Chapter 6 - The Father Who Was Never Gone
The voice came from behind me.
"Daniel..."
I stopped breathing.
Because I knew that voice.
I had heard it every night in my dreams.
Every time I remembered my childhood.
Every time I wished I could ask one more question.
My hand slowly lowered from the document.
The room became silent.
Impossible silence.
I turned around.
And the man standing at the door made my entire body freeze.
He looked older.
Much older.
His hair was almost completely gray.
There were deep lines across his face.
But there was no mistake.
Those eyes.
That expression.
That was my father.
"That can't be..."
The words escaped my mouth.
Michael immediately moved toward me.
"Daniel."
But I pushed him away.
"No."
My voice shook.
"No, this isn't possible."
My father had died twelve years ago.
I was there.
I saw the funeral.
I watched the coffin disappear underground.
I watched my family fall apart afterward.
I lived with that pain.
I built my entire life around that loss.
But he was standing in front of me.
Alive.
My father looked at me with tears in his eyes.
"I know what you're thinking."
I couldn't answer.
"You think I'm a ghost."
My hands trembled.
"You're dead."
He closed his eyes.
"I was supposed to be."
Those words hit me harder than anything else.
Michael looked away.
And that hurt more.
Because he wasn't surprised.
He knew.
"You knew."
I turned toward my brother.
"You knew he was alive."
Michael didn't answer.
That was enough.
I felt something break inside me.
All the anger I had carried.
All the confusion.
All the years wondering why my family changed after my father's death.
Everything came back.
"You let me believe he was dead."
Michael's eyes filled with guilt.
"Daniel..."
"No."
I stepped back.
"Don't."
My father looked at Michael.
"You should have told him."
Michael lowered his head.
"I was trying to protect him."
I laughed.
A painful laugh.
"Everyone keeps saying that."
I looked around the room.
"Everyone protects me by destroying my life."
Emily reached for my hand.
I almost pulled away.
Not from her.
From everything.
Because suddenly I didn't know what was real anymore.
My father slowly walked into the room.
"I never wanted this for you."
I stared at him.
"Then why did you disappear?"
His face changed.
Pain.
Regret.
The emotions of someone carrying a secret too heavy for too long.
"Because someone wanted me dead."
I looked at Victor.
Then Michael.
Then Emily.
Everyone knew pieces of my life except me.
"Who?"
My father looked at the door.
Then at the security camera above us.
"Not here."
I almost lost control.
"No."
My voice became louder.
"I spent twelve years believing I buried my father."
I pointed at him.
"You don't get to walk back into my life and tell me not here."
The room went quiet.
My father accepted the anger.
Maybe because he deserved it.
"You are right."
He whispered.
"I should have come back."
"Then why didn't you?"
His eyes moved toward Emily.
Then Michael.
"Because the person who tried to kill me was someone close."
My stomach tightened.
Again.
The same sentence.
The same mystery.
Everyone knew.
Nobody said the name.
"Who?"
My father looked at me.
"I don't know."
I froze.
"You don't know?"
"No."
He shook his head.
"I only knew one thing."
"What?"
"He wanted Carter Holdings."
I looked at the folder.
The documents.
The money transfers.
The hidden accounts.
My father's voice became quieter.
"He wasn't trying to kill me because of business."
"Then why?"
My father looked at Emily.
"Because your wife found the truth."
Emily's eyes filled with tears.
I turned toward her.
"You knew?"
She nodded slowly.
"I found your father's files by accident."
"When?"
"Two months before our divorce."
The timeline hit me.
Two months.
The same time everything changed.
The same time Emily became distant.
The same time I started receiving those messages.
The same time Michael told me she was cheating.
I looked at Michael.
"You knew she found them."
He nodded.
"I knew."
"And you still made me leave her?"
His face broke.
"Because if you stayed with her, they would have killed both of you."
The words hung in the air.
I wanted to hate him.
I wanted to scream.
But part of me understood.
Because Michael looked like a man who had been fighting alone for years.
"What happened that night?"
I asked.
The night I signed the divorce papers.
The night I destroyed my own marriage.
Michael looked at Emily.
She closed her eyes.
Then she answered.
"The person who threatened us sent a video."
I frowned.
"What video?"
She looked at me.
"A video of someone following you."
My heart stopped.
"Me?"
She nodded.
"They knew everything about you."
My father stepped forward.
"They wanted Daniel to believe Emily betrayed him."
"Why?"
"Because pain makes people leave."
I looked at him.
"And you thought breaking us apart would save us?"
Nobody answered.
Because that was exactly what happened.
Emily reached for the folder.
"There was one more thing."
She pulled out a small piece of paper hidden inside.
My eyes moved to it.
A handwritten note.
Only five words.
"The child is the key."
I looked at Emily.
My chest tightened.
The baby.
My child.
"What does that mean?"
Emily shook her head.
"I don't know."
But she looked afraid.
Not confused.
Afraid.
Then the hospital monitor suddenly started beeping loudly.
Everyone turned.
Emily grabbed her stomach.
Pain crossed her face.
The doctor rushed into the room.
"Everyone step back."
I moved toward her.
"Emily."
She reached for me.
Her fingers found mine.
"I'm sorry."
My heart dropped.
"For what?"
Her eyes filled with tears.
"Because I lied about one more thing."
The room became silent.
"What?"
She looked at my father.
Then Michael.
Then me.
"I wasn't sixteen weeks pregnant when I found out."
I stared at her.
"What are you saying?"
Her breathing became uneven.
The doctor asked everyone to leave.
But Emily refused to let go of my hand.
"I need to tell you before..."
"Before what?"
She looked at me.
And whispered:
"Before the person who knows the truth comes back."
I felt a cold wave move through me.
"Who knows?"
Emily's eyes moved toward the hospital window.
The glass reflected the room.
And behind our reflections...
Someone was standing outside.
Watching.
My father saw him too.
His face changed instantly.
"No."
I turned.
"Who is it?"
My father stepped toward the door.
His voice barely audible.
"That's impossible."
The figure outside slowly raised his hand.
And placed a photograph against the glass.
A photograph of my family.
Taken years ago.
But someone had crossed out one person's face.
My father's face.
Then the lights went out.
When they came back on, the photograph was gone.
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And my father's phone began ringing with one name on the screen...
The person he believed he had buried twelve years ago.
