Chapter 5 - The Father Who Never Died
Chloe dropped the phone and shouted:
“Find her.”
Dominic opened the hospital surveillance feed while Adrian enlarged the image of the man pushing Chloe’s mother toward a black sedan.
A silver wedding ring showed on his left hand.
Chloe recognized it.
Her father had worn the same ring in every photograph from her childhood.
Nathan Hastings was alive.
Dominic ordered every road camera between Mercy Hospital and the lakefront checked.
Adrian called contacts at the hospital.
Carlo, weakened by blood loss, insisted on remaining conscious.
Chloe stood frozen in the center of the secret room.
Fourteen years.
Her father had been alive for fourteen years.
The shock should have made her cry.
Instead it made her angry.
She thought about her mother rationing medication.
Her mother working double shifts before lupus made work impossible.
Her mother celebrating Chloe’s birthdays alone.
Her mother keeping Nathan’s photograph on the dresser.
If Nathan had been alive—
Where had he been?
Why had he stayed away?
Dominic approached.
“We’ll find her.”
Chloe turned on him.
“You don’t know that.”
“No.”
At least he did not lie.
“But I will use everything I have.”
“Your everything is what put us here.”
He absorbed the accusation.
“Yes.”
That stopped her.
Dominic looked at Luca.
“My world did this.”
Then at Chloe.
“So I’m going to use that world to undo as much of it as I can.”
Adrian interrupted.
“Vehicle found.”
A traffic camera showed the sedan heading south.
Then west.
Carlo looked at the route.
“He’s going to the old printing plant.”
Dominic frowned.
“What plant?”
“Your father owned it through a shell company.”
Adrian searched.
“South Halsted.”
Carlo nodded.
“Gabriel used it years ago.”
Dominic took his coat.
“Stay here.”
Chloe laughed sharply.
“No.”
“This isn’t negotiable.”
“My mother is in that car.”
“And Luca is here.”
Chloe stopped.
Dominic knew exactly where to strike.
He continued.
“He needs you.”
She looked down.
Luca was holding her hand.
Dominic’s voice softened.
“And if I don’t come back, he’ll need you even more.”
Chloe hated those words.
“Don’t say that.”
“It’s the truth.”
“You don’t get to hand me your child because you’re planning to get yourself killed.”
Something changed in Dominic’s face.
Not anger.
Surprise.
Maybe nobody spoke to him like that.
“You want to help Luca?” Chloe said. “Come back.”
Dominic stared at her.
“Then what?”
“Then learn how to be his father.”
His eyes shifted to his son.
Luca watched him.
For several seconds father and son simply looked at each other.
Dominic crouched.
He did not reach out.
“I’m going to bring Chloe’s mother home.”
Luca’s lips parted.
Dominic waited.
The boy whispered, “Come back.”
Dominic looked as if someone had struck him again.
“I will.”
He stood.
“Adrian stays here.”
“No,” Adrian said.
Dominic looked at him.
“You’re an attorney.”
“I was an Army Ranger before I became an attorney.”
Chloe blinked.
Adrian shrugged.
“Long story.”
Dominic almost smiled.
Carlo attempted to stand.
He failed.
“You stay,” Dominic ordered.
For once Carlo did not argue.
Twenty minutes later, Dominic and Adrian left with six men.
Chloe remained with Luca and Carlo.
Every minute felt like an hour.
Carlo eventually spoke.
“You saved the boy.”
Chloe looked at him.
“From his father?”
“From what his father was becoming.”
She did not answer.
Carlo watched Luca asleep on the sofa.
“Dominic wasn’t always like this.”
“People always say that about dangerous men.”
“Sometimes it’s true.”
“Doesn’t excuse them.”
“No.”
Carlo looked at his bandaged side.
“Elena was the only person who could stop him when anger took over.”
“And after she died?”
“He stopped letting anyone try.”
Chloe thought about the slap.
Apparently she had ignored that rule too.
Carlo continued.
“Gabriel understood Dominic’s weakness better than anyone.”
“His temper.”
“His family.”
Chloe frowned.
