Chapter 6 - The Father Who Watched From Afar
Glass exploded across the carpet.
Reed pulled me and Ava behind the desk.
Tommy killed the lights.
Daniel crawled toward us.
“Is she hurt?”
“Don’t touch her.”
“Mara—”
“Don’t.”
Ava screamed against my chest.
Daniel stopped.
That hurt him.
I was glad.
Security sealed the restaurant.
The shot had come from an unfinished building across the alley.
By the time Reed’s men reached it, the shooter was gone.
Only one thing remained.
A photograph.
Me leaving my apartment with Ava that morning.
Written beneath it:
LAST WARNING.
Daniel stared at the photograph.
“This is why I stayed away.”
I laughed.
“You don’t get to use danger as a magic word that excuses everything.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
He looked older than the man I remembered.
Scar near his jaw.
Dark circles.
No Phoenix salesman charm.
“Why did you become Evan Mercer?”
“To follow money leaving Callaway companies.”
“And dating me helped?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
“Because I met you.”
Too simple.
I hated that I believed it.
He had intended to remain in Phoenix for six weeks.
Then we met.
He stayed eleven months.
He told himself he could separate his two lives.
Then I became pregnant.
He panicked.
Not because he didn’t want Ava.
Because he discovered who was stealing the money.
A network called Meridian.
People inside Chicago business, law enforcement and private banking.
Callaway money was financing it unknowingly.
Daniel found proof.
Then someone tried killing him.
He realized anyone close to him could become leverage.
So he vanished.
“Why not take me with you?”
“You would have spent the rest of your life running.”
“I spent it surviving.”
His face tightened.
“I know.”
“Twenty-five thousand dollars doesn’t fix that.”
His eyes widened.
“What money?”
Interesting.
“You didn’t send it?”
“No.”
Reed and Daniel looked at each other.
Then Tommy traced the transfer further.
Nevada company.
Parent corporation hidden behind three shells.
Final authorized signatory:
ELENA VARGAS.
Everyone turned.
Elena looked stunned.
“I didn’t send anything.”
“Your signature did.”
“It was forged.”
Daniel studied her.
“Meridian knows Mara is here.”
Reed asked:
“Why pay her to leave?”
“To move her somewhere easier to reach.”
The twenty-five thousand dollars had been bait.
If I spent it, transferred it, withdrew it—
my movement could be tracked.
I looked at Ava.
This nightmare had been waiting around us before I knew it existed.
Then Daniel finally approached her.
Slowly.
“Can I see her?”
“No.”
He nodded.
Didn’t argue.
That almost made it worse.
Ava looked at him anyway.
Her father.
A stranger.
Then she reached toward him.
Daniel’s face collapsed.
I hated my heart for hurting.
He touched one finger to her tiny hand.
Exactly as Reed had earlier.
Ava grabbed it.
Daniel began crying.
Silent.
Ugly.
Real.
Then Reed’s phone rang.
He answered.
A woman screamed on the other end.
Mrs. Perez.
My babysitter.
My blood turned to ice.
A man took the phone.
“You have something Meridian wants.”
I grabbed Reed’s arm.
“Don’t hurt her!”
The man laughed.
“We don’t want the waitress.”
“Then what?”
“Daniel knows.”
Everyone looked at him.
Daniel’s face went white.
The caller continued:
“Bring us Anthony Callaway’s ledger.”
Reed stared at his brother.
“Our father’s ledger?”
Daniel whispered:
“It doesn’t exist.”
The caller laughed again.
“Ask the baby’s mother.”
I froze.
“Me?”
Then he said:
“Ask Mara what her mother left her before she died.”
May you like
And suddenly a memory returned.
A small brass key I had carried for twelve years without knowing what it opened.
