Chapter 4 - The House With My Name Inside
"Daniel?"
The name came from Ethan.
Not me.
I couldn't say anything.
The man across the park stared at me.
My father.
Maybe.
He looked older than the photograph.
Of course he did.
Eleven years older.
There was gray at his temples and a scar near his chin.
But the eyes were the same.
My eyes.
He took one step forward.
I stepped back.
He stopped immediately.
That mattered.
"Harper," he said.
"Don't."
His face tightened.
"Okay."
"How do I know you're Daniel?"
He reached slowly into his coat.
Ethan moved toward him.
Daniel raised both hands.
"Easy."
He removed a small wooden object.
A horse.
Hand-carved.
My throat closed.
I had its twin.
Mom had given it to me when I was four.
She'd said somebody who loved me had made it before I was born.
Daniel placed the horse on the ground between us.
"I carved two."
I couldn't move.
"The other one has an H underneath."
Mine did.
I had discovered it when I was seven.
I never told anyone.
"Anybody could know that."
"Laura knew."
"So did my mom send you?"
Pain crossed his face.
"No."
"Is she alive?"
"Yes."
Everything inside me stopped.
"Where?"
"I don't know."
I almost screamed.
"Why does everyone keep saying that?"
Daniel didn't defend himself.
"Because your mother has spent six years making sure nobody can find her."
"Including me."
"Especially you."
That hurt.
He saw it.
"Not because she didn't love you."
"Don't tell me what love looks like."
He nodded slowly.
"Fair."
Natalie stood behind him.
Ethan reached her.
He didn't ask questions.
He simply wrapped his arms around her.
For a few seconds, all the mystery disappeared.
A husband had found his wife.
Then Hope cried from Rebecca's arms.
Natalie ran to her babies.
Watching her take Hope and James made something inside me ache.
Daniel saw.
He looked away.
Maybe he understood he didn't have the right to comfort me.
Not yet.
We left the park together.
Daniel took us to a house in Oak Park.
Small.
Ordinary.
Nothing like the billionaire mansion I'd imagined a Grant would own.
Inside, I stopped.
There were photographs of me.
Not creepy surveillance pictures.
School photographs.
Birthday photographs.
A picture of me missing my front teeth.
Another of me holding a science-fair certificate.
"Where did you get these?"
Daniel stood behind me.
"Laura."
My anger returned.
"So you both watched me grow up."
"Yes."
"From where?"
"Different places."
"While I lived with strangers."
His face crumpled.
"Yes."
I turned.
"Why?"
Daniel sat down.
Then he finally told me.
Charles Grant had used Grant Technologies to hide illegal financial transfers and private surveillance operations through shell companies.
Daniel discovered them.
Laura helped him copy evidence.
Charles found out.
Daniel disappeared before he could testify.
Laura was pregnant with me.
They believed Charles would use me to force Daniel back.
So Daniel vanished.
Mom changed her name.
For five years, it worked.
Then Charles found her.
"What happened?"
"Your mother staged her death."
I stared.
"My funeral?"
"Laura arranged it with Evelyn."
Evelyn looked ashamed.
"I helped."
I remembered the coffin.
Closed.
They told me Mom had been too sick.
I had cried beside an empty coffin.
"You let me bury her."
Evelyn whispered, "Yes."
I couldn't look at her.
Daniel continued.
"Laura believed Charles had identified you. She thought grief would be safer than becoming leverage."
"I was six."
"I know."
"No. You don't know."
I stood.
"I waited for her every night."
Daniel closed his eyes.
"I know."
"I used to think she'd made a mistake. Like maybe she wasn't really dead and she'd come home."
Nobody spoke.
"And she was alive."
"Yes."
I walked into the hallway.
There was another photograph.
Mom.
Daniel.
Me as a baby.
A family I'd never known existed.
Then I noticed a door at the end.
HARPER.
My name.
I opened it.
A bedroom.
Books I'd loved at different ages.
A desk.
Blue blankets.
A box labeled BIRTHDAYS.
I opened it.
Eleven wrapped gifts.
One for every year.
My hands began shaking.
Daniel stood in the doorway.
"I bought them."
"Why didn't you send them?"
"Because every contact created a trail."
I opened the first.
A stuffed rabbit.
Second.
A children's telescope.
Third.
Colored pencils.
Each had a card.
Happy birthday, Harper.
Love, Dad.
I couldn't breathe.
"Stop."
Daniel stepped backward.
"Please."
He left.
I sat on the floor.
I didn't know how long I stayed there.
Eventually Ethan appeared.
He sat outside the doorway rather than coming in.
"Can I ask you something?" I said.
"Anything."
"Did he love me?"
"Yes."
"That's not the same as being there."
"No."
"Do you think he did the right thing?"
Ethan thought for a long time.
"I think scared adults sometimes call something protection because admitting they made the wrong choice hurts too much."
I looked at him.
"That's a better answer."
"I've had a difficult evening."
Despite myself, I smiled.
Then I remembered Mom's damaged letter.
The person protecting the twins...
"Ethan."
"Yeah?"
"Who knew you were taking Hope and James to the warehouse?"
He became still.
"Three people."
"Who?"
"Me. Natalie."
He hesitated.
"And Rebecca."
We both looked toward the hallway.
Rebecca was gone.
Ethan stood.
"Rebecca?"
No answer.
Natalie came from the kitchen.
"Where is she?"
"I thought she was upstairs."
Daniel checked the back door.
Unlocked.
My phone vibrated.
A message from Rebecca.
I'M SORRY.
Another arrived.
HE KNOWS HARPER IS WITH YOU.
Ethan typed quickly.
WHO?
Three dots appeared.
Then disappeared.
Appeared again.
A photograph arrived instead.
Rebecca was sitting inside a car.
Someone was beside her.
Only his hand was visible.
On his finger was a gold ring engraved with a G.
Daniel stared at it.
His face lost all color.
"That ring belonged to my father."
Ethan shook his head.
"Charles is dead."
Daniel enlarged the image.
Inside the gold G was a tiny black mark.
He whispered a name.
"Victor."
"Who's Victor?" I asked.
Daniel looked toward the dark window.
"Our father's lawyer."
Then someone knocked three times at the front door.
Daniel froze.
Three slow knocks.
A pause.
Three more.
Ethan whispered, "Don't open it."
A man's voice came through the door.
"Daniel, I've waited eleven years for this."
May you like
Then he added:
"Send my granddaughter outside."
