Chapter 6 - What Ethan Was Protecting
"Is it true?"
Daniel didn't answer fast enough.
That was becoming the worst kind of answer.
"Did Mom run from you?"
"Yes."
The room seemed to tilt.
Ethan stepped between us.
"Context matters."
"Then give me some."
Daniel looked exhausted.
"After you were born, I became obsessed with proving what Charles and Victor had done."
"Obsessed how?"
"I stopped thinking about consequences."
He told me he'd planned to release stolen company records publicly.
Laura discovered some files contained names and addresses of innocent employees, witnesses and families.
Including mine.
If Daniel released everything, he could expose Charles.
He could also expose us.
Mom stopped him.
They fought.
Daniel tried again.
So Mom took me and disappeared.
"She was protecting me from you."
"From what I was becoming."
That wasn't the same as Victor's version.
But it wasn't nothing.
"Did you hurt her?"
"No."
"Ever?"
"No."
"Did you threaten her?"
Daniel looked at the floor.
"I told her that if she stopped me, everything we'd sacrificed would be meaningless."
"That's not a threat."
"It felt like one to her."
He looked at me.
"And that was enough."
I didn't forgive him.
But I believed him.
Victor had wanted me to hear a truth without its shape.
That was how lies worked best.
They borrowed real pieces.
Federal agents entered the floor minutes later.
Victor didn't resist.
He simply looked at me as they escorted him out.
"This isn't over."
I hated that sentence.
Rebecca said, "For him, it probably is."
But Mom was still missing.
The video feed had been routed through multiple locations.
We had her face.
Her voice.
Nothing else.
Then Ethan collapsed.
Everything changed.
Hospital.
Lights.
Doctors.
Hope and James crying.
Natalie sitting beside Ethan's bed.
Daniel and I in a waiting room.
For several hours, nobody discussed secrets.
We simply waited.
Ethan survived.
The injury wasn't as catastrophic as it had looked, but he'd lost enough blood to make the night dangerous.
When he woke, his first question was about the twins.
His second was about me.
I pretended not to care.
I cared.
Later, Natalie found me near the vending machines.
"Can I tell you something?"
"Is it another secret everybody knew except me?"
She winced.
"Unfortunately."
"Fine."
She sat beside me.
"Hope and James weren't randomly involved."
I looked at her.
"What does that mean?"
"Laura chose their names."
"Mom named Ethan's babies?"
Natalie nodded.
"Why?"
"Because Ethan and I helped her stay hidden."
She explained that two years earlier, Ethan discovered Laura was alive.
He didn't tell Daniel.
He didn't tell Rebecca.
He helped Laura relocate.
"Why?"
"Because she asked him."
I stared toward Ethan's hospital room.
"So Ethan lied to my dad."
"Yes."
"And protected Mom."
"Yes."
"Why was he waiting for me at the warehouse?"
Natalie took a breath.
"Laura arranged it."
My stomach tightened.
"What?"
"She believed Victor was getting close. She needed to bring you into protection without alerting whoever was watching your foster home."
"By sending Ethan with newborn babies?"
"That wasn't the plan."
The original plan was for Ethan to meet Evelyn.
Then bring me somewhere safe.
But Natalie disappeared.
Someone sent Ethan a message threatening the twins.
He panicked.
He brought them with him.
The warehouse became chaos.
"So Mom knew I took that route home?"
"Yes."
That hurt differently.
"She watched me."
"From a distance."
"Everybody says that like it makes it okay."
"It doesn't."
Natalie looked down.
"Laura knows that."
"Then why didn't she come back?"
"Because someone convinced her Daniel was still dangerous."
"Victor?"
"We thought so."
"Thought?"
Natalie removed something from her pocket.
A silver-edged card.
Same as Ethan's.
"This was left where I was being held."
On the back were initials.
R.G.
Rebecca Grant.
"No."
"That's what I said."
Rebecca had helped Victor.
Maybe willingly.
Maybe not.
But she had known more.
Again.
I found her downstairs.
She didn't run.
"Did you help him?"
Rebecca closed her eyes.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because Victor is my father."
"That's not a reason."
"No."
She looked at me.
"I spent my whole life wanting him to choose me."
That was a reason.
A terrible one.
But I understood wanting a parent to choose you.
Maybe better than anyone.
"Did you tell him about Mom?"
"No."
"Did you tell him about me?"
"Years ago."
My chest tightened.
"What?"
"I found Laura's records after Charles died. Victor asked what I'd discovered."
"You told him."
"Yes."
"Then everything that happened—"
"Partly happened because of me."
She didn't hide.
Didn't excuse it.
Tears ran down her face.
"I'm sorry."
I thought of saying I forgive you.
People in movies said that.
I didn't.
"I'm not ready."
Rebecca nodded.
"You don't have to be."
My phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
A voice recording.
I pressed play.
Mom.
"Harper, if you're hearing this, Ethan kept his promise."
I sat down.
"There's one last place you need to remember. Your fifth birthday. The place where you asked me why trains always knew where they were going."
I remembered.
Union Station.
Mom and I had spent my fifth birthday watching trains because we couldn't afford much else.
She bought me a cupcake.
We pretended every train was going somewhere magical.
The recording continued.
"Locker 217."
Daniel arrived as it ended.
"What is it?"
I stood.
"I know where Mom left something."
We reached Union Station forty minutes later.
Locker 217 still existed in an older storage section.
Evelyn had the key.
Of course she did.
Inside was a backpack.
Clothes.
Cash.
A hard drive.
And one sealed letter.
HARPER — ONLY AFTER YOU MEET DANIEL.
I opened it.
My darling girl,
If Daniel is standing beside you, then both of you survived long enough to learn what fear did to our family.
He made mistakes.
So did I.
Do not let either of us tell you that love excuses them.
My throat tightened.
Daniel turned away.
I continued.
There was an address at the bottom.
A farmhouse outside Chicago.
Mom's handwriting:
If I disappear again, start here.
Daniel looked at the address.
"I know this place."
"How?"
His face changed.
"Because it's where Laura and I got married."
Before I could answer, the lights above the storage corridor shut off.
One by one.
Darkness moved toward us.
Then a woman's voice came from the far end.
"Harper."
I knew that voice.
I had heard it every night in my dreams for six years.
May you like
"Mom?"
A shadow stepped into the emergency light.
