Chapter 5 - The Secret Rebecca Took to Her Grave
Federal agents arrived before Daniel could leave the hospital.
Not Agent Keller.
A woman named Special Agent Maya Torres.
Rebecca recognized the name.
Margaret Cole had once told her that if Keller ever became suspicious, Torres was the only person she should trust.
Torres listened without interrupting.
Then she said the sentence nobody expected.
"Thomas Keller disappeared yesterday."
Rebecca stared.
"What?"
"His car was found near the airport."
"Was he working with Lawson?"
"We don't know."
Torres examined the documents.
"But these are enough for warrants."
Daniel showed her the photograph of Charles.
"We have to go."
"No."
"He's my father."
"He's also a suspect in multiple felonies."
"He's still my father."
Torres understood the distinction.
She did not approve.
But she understood.
"We go together."
Emily was ordered to remain at the hospital.
For once, she did not argue.
Not because Daniel asked.
Because her abdomen had begun tightening every few minutes.
Braxton Hicks, she told herself.
Stress.
Dehydration.
Nothing more.
Rachel examined her.
"You need to lie down."
"I need to know Lily is safe."
"She is."
Lily slept in a nearby room under security protection.
Rebecca had gone with Daniel and Torres.
Before leaving, she stood beside Lily's bed for almost a minute.
She did not touch her.
She only watched.
Emily finally asked, "When are you going to tell her?"
Rebecca whispered, "When I deserve to."
"That might take forever."
Rebecca looked at her.
Emily continued.
"Children don't need perfect parents. They need present ones."
Rebecca's eyes filled.
"Daniel told you about your baby?"
"No."
Emily rested a hand over her stomach.
"He didn't get the chance."
Rebecca looked ashamed.
"My family destroys everything it touches."
Emily shook her head.
"Daniel raised Lily."
Rebecca looked toward the child.
"He did."
"Then your family didn't destroy everything."
Rebecca carried those words with her when she left.
At Riverside, police surrounded the abandoned construction site.
Charles was found inside the unfinished lower level.
Alive.
Lawson was gone.
But Charles had been left beside a recorder.
One final message.
Lawson's voice.
"You always thought money made you untouchable, Charles. It only made everyone around you expensive."
Torres found another clue.
A hospital access badge.
Margaret Cole.
Daniel stared at it.
"Margaret?"
Rebecca shook her head.
"She helped me."
"Maybe Lawson took her badge."
Torres checked records.
Margaret Cole had died three months earlier.
Natural causes.
At least officially.
Rebecca's face hardened.
"He killed her."
Torres would not confirm it.
Not yet.
Charles was taken into federal custody under guard.
In the ambulance, he asked for Daniel.
Daniel climbed inside.
For several seconds, father and son simply looked at each other.
Then Charles said, "Lily's father is alive."
Daniel felt the world shift again.
"Who?"
Charles closed his eyes.
"Lawson."
Daniel stared.
"No."
"Rebecca never told you because she was ashamed."
"Of what?"
Charles looked toward the ambulance doors.
"She wasn't ashamed of Lily. She was ashamed that she trusted him."
Lawson had been Rebecca's physician after a sports injury when she was twenty-nine.
He was older.
Married.
Powerful.
Their relationship had begun secretly.
Rebecca became pregnant.
When she discovered Lawson's connection to Riverside, she tried to leave him.
He threatened her.
Then she discovered he had helped cover up her mother's death.
Everything changed.
Daniel finally understood.
Lawson was not trying merely to destroy evidence.
He was trying to erase the daughter who could connect him to Rebecca.
Lily.
Daniel called Emily.
No answer.
Again.
No answer.
His stomach dropped.
He called Rachel.
She answered immediately.
"Daniel."
"Where's Emily?"
Silence.
"Rachel."
"She's having contractions."
Daniel could not breathe.
"Is she in labor?"
"We're trying to stop it."
"I'm coming."
He turned toward Torres.
She saw his face.
"Go."
Daniel drove back with a police escort.
He reached obstetrics twelve minutes later.
Emily lay in bed with monitors around her stomach.
She looked furious.
That reassured him.
"Don't look at me like that," she said.
"Like what?"
"Like I'm dying."
He almost laughed.
Instead, his eyes filled.
"Is he okay?"
"He is."
"The contractions?"
"Slowing."
Daniel sat beside her.
For several seconds, neither spoke.
Then he whispered, "I'm sorry."
Emily looked at him.
"For which part?"
"All of it."
"That's a large category."
"I know."
He lowered his head.
"I thought disappearing would protect you. Maybe part of me also used danger as an excuse because I was afraid. Afraid of becoming my father. Afraid that everything I touched would eventually look like my family."
Emily listened.
"I should have trusted you enough to let you choose."
"Yes."
"I should have found a safe way to contact you."
"Yes."
"I should have come back sooner."
"Yes."
Daniel looked at her.
"I love you."
Emily's eyes filled.
But she did not answer.
He nodded.
"I know I'm not entitled to hear it back."
For the first time, she saw something different in him.
Not the charming man she had loved.
Not the coward she had hated.
A man finally willing to stand still while the consequences reached him.
Daniel placed his hand on the mattress.
Not on her.
Close enough that she could choose.
After a long moment, Emily placed her fingers over his.
No promises.
No forgiveness.
Just contact.
Their son kicked.
Daniel felt it through the side of her hand.
His breath caught.
"Was that him?"
Emily nodded.
Another kick.
Daniel laughed softly.
Then cried.
Silently.
Emily let him.
The moment lasted less than a minute.
Then alarms sounded in the corridor.
A security announcement came overhead.
CODE SILVER.
Armed person.
Daniel stood.
Rachel rushed inside.
"Lock the door."
Daniel's face changed.
"Where's Lily?"
Rachel froze.
"Daniel..."
He ran into the corridor.
Lily's guarded room was open.
One officer lay unconscious outside.
The bed was empty.
On the pillow rested a photograph.
Lily standing beside Dr. Lawson.
Taken only seconds earlier.
May you like
On the back, Lawson had written one sentence.
A FATHER SHOULD MEET HIS DAUGHTER.
