Chapter 4 - The Name From His Childhood
“Danny-boy.”
Daniel stopped breathing.
An elderly Korean woman stepped inside.
Her name was Grace Park.
Daniel had not seen her since he was fourteen.
She had been his father’s bookkeeper.
Grace carried the missing drawing.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I couldn’t trust the police until I knew which police were listening.”
Daniel immediately called Torres.
Grace didn’t resist.
When Torres arrived, the story began.
Daniel’s father had suspected financial theft inside Kang Meridian decades earlier.
Marcus’s father had been involved.
The elder Kang had hidden records proving it.
Grace had preserved them.
Marcus had apparently spent years searching.
The old house address was not where the evidence was stored.
It was where the key had been hidden.
The next morning, Torres searched the property.
Inside an old basement beam, investigators found a brass key and a sealed envelope addressed to Daniel.
The envelope contained four words.
TRUST THE BOY’S MOTHER.
Daniel read them twice.
Emily stared.
“I never met your father.”
Grace shook her head.
“He didn’t mean you personally.”
“Then what?”
Grace explained.
Years earlier, Daniel’s father had established a charitable rehabilitation foundation anonymously.
Emily’s late husband, David Miller, had worked as an auditor for one of its contractors.
Daniel turned toward Emily.
“You never told me.”
“I didn’t know.”
David had died five years earlier in what police classified as a single-car accident.
Emily went white.
Grace whispered, “It wasn’t an accident.”
The room changed.
Emily sat down.
Noah was at school.
For once, Daniel was grateful.
Grace said David had discovered shell companies siphoning money from Kang Meridian.
He had contacted Daniel’s father.
Before he could provide the evidence, David died.
Daniel’s father began investigating independently.
Then he died of a heart attack.
“Are you saying Marcus killed my father?” Daniel asked.
“No,” Grace replied. “I’m saying your father feared the same people who were watching David.”
The brass key opened a private safe-deposit box.
Inside were financial ledgers, encrypted drives, and a letter from Daniel’s father.
The evidence implicated Marcus’s father.
But recent transactions implicated Marcus himself.
Millions had been diverted.
Northstar was only the final move.
Daniel’s disappearance had made it possible.
Emily stood by the window afterward.
“My husband knew?”
Daniel rolled his wheelchair beside her.
“He was trying to expose them.”
“He left Noah and me without saying anything.”
“Maybe he was trying to protect you.”
Emily looked at Daniel.
“That excuse doesn’t make the dead come home.”
Daniel had no answer.
That afternoon, rehabilitation became personal.
Daniel gripped the parallel bars.
Emily stood beside him.
“Up.”
He pushed.
His legs trembled violently.
“Again.”
“I’m trying.”
“Then stop talking.”
Daniel glared.
Noah watched through the glass.
Daniel pushed harder.
His hips lifted.
One inch.
Then two.
His knees nearly collapsed.
Emily caught him.
For three seconds, Daniel Kang stood.
Noah screamed.
“I TOLD YOU!”
Daniel laughed while tears burned his eyes.
Three seconds.
It was nothing.
It was everything.
Later, Torres called.
Marcus had disappeared from Kang Meridian headquarters.
His phone was off.
His apartment was empty.
Lauren was missing too.
Daniel immediately thought of Noah.
Emily did the same.
They called his school.
No answer.
Emily called again.
Then the principal picked up.
Noah had been signed out twenty minutes earlier.
“By whom?” Emily demanded.
The principal checked.
“His grandfather.”
Emily’s face drained.
Walter was still receiving treatment at St. Catherine’s.
He had never left the hospital.
Daniel grabbed his phone.
A message appeared from Noah’s number.
It contained a photograph.
Noah sat inside a black SUV.
Behind him was Marcus.
May you like
And beneath the photograph were six words:
BRING THE KEY OR LOSE THE BOY.
