Chapter 8
Daniel woke in a hospital room.
White ceiling.
Beeping monitor.
Bandage around his shoulder.
His first thought was Lily.
He tried to sit up.
Pain ripped through him.
A nurse entered.
“Mr. Mercer, don’t move.”
“My daughter.”
“She’s safe.”
“Where?”
“Your wife is with her.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Vanessa.
The original drive.
Claire.
Victor.
Everything returned at once.
He pushed himself upright.
“Police.”
“They’re outside.”
“Send them in.”
A detective entered two minutes later.
Mid-fifties.
Gray suit.
Tired eyes.
“Daniel Mercer?”
“Yes.”
“Detective Aaron Cole.”
“Did you find Claire?”
“No.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“Victor Hale?”
“No.”
“The SUV?”
“Abandoned six miles away.”
Daniel swore.
Cole sat down.
“We need to discuss several things.”
“My daughter first.”
“She appears physically unharmed.”
“Vanessa?”
“Minor injuries.”
Daniel exhaled.
“Where’s Michael?”
Cole paused.
“In custody.”
Daniel stared.
“For what?”
“Possession of an unlicensed firearm. Obstruction. And we have questions regarding Eleanor Mercer’s death.”
Daniel leaned back.
“How do you know about my mother?”
“Michael started talking.”
Of course he did.
Cole continued.
“He claims new evidence exists.”
Daniel looked toward the door.
“What evidence?”
“Don’t play games, Mr. Mercer.”
Daniel said nothing.
Cole leaned forward.
“Claire Bennett was found imprisoned beneath your residence.”
“You know?”
“We searched the house.”
“Then you saw the room.”
“Yes.”
“And you think I did that?”
“We’re investigating everyone.”
Daniel looked at him coldly.
“My daughter was kidnapped.”
“And a missing woman was hidden in your property for seven years.”
“I didn’t know.”
“We’ve heard that.”
Daniel’s pulse rose.
“Where is Vanessa?”
“Next room.”
“I need to see her.”
“After we talk.”
Daniel’s phone was on the bedside table.
He reached for it.
Cole stopped him.
“We need the flash drive.”
Daniel looked at him.
“What flash drive?”
Cole’s expression hardened.
“Michael told us.”
Daniel silently cursed his brother.
“Did he tell you there were two?”
Cole paused.
So he hadn’t.
Good.
Daniel continued.
“Victor took a copy.”
“Where is the original?”
Daniel stared through the window.
“I don’t know.”
He needed to speak to Vanessa first.
Cole watched him.
“You’re withholding evidence.”
“My daughter was just held at gunpoint by a man who stayed ten steps ahead of everyone for years. Forgive me if I’m careful.”
Cole didn’t like it.
But he understood.
“Victor Hale worked private security for your father.”
“Yes.”
“He disappeared five years ago.”
“I fired him seven years ago.”
“Apparently he remained close.”
“Apparently.”
Cole stood.
“You have ten minutes with your wife. Then we continue.”
Daniel walked next door wearing a hospital gown under a borrowed robe.
Lily was asleep on a couch.
Vanessa sat beside her.
Bruises on her wrists.
Red eyes.
Daniel stopped at the doorway.
Vanessa looked up.
For several seconds, neither spoke.
Then Daniel walked to Lily.
He knelt carefully.
Touched her hair.
She was safe.
That was all that mattered for one precious second.
Vanessa whispered, “She asked for you until she fell asleep.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Where is it?”
Her face changed.
“The drive.”
Vanessa looked toward the door.
Daniel lowered his voice.
“Claire switched them.”
“I know.”
“You have the original.”
Vanessa nodded.
“Where?”
“Not here.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“Vanessa.”
“I hid it before the police arrived.”
“Where?”
“If I tell you, Victor can get it.”
“Victor isn’t here.”
“You think that matters?”
Daniel studied her.
“How much of this have you known?”
She looked down.
“Too much.”
“All of it?”
“No.”
“The money?”
“Yes.”
“Claire?”
“Yes.”
“My father?”
She swallowed.
“Yes.”
“Lily?”
Tears filled her eyes.
“I believed she was yours until she was almost two.”
Daniel looked away.
“How did you find out?”
“I ordered a DNA test.”
“Why?”
“Victor said something when he was angry.”
“What?”
“He called her Charles’s final insurance policy.”
Daniel felt nauseated.
“The test?”
“She was biologically Charles’s daughter.”
Daniel looked at Lily.
His daughter.
Nothing changed that.
But the violation was enormous.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Vanessa cried quietly.
“I was scared you’d stop loving her.”
Daniel looked at her sharply.
“You thought I would punish a child?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
“I thought you’d hate me.”
“I do hate what you did.”
Vanessa nodded.
“I know.”
Daniel sat opposite her.
