Chapter 7
Daniel made a sound I will never forget.
Not a scream.
Not a word.
Something broken between the two.
He ran to the window.
“Noah!”
There was no answer.
Rebecca pushed herself up.
“I’m sorry.”
Daniel spun toward her.
“What happened?”
“A man came through the window.”
“What man?”
“I don’t know.”
“You were with him!”
“He hit me!”
Marcus looked outside.
“Tire tracks.”
Daniel grabbed him.
“You brought us here!”
“I didn’t know about the tracker!”
“You said we were safe!”
“No one is safe from Thomas if he knows where you are.”
Daniel shoved him against the wall.
“Get my son back.”
“I will.”
“You get him back!”
I pulled Daniel away.
“Daniel.”
His whole body shook.
“They took my child.”
“I know.”
“They took Noah because of you.”
The words landed between us.
Daniel immediately looked horrified.
“Emily, I didn’t mean—”
“Yes, you did.”
I looked at the message.
BRING EMILY HOME.
“They want me.”
Mom grabbed my shoulders.
“You are not going.”
“Noah is seven.”
“That is exactly why you cannot make this emotional.”
I stared at her.
“Make this emotional?”
“You know what I mean.”
“No. I don’t.”
She lowered her voice.
“Thomas knows you’ll trade yourself for Noah.”
“He’s right.”
“No.”
Daniel looked at me.
“No, Emily.”
“What?”
“We find another way.”
“Your son was kidnapped because Dad wants me.”
“We don’t know what he’ll do to you.”
“And we know what Rebecca did to Noah.”
Rebecca flinched.
I turned toward her.
“I haven’t forgotten.”
Her eyes filled.
“I know.”
“You chained a child outside.”
“I was terrified he would run and lead them here.”
“So you abused him to protect him?”
“I was wrong.”
“You slapped him.”
“I know.”
“You kept Daniel in a basement.”
Daniel said quietly, “She also kept us alive.”
I looked at him.
He hated admitting it.
Rebecca whispered, “When Daniel came here, men were watching my house within forty-eight hours. Noah ran outside twice looking for Sarah. The second time, a car followed him.”
“That doesn’t justify a chain.”
“No.”
She cried.
“Nothing justifies it.”
For once, she didn’t defend herself.
“I was scared. I became cruel. I kept telling myself it was temporary.”
She wiped her face.
“I am sorry.”
There was no time to decide whether forgiveness would ever be possible.
Marcus’s phone rang.
He looked at the number.
“Thomas.”
Daniel moved closer.
“Answer.”
Marcus put it on speaker.
“What?”
Dad sounded amused.
“You always were rude.”
“Where’s Noah?”
“Safe.”
“Let me hear him.”
“No.”
Daniel shouted, “LET ME HEAR MY SON!”
Dad paused.
Then Noah’s voice came faintly.
“Dad?”
Daniel almost collapsed.
“Noah!”
“Dad, I’m okay.”
“Did they hurt you?”
“No.”
“Where are you?”
A man interrupted.
“That’s enough.”
The line shifted back to Dad.
Daniel’s face went red.
“You bring him back.”
“I will.”
“When?”
“When Emily comes home.”
I stepped closer.
“What do you mean by home?”
“My house.”
“Across from mine?”
Dad laughed softly.
“No.”
Mom whispered, “Thomas.”
His voice sharpened.
“Quiet, Victoria.”
I said, “Where?”
“You’ll receive the address.”
“Why me?”
“I told you.”
“No. You haven’t.”
Dad went silent.
Then he said, “Because you’re my daughter.”
“So are Rebecca and Daniel.”
A long pause.
“No.”
My stomach dropped.
“What?”
Mom closed her eyes.
Daniel stared at her.
Dad continued.
“Rebecca and Daniel are Catherine’s children.”
I could barely breathe.
“And me?”
“You’re mine.”
Daniel shook his head.
“That makes no sense.”
Dad said, “Not with Catherine.”
The room seemed to disappear.
I stared at Mom.
Her face had gone completely white.
“Who is my mother?”
Dad answered.
“Victoria.”
I looked at the woman I had called Mom all my life.
She started crying.
“No.”
I stepped away from her.
“No.”
“Emily.”
“No.”
She reached for me.
I backed up.
“Don’t touch me.”
Dad was still speaking through the phone.
“She never told you?”
Marcus whispered, “Thomas, you bastard.”
Dad laughed.
“I suppose that answers my question.”
I stared at Victoria.
“You’re my biological mother?”
She nodded through tears.
“Yes.”
Rebecca sank onto the bed.
Daniel looked stunned.
