Chapter 5 - The Father Who Never Disappeared
Nobody moved.
Granddaughter.
I looked at Daniel.
"Who is that?"
Daniel stared at the door.
"Victor Hale."
"You said he was your father's lawyer."
"He was."
"Then why did he call me his granddaughter?"
Daniel didn't answer.
The knocking stopped.
Victor spoke through the door.
"She deserves the truth."
I whispered, "Apparently everybody thinks that right before refusing to tell me anything."
Ethan almost laughed despite the terror in his face.
Daniel didn't.
"Victor Hale married my mother before she married Charles."
I frowned.
"So?"
"Rebecca isn't Charles's daughter."
Ethan turned sharply.
"What?"
Daniel looked at him.
"She's Victor's."
The room went silent.
That made Victor Rebecca's biological father.
But not my grandfather.
"Then why did he call me—"
Daniel's expression changed.
"No."
A realization.
A terrible one.
He ran to an old filing cabinet and pulled out a folder.
Inside were birth records.
Family documents.
A DNA report.
Daniel read it.
Then looked at me.
"Victor isn't talking about biology."
"What does that mean?"
"He always called the next generation his grandchildren."
"That's weird."
"Victor is weird."
Ethan checked the window.
A car waited outside.
No one approached.
Then Victor's voice came through the door again.
"I have Rebecca."
Ethan clenched his jaw.
"Proof."
A phone slid through the mail slot.
Video played.
Rebecca sat in a car.
She looked frightened but unharmed.
"Don't give him Harper," she said.
Victor's voice from behind the camera:
"Tell them why."
Rebecca stared into the lens.
"Because Charles wasn't the one who ordered Laura killed."
Daniel went rigid.
The video ended.
I looked at him.
"You said Mom staged her death."
"She did."
"Then who tried to kill her?"
Daniel stared at the black screen.
"Victor."
The phone rang.
Daniel answered.
Victor spoke calmly.
"Bring Harper to Grant Tower tomorrow morning. Laura will be there."
My heart stopped.
"Mom?"
Victor continued.
"Come without police, or she disappears again."
The line ended.
Daniel looked at me.
"No."
I folded my arms.
"Yes."
"Absolutely not."
"She's my mother."
"It's a trap."
"Obviously."
"Then why—"
"Because I'm tired of everyone making choices for me."
He stared at me.
I was eleven.
He was my father.
For the first time, I could see how badly he wanted to say because I'm your dad.
He didn't.
Good.
He hadn't earned that yet.
Natalie entered carrying Hope.
"Maybe Harper doesn't have to go."
We turned.
She explained.
Victor didn't want me physically.
He wanted something Mom had hidden.
Something tied to me.
"The evidence," Ethan said.
Natalie nodded.
"Laura told me about it."
"You knew Laura?"
"Only through messages."
Another adult.
Another secret.
I sighed.
Natalie almost smiled.
"Sorry."
"Everybody should probably just assume I'm mad at them."
"Fair."
Mom had created an encrypted archive containing everything Daniel and she discovered about Charles and Victor.
The encryption key wasn't a password.
It was a sequence.
One only I could reconstruct.
"Why me?"
"Because Laura built it around your memories," Natalie said.
Birthdays.
Songs.
Books.
Places.
Things only Mom and I would know.
Suddenly my childhood wasn't simply my childhood.
It was a lock.
And I was the key.
The next morning, we went to Grant Tower.
Not alone.
Evelyn contacted federal investigators who'd been quietly reviewing old Grant records.
Nobody trusted local channels yet.
I wore the same blue hoodie.
It was dry now.
Daniel asked if I wanted something cleaner.
"No."
"Okay."
"You don't have to agree with everything I say."
"I'm learning."
Grant Tower was enormous.
Glass.
Steel.
People in suits.
They stared when Ethan entered.
Apparently the news already said he'd been injured in an accident.
Nobody knew about me.
Victor waited on the top floor.
Rebecca sat beside him.
She wasn't tied up.
No guards held her.
But fear can hold people better than rope.
Victor was seventy, silver-haired, perfectly dressed.
He smiled at me.
"Harper."
"Everyone needs to stop doing that."
His smile faded slightly.
"Doing what?"
"Saying my name like we're friends."
Ethan coughed to hide a laugh.
Victor looked at Daniel.
"You've raised a difficult child."
Daniel answered, "I haven't raised her."
The honesty hurt.
But I respected it.
Victor placed a laptop on the table.
"Laura's archive."
The screen displayed an encrypted file.
"Unlock it."
"Where's my mother?"
"After."
"No."
Victor studied me.
"You're eleven."
"You're old. Neither of those facts answers my question."
Rebecca actually smiled.
Victor didn't.
"Your mother is alive."
"Show me."
He turned the laptop.
A live video appeared.
Mom sat inside a room.
Older.
Thinner.
But Mom.
My knees nearly buckled.
She looked into the camera.
"Harper?"
My entire body shook.
"Mom?"
She covered her mouth.
I hadn't heard her voice in six years.
"I'm sorry," she whispered.
I wanted to hate her.
Instead, I cried.
"Where are you?"
She looked off-camera.
"I don't know."
Victor closed the video.
I lunged for the laptop.
Daniel caught me.
"Open it!"
"Unlock the archive," Victor said.
I wiped my face.
"No."
Victor's smile vanished.
"Then perhaps you don't want your mother back."
I looked at him.
Then at the laptop.
Then at Rebecca.
Something was wrong.
Rebecca's hand rested on the table.
Her index finger tapped.
Three.
Pause.
One.
Pause.
Four.
3-1-4.
Mom used to make me memorize pi.
3.1415926.
Rebecca tapped again.
She wasn't frightened.
She was giving me something.
A code.
I looked at the encrypted archive.
The password box waited.
I typed:
Victor leaned forward.
The screen changed.
ACCESS ACCEPTED.
He smiled.
Then another message appeared.
DECOY ARCHIVE OPENED.
Victor's smile disappeared.
Every screen in the conference room suddenly turned on.
Documents appeared.
Bank records.
Messages.
Names.
Video files.
Victor stood.
"What did you do?"
"I remembered my mom."
Ethan looked at me.
"What?"
"She always said if someone makes you open a door, make sure it isn't the door they think it is."
Alarms began ringing.
Victor grabbed the laptop.
Too late.
UPLOAD IN PROGRESS.
42%.
57%.
71%.
Victor turned toward Rebecca.
"You."
Rebecca stood.
"You made me afraid of you for thirty years."
Victor's face twisted.
"You ungrateful—"
"Don't."
Her voice became steady.
"Not anymore."
UPLOAD COMPLETE.
Victor stared at the screen.
Then he smiled.
That frightened me.
"You think Laura put everything in the archive?"
Daniel's face changed.
Victor leaned toward me.
"Ask your father what he removed."
I turned.
Daniel didn't speak.
"What did you remove?"
"Harper—"
"What?"
Victor laughed softly.
"The file proving why Laura really disappeared."
Daniel stepped toward him.
"Stop."
Victor looked directly at me.
"Your mother wasn't running from me."
Daniel grabbed Victor's jacket.
"Enough."
Victor smiled over his shoulder.
"She was running from Daniel."
I stared at my father.
May you like
Daniel slowly released him.
And the look on his face told me there was something he still hadn't told me.