“Tell me why you kept Claire.”
Vanessa rubbed her wrists.
“When your father died, Victor came to me.”
“Charles died four years before we married.”
“Yes.”
“What did Victor want?”
“The drive.”
“You didn’t have it.”
“No.”
“So he kept Claire underground.”
“He said if we released her, she’d expose everything and he’d make sure I went to prison with him.”
“You helped abduct her.”
“I was there.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“Explain.”
Vanessa stared at the floor.
“Victor came to me the night Claire disappeared. He said Charles wanted her brought to the mansion.”
“Charles was alive then.”
“Yes.”
“You helped.”
“I drove the second car.”
Daniel struggled to keep his voice down.
“You helped kidnap her.”
“Yes.”
“Did you know she’d be imprisoned?”
“No.”
“Do you expect me to believe that?”
“No.”
That stopped him.
Vanessa continued.
“I don’t expect you to forgive me. I barely forgive myself for surviving it.”
Daniel looked at her.
“After Charles died, why keep going?”
“Victor told me there were recordings of the abduction. My face. My car. Everything.”
“So you chose yourself over Claire.”
Vanessa cried.
“Yes.”
Daniel didn’t comfort her.
She deserved to sit with that truth.
“What about me?”
Vanessa looked up.
“What about you?”
“Did you marry me because Victor told you to?”
Long silence.
“No.”
“Did my father tell you to?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
Vanessa’s voice broke.
“Because I loved you.”
Daniel laughed once.
Cold.
“You knew who I was before we met.”
“Yes.”
“You knew my family.”
“Yes.”
“You lied from the first day.”
“Yes.”
“And you call that love?”
“I didn’t plan to fall in love with you.”
“But you stayed because of the house.”
“At first.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
There it was.
“At first.”
Vanessa whispered, “I needed access to Claire. Victor couldn’t keep appearing at the property without suspicion. I was supposed to monitor her.”
Daniel looked at her with disgust.
“So our marriage gave you access.”
“Yes.”
“Then Lily?”
Vanessa shook her head.
“Lily changed everything.”
“She was part of my father’s plan.”
“Not mine.”
“You underwent the procedure.”
“Because Victor told me it was your genetic material.”
“You didn’t tell me.”
“I was ashamed we needed fertility treatment. I thought I could surprise you.”
Daniel looked toward Lily.
The memory of Vanessa holding a positive pregnancy test.
Crying.
Daniel lifting her in his arms.
One of the happiest moments of his life.
Even that memory had a secret underneath it.
Vanessa whispered, “When I learned the truth, I wanted to leave.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Victor said if I disappeared, he’d take Lily.”
Daniel’s eyes snapped toward her.
“He threatened her before?”
“Many times.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“He showed me photos of her school.”
Daniel went cold.
“Photos?”
“Routes. Teachers. Playground.”
Daniel’s fist clenched.
“I thought if I kept him calm, Lily would be safe.”
“And Claire?”
Vanessa closed her eyes.
“I kept telling myself Claire was alive because I was feeding her.”
“That isn’t enough.”
“I know.”
Daniel stood.
Pain shot through his shoulder.
He ignored it.
“Where is the drive?”
Vanessa looked toward Lily.
“Inside her stuffed rabbit.”
Daniel stared.
“The pink rabbit?”
Vanessa nodded.
“At the cabin, when you handed Lily to me, I switched the drives.”
“How?”
“Claire gave me the original while you were arguing with Victor.”
Daniel remembered Claire moving near Vanessa.
He hadn’t noticed.
“Then you put it inside Lily’s rabbit?”
“After police brought us here. I asked an officer to collect some of her things from home. The rabbit came with the bag.”
Daniel looked at the sleeping child.
The stuffed rabbit was tucked beneath her arm.
His pulse jumped.
“Police searched the house.”
“Not the toy.”
Daniel gently pulled the rabbit from Lily.
He felt along the seam.
Something hard inside.
Vanessa whispered, “Don’t open it here.”
Daniel looked at the hospital-room camera.
Smart.
He put the rabbit back.
Then his phone buzzed.
A message.
UNKNOWN NUMBER.
Daniel opened it.
A photograph.
Claire.
Alive.
Sitting in a dark room.
A clock beside her.
And a message:
MIDNIGHT.
BRING THE ORIGINAL.
COME ALONE.
OR CLAIRE FINISHES WHAT ELEANOR STARTED.
Daniel frowned.
“What does that mean?”
Vanessa saw the screen.
Her face turned white.
“Oh God.”
“What?”
She stared at the final sentence.
“Daniel... your mother didn’t die because she found the money.”
“What are you talking about?”
Vanessa looked toward the sleeping Lily.
Then back at him.
May you like
“She died because she discovered what Charles was doing with children.”
Daniel’s blood froze.