I felt like I had been split in half.
“You told me Catherine was my mother.”
“I wanted you to have the same story as your siblings.”
“My siblings?”
“Yes.”
“Are they my siblings?”
“Half siblings.”
Daniel stepped toward me.
“That changes nothing.”
I looked at him.
He meant it.
I wanted to believe him.
Dad said, “Emily, now you understand why I want you.”
“Because I’m your daughter?”
“Because you’re our daughter.”
Victoria whispered, “He doesn’t love you.”
Dad’s voice hardened.
“You have no right to say that.”
“She was a baby!”
“You took her.”
“You were hurting Catherine!”
“And you were sleeping with your sister’s husband.”
The room went silent.
Victoria looked destroyed.
Rebecca whispered, “Oh my God.”
I couldn’t feel my hands.
Dad continued mercilessly.
“Ask your mother why Catherine became sick after discovering the affair.”
Victoria shouted, “I never poisoned her!”
“I didn’t say you did.”
Marcus ended the call.
“Enough.”
I rounded on Victoria.
“Were you having an affair with Dad?”
She whispered, “Yes.”
“How long?”
“Two years.”
“Before I was born?”
“Yes.”
“Did Catherine know I was yours?”
“No.”
“What?”
Victoria wiped tears from her face.
“I gave birth in another state. Thomas told Catherine you were a baby he had agreed to foster temporarily.”
My stomach turned.
“He brought me into her house?”
“Yes.”
“And she raised me?”
“For almost a year.”
“Then what?”
“Catherine learned the truth.”
Daniel looked sick.
“And that’s when she tried to leave.”
Victoria nodded.
“She wanted to take all three of you.”
“Even Emily?” Rebecca asked.
“Yes.”
That hurt in a way I hadn’t expected.
A woman I barely remembered had discovered her husband’s child with her sister.
And she still wanted to protect me.
“What did Dad do?”
Victoria’s voice became barely audible.
“He refused to let her leave.”
Marcus interrupted.
“We need to move.”
Daniel looked at him.
“My son is gone.”
“That’s why.”
Marcus pointed toward the window.
“Thomas knows this location. He’ll send someone back.”
I looked at Victoria.
“Where would he take Noah?”
She shook her head.
“Could be any property.”
“You knew Dad for years.”
“I haven’t spoken to him in twenty.”
“That’s a lie.”
“No.”
“He knew you were in Rebecca’s backyard.”
“That doesn’t mean we spoke.”
Marcus said, “She’s telling the truth about that.”
I looked at him.
“How could you know?”
“I watched Thomas for years. He watched her too.”
Daniel laughed bitterly.
“Wonderful family.”
Marcus opened his laptop.
“If Thomas wants Emily at a specific place, he’ll send coordinates.”
As if summoned by the words, my phone buzzed.
A text.
An address.
Daniel searched it.
“Outside Rome, Georgia.”
Victoria looked at the screen.
Her face changed.
“What?”
“I know that place.”
Marcus looked over.
“So do I.”
“What is it?”
Victoria whispered, “The house where Catherine and Thomas lived before we were born.”
Daniel stared.
“Our childhood home?”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“Before Atlanta.”
“Why there?”
I already knew.
“Because he calls it home.”
Marcus closed the laptop.
“It’s isolated.”
Daniel said, “We’re going.”
Victoria grabbed his arm.
“It could be a trap.”
“It is a trap.”
He looked at me.
“But Noah is there.”
I nodded.
“I’m going in.”
“No.”
“Daniel.”
“No. I’m not handing you to him.”
“Then what?”
Marcus thought for a moment.
“We make Thomas believe she’s alone.”
Daniel looked at him.
“And?”
“We approach from the woods.”
Rebecca wiped blood from her forehead.
“I’m coming.”
Daniel stared at her.
“You’re hurt.”
“I lost him.”
“He was taken from you.”
“I still lost him.”
I expected Daniel to refuse.
Instead he nodded.
“We all go.”
Victoria whispered, “Not me.”
I looked at her.
“You’re absolutely coming.”
Her eyes widened.
“Why?”
“Because Dad wants me.”
I stepped closer.
“And I want the truth.”
Two hours later, we parked a mile from the address.
The sun was dropping behind the trees.
Marcus gave me a small earpiece.
“If anything changes, we hear you.”
I stared at it.
“You carry these around?”
“I’ve had a strange decade.”
Daniel hugged me.
“Don’t be brave.”
I almost smiled.
“What?”
“Be careful.”
I looked at my brother.
Eleven years gone.
One day returned.
And somehow he was still Daniel.
“I’ll bring Noah out.”
