three years earlier.
Another outside my wedding venue.
Another beside my first apartment.
His face changed.
“Victoria.”
“What?”
Marcus held up the pictures.
“He wasn’t watching Emily recently.”
He spread them across the table.
“He’s been watching her for years.”
Daniel looked at me.
“Why Emily?”
No one answered.
Then footsteps sounded upstairs.
Rebecca screamed.
“DANIEL!”
We ran.
Daniel reached the landing first.
Noah’s bedroom door stood open.
The window was raised.
Rebecca was on the floor.
Blood ran from her forehead.
Noah was gone.
May you like
A note had been written on the wall in black marker.
BRING EMILY HOME.
