Chapter 6 - Anna’s Last Disappearance
Hollow Creek Medical Center had no patient listed under Anna Mercer.
Tank expected that.
Daisy supplied another name.
“Mommy was Anna Bell there.”
The hospital still refused to release information.
Tank’s appearance did not help.
A giant tattooed biker demanding access to a missing woman triggered security before sympathy.
Then Doc entered in plain clothes and explained Daisy might be the unattended child of a recent emergency patient.
A social worker reviewed the records.
Anna Bell had been admitted four days earlier with symptoms of poisoning and internal bleeding.
She disappeared from her room before toxicology results returned.
Security video showed a nurse wheeling her through a service exit.
The nurse’s identity badge had been stolen.
Mrs. Bell appeared on another camera entering the hospital that evening.
She also vanished.
Tank felt the old rage rising.
The kind that once solved every problem with fists and destroyed everything afterward.
Daisy slipped her hand into his.
The touch stopped him.
“Mommy said you get angry when you’re scared.”
Tank looked down at her.
“She told you that?”
“She said anger made you brave, but sometimes stupid.”
Boone coughed to hide a laugh.
Tank almost smiled.
Anna was still speaking to him through their child, still refusing to let him turn pain into destruction.
The toxicology report showed a blood-thinning agent in Anna’s system.
It could cause spontaneous internal bleeding over time.
Someone wanted her weak enough to control, but not dead before revealing the ledger’s location.
Raymond’s men had likely found her.
Anna staged a crisis, sent Daisy away, and escaped the hospital before they could move her.
A nurse named Megan Cross had helped her.
Megan contacted Doc that evening from a blocked number.
“She is alive,” the nurse said.
Tank had to grip the phone with both hands.
“Where?”
“I can’t tell you yet.”
“I’m her daughter’s father.”
“I know who you are. That is why Anna is afraid.”
The words cut.
“Afraid of me?”
“Afraid of what you’ll do when you see Raymond.”
Tank looked through the hospital window at Daisy sleeping against Boone’s side.
“What does she want?”
“For you to protect Daisy. Preserve the evidence. Do not start a war.”
“Let me speak to her.”
Silence.
Then another voice came onto the line.
Weak.
Breathless.
Unmistakable.
“Marcus.”
Tank stopped breathing.
Twenty-two years disappeared.
He was nineteen again beneath a streetlamp, watching Anna repair a teddy bear with blue thread.
“Anna.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No. Don’t say that.”
“I tried to reach you.”
“I know.”
“I thought your mother told the truth.”
“She lied to both of us.”
Tank pressed his fist against his mouth.
“Where are you?”
“Safe for tonight.”
“Let me come.”
“Not yet.”
His eyes filled again.
“Daisy thinks I might not want her.”
Anna’s breath caught.
“I never told her that.”
“She said you did.”
“I said you might not know how.”
That hurt because it was fair.
Tank had built his life around force, hierarchy, and fear.
Being a father required none of those things.
“What am I supposed to do?” he whispered.
“Start by listening to her.”
Tank closed his eyes.
“And you?”
“I’ll come when Raymond can’t use me to reach her.”
“I can protect you.”
“You couldn’t protect me then.”
The sentence landed without cruelty.
Only truth.
Tank lowered his head.
“No.”
“But you can do better now.”
The call ended before he could ask more.
Daisy woke moments later.
“Was that Mommy?”
Tank crouched in front of her.
“Yes.”
“Is she alive?”
“Yes.”
The girl began crying.
May you like
Tank opened his arms.
This time, she ran into them without hesitation.