“We’ll bring him out.”
I walked the final half-mile alone.
The house appeared through the trees.
Large.
White.
Old.
A porch wrapped around the front.
No vehicles.
No guards.
The front door stood open.
I stepped inside.
“Dad?”
A lamp glowed in the living room.
Photographs covered the walls.
I moved closer.
My childhood.
Rebecca’s graduation.
Daniel playing baseball.
My wedding.
Pictures taken from distances.
Through windows.
Across streets.
My stomach turned.
Dad’s voice came from a speaker.
“Welcome home, Emily.”
“Where is Noah?”
“Upstairs.”
“Let him go.”
“Soon.”
A door opened behind me.
I spun around.
A man stood there.
Gray hair.
Broad shoulders.
A scar near his chin.
My father.
Older.
Alive.
He stared at me like I was a miracle.
“Emily.”
I couldn’t speak.
He stepped closer.
“You look like Victoria.”
“Don’t.”
His smile faded.
“You came.”
“For Noah.”
“I know.”
“Where is he?”
Dad pointed upstairs.
“Second door.”
I moved.
He didn’t stop me.
I ran up.
“Noah?”
“Emily!”
I opened the second door.
Noah sat on a bed.
He was not tied.
He ran into me.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Did anyone touch you?”
“No.”
I hugged him.
“Come on.”
We reached the hallway.
Dad stood at the bottom of the stairs.
“You can take him.”
I stopped.
“What?”
“I said you can take him.”
Noah gripped my hand.
“Then why bring him here?”
Dad looked at me.
“To make sure you came.”
Rage burned through me.
“You kidnapped a child.”
“Yes.”
“You terrified his father.”
“Yes.”
“And now you think I’ll listen?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Dad looked toward a closed door across the hallway.
“Because Sarah is behind that door.”
Noah gasped.
“Mom?”
He ran.
I followed.
“Noah, wait!”
He reached the door.
Locked.
Dad called from downstairs.
“Emily.”
I turned.
He held up a key.
“If you open that room, you’ll learn why Sarah disappeared.”
“Give me the key.”
He started up the stairs.
My earpiece crackled.
Marcus whispered, “We’re in position.”
Dad stopped.
His eyes shifted toward my ear.
He smiled.
“You brought Marcus.”
My blood went cold.
Dad reached into his pocket.
There was a loud electronic pop.
My earpiece went dead.
Then lights flooded the windows outside.
Dad looked at me calmly.
“I told you.”
He held out the key.
“Everyone betrays everyone eventually.”
Noah began pounding on the locked door.
“Mom!”
A woman cried from inside.
“Noah?”
Noah screamed.
“MOM!”
Daniel’s voice thundered from outside.
“SARAH!”
Dad’s face changed for the first time.
He hadn’t expected Daniel to get that close.
I grabbed for the key.
Dad pulled it back.
Then a window shattered downstairs.
Footsteps exploded through the house.
Dad looked toward the sound.
I lunged.
I snatched the key.
He grabbed my wrist.
“Emily.”
“Let go!”
Noah kicked him in the shin.
Dad stumbled.
I unlocked the door.
A woman stood inside.
Thin.
Pale.
Terrified.
Noah threw himself at her.
“Mom!”
Sarah collapsed around him.
Daniel reached the hallway seconds later.
He froze.
“Sarah.”
She looked up.
“Daniel.”
He crossed the space between them.
The three of them fell into each other.
For one beautiful second, nothing else mattered.
Then Sarah saw my father behind me.
Her expression became terror.
“Daniel, get Noah out.”
Dad smiled.
“Sarah.”
She stood.
“You should have stayed dead.”
Dad’s eyes hardened.
Marcus and Rebecca appeared at the top of the stairs.
Victoria came behind them.
Dad saw her.
Everything stopped.
Twenty years of lies stood in one hallway.
Thomas.
Victoria.
Marcus.
Daniel.
Rebecca.
Me.
Sarah stepped in front of Noah.
Dad looked at Victoria.
“You brought them all.”
Victoria whispered, “It ends tonight.”
Dad smiled sadly.
“No.”
He looked at me.
“It starts tonight.”
Then a woman’s voice came from the room behind Sarah.
“No, Thomas.”
Everyone froze.
Sarah stepped aside.
An elderly woman was sitting in a chair near the window.
Her hair was silver.
Her body looked fragile.
But her eyes were sharp.
Victoria gasped.
“No.”
Daniel stared.
Marcus whispered, “Impossible.”
The woman looked directly at us.
“I’ve been waiting a long time to meet my children.”
May you like
My heart stopped.
Catherine was alive.