“Same thing, apparently.”
Carlo almost smiled.
“Maybe.”
An hour passed.
Then Chloe’s phone rang.
Dominic.
She answered immediately.
“Did you find her?”
“Yes.”
Chloe nearly collapsed.
“Is she okay?”
“She’s alive.”
Something in his voice scared her.
“But?”
“She wasn’t kidnapped.”
Chloe went cold.
“What?”
“She came willingly.”
Silence.
Dominic said, “Chloe, your mother knows Gabriel.”
The room tilted.
“I want to speak to her.”
“You will.”
“Now.”
A pause.
Then another voice.
Her mother.
“Chloe.”
Chloe gripped the phone.
“Mom?”
“I’m sorry.”
“Where are you?”
“I’m safe.”
“You disappeared from a hospital with a dead man.”
“I know.”
“Dad is alive.”
Silence.
“Mom.”
“Yes.”
The answer destroyed something inside her.
“You knew?”
Her mother began crying.
“I knew.”
Chloe closed her eyes.
“All these years?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To keep you alive.”
Chloe laughed through tears.
“Everyone keeps saying that.”
“Because it’s true.”
“Where is he?”
Her mother stopped crying.
“Nathan disappeared again eleven years ago.”
“So he abandoned us twice.”
“No.”
“Then what?”
“He was protecting you.”
“From Gabriel?”
“Yes.”
“Why does Gabriel care about me?”
A long silence.
Her mother said, “Because of what your father stole.”
“What did he steal?”
“Evidence.”
“That’s it?”
“No.”
Chloe waited.
Her mother whispered, “A name.”
“What name?”
Before she could answer, gunfire exploded through the phone.
Chloe jumped.
Dominic shouted something.
The call disconnected.
“Dominic?”
Nothing.
“Mom?”
Nothing.
Carlo pushed himself upright.
“What happened?”
“Shots.”
Carlo reached for his weapon.
Chloe stared at the dead phone.
Then another call came.
Unknown number.
She answered.
A man spoke.
“Chloe Hastings.”
She knew immediately.
Gabriel.
“Where is my mother?”
“With Dominic.”
“Where is my father?”
A soft laugh.
“You’ve been asking the wrong question.”
“What question should I ask?”
“Why did Nathan choose you?”
Chloe clenched her jaw.
“I was his daughter.”
“No.”
The word came almost gently.
“You were his insurance policy.”
Chloe felt sick.
“What does that mean?”
“Your father hid something fourteen years ago.”
“The evidence?”
“Something much more valuable.”
“What?”
“Inside a place no one would search.”
Chloe looked at Luca.
Gabriel continued.
“He knew he might die. So he hid it with the one person nobody in my world would touch.”
Her breathing stopped.
“Me.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“You were eight.”
A memory flashed.
Her father taking her to the hospital.
A minor surgery.
Appendicitis.
No.
Not appendicitis.
That had been when she was nine.
At eight she had been in an accident.
A bicycle.
Stitches.
X-rays.
Her father beside her.
Gabriel said, “Look behind your left ear.”
Chloe touched the skin.
A tiny scar.
She had always believed it came from the bicycle accident.
“What did he put in me?”
“Something I have waited fourteen years to recover.”
The line went dead.
Chloe stared at Carlo.
He had heard enough to understand.
“What scar?”
She showed him.
Carlo’s face changed.
“No.”
“What?”
“Nathan was involved in secure data transport.”
“What does that mean?”
Before he could answer, the secret room door slammed shut.
The lights went out.
Luca woke.
Chloe grabbed him.
A red emergency light flickered on.
The computer screen illuminated by itself.
One sentence appeared.
THANK YOU FOR STAYING WHERE I NEEDED YOU.
Carlo reached for his gun.
Footsteps sounded in the corridor.
Slow.
Deliberate.
Then someone knocked three times.
A man’s voice came through the door.
“Chloe?”
She stopped breathing.
She knew that voice.
She had heard it in dreams for fourteen years.
May you like
“Open the door, sweetheart.”
Her father was standing outside.
