Chapter 2 - Two Promises
Heat rolled across Daniel’s face as he forced himself between the crushed seats.
The back of the sedan had folded inward.
Smoke burned his throat.
He hooked the crowbar beneath the briefcase and pulled.
It would not move.
The woman groaned beside him.
“My name is Evelyn,” she whispered.
“Daniel.”
“Leave it, Daniel.”
“You said millions of people.”
“The fire—”
“I heard you.”
He pulled again.
The seat frame shifted.
The briefcase came loose so suddenly it struck him in the chest.
He grabbed the tablet with his other hand and crawled backward.
Something beneath the hood exploded.
The windshield flashed orange.
Daniel threw himself onto the shoulder, tossed the case and tablet into the wet grass, then turned back toward the wreck.
Evelyn’s eyes had closed.
He reached through the window and shook her shoulder.
“Evelyn.”
No response.
“Say your daughter’s name.”
Her lips moved.
“Emma.”
“Again.”
“Emma.”
Daniel ran to his truck for a hydraulic jack.
His phone continued vibrating on the passenger seat.
Lily’s face appeared on the blurred screen—a photograph of her at the piano, smiling with two missing front teeth.
Daniel looked away.
When he returned, flames had spread beneath the windshield.
He pushed the jack under the collapsed dashboard and began pumping.
The metal lifted half an inch.
Then one inch.
Evelyn cried out as pressure released from her trapped arm.
Daniel unfastened the belt and pulled her through the broken passenger window.
Her weight dragged them both to the ground.
He hooked his arms beneath her shoulders and hauled her toward the embankment.
The sedan erupted behind them.
Daniel threw himself over Evelyn as heat swept across the wet shoulder.
Shattered glass and metal struck the pavement several feet away.
Neither of them was touched.
For a moment, Daniel lay in the grass, listening to rain hit the back of his shirt.
Then Evelyn stirred beneath him.
“The case?”
He pointed toward the shoulder.
“It’s safe.”
Only then did she allow her head to fall back.
Emergency vehicles arrived minutes later.
Paramedics rushed toward them as police blocked the highway.
One medic tried to move Evelyn onto a stretcher.
She refused to release Daniel’s sleeve.
“What’s your name?” she asked again.
“Daniel Park.”
She repeated it slowly, forcing herself to remember.
“Your daughter.”
“Lily.”
“The recital.”
He looked at the time.
10:07.
Folsom was twenty minutes in the wrong direction.
The cabinet job was gone.
The $340 was gone.
But Lily’s school was thirty-five minutes away if traffic moved.
Evelyn saw the calculation in his face.
“Go.”
Daniel hesitated.
“You’re not alone now.”
She glanced toward the black briefcase.
“Take it with you.”
He shook his head.
“It belongs to you.”
“If someone reaches it before my people do, what you did here may not matter.”
A police officer stepped closer.
“We’ll secure the property.”
Evelyn looked at him with sudden fear.
“No. Only Daniel.”
The officer frowned.
Daniel did too.
“I don’t know what’s inside.”
“That’s why I trust you.”
The paramedics lifted her into the ambulance.
Daniel stood in the rain holding a billionaire’s secret without knowing she was a billionaire.
Then he looked at the time again.
May you like
He placed the briefcase and tablet behind his truck seat.
And drove toward Lily.
