Chapter 2
For several seconds, I couldn't breathe.
The photograph trembled in Emma's hand.
Daniel looked younger in it.
So did Jason.
They were standing outside a gas station.
Daniel had one hand on Jason's shoulder.
Jason was staring directly at the camera.
I recognized the jacket he was wearing.
That alone made my skin turn cold.
Jason had worn that jacket the night he left.
“Where did you get this?” I asked.
Emma pulled the photograph against her chest.
“Dad sent it.”
“When?”
“A week ago.”
“A week?”
My voice cracked.
“You've been talking to him for a week?”
She looked away.
“Longer.”
“How long?”
“Almost two months.”
I felt as though the floor had disappeared beneath me.
Two months.
For two months, Jason had been speaking to my daughter.
Secretly.
Daniel stood in the kitchen doorway.
His face was pale.
“Emma,” he said softly, “what has Jason told you?”
She glared at him.
“Don't call him Jason.”
Daniel flinched.
“He's my dad.”
“I know.”
“No, you don't.”
Emma's voice rose.
“You stole his family.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
I turned toward him.
“Daniel.”
He opened them again.
There was something there I didn't understand.
Fear.
Not guilt exactly.
But fear.
“What is she talking about?”
Daniel stared at the photograph.
Then he looked at me.
“I've seen that picture before.”
My heart stopped.
“What?”
Emma laughed bitterly.
“See?”
I stepped closer to Daniel.
“You told me you barely knew Jason before he disappeared.”
“I did barely know him.”
“Then why were you with him that night?”
Daniel didn't answer immediately.
Emma pointed at him.
“Because he's lying!”
“Emma, go upstairs.”
“No!”
“Now.”
“You just don't want me to hear the truth!”
“I don't even know what the truth is!”
She stared at me.
For a moment, anger slipped away.
She looked twelve again.
Confused.
Scared.
Desperate to believe that the father who had abandoned her had some explanation that made it all hurt less.
Then her expression hardened.
“Dad said you'd do this.”
My stomach tightened.
“Do what?”
“Act like he's crazy.”
I swallowed.
“What else did he tell you?”
She hesitated.
Then she unlocked her phone.
I held out my hand.
This time she didn't fight me.
She handed it over.
There were hundreds of messages.
My fingers went cold as I scrolled.
Jason had contacted her through a social media account.
At first, his messages were gentle.
Hi, sweetheart.
I don't know if you remember me.
I've thought about you every day.
Emma hadn't replied for three days.
Then she wrote:
Are you really my father?
After that, everything changed.
Jason sent childhood photographs.
Pictures of Emma as a baby.
Pictures of me.
Pictures of himself holding her.
Then came the stories.
Your mom never wanted you to know how much I loved you.
Daniel made sure I couldn't see you.
I tried to come back.
They threatened me.
They told me you'd be happier without me.
I kept scrolling.
My hands began shaking.
Daniel stepped closer.
“What is it?”
I held up the phone.
“He's been telling her we kept him away.”
Emma shouted, “Because you did!”
“No.”
“Yes!”
“No, Emma.”
My voice broke.
“I begged your father to come see you.”
Her face changed.
Only slightly.
But I saw it.
I continued.
“I called him on your fourth birthday.”
“You're lying.”
“I called him when you started kindergarten.”
“Stop.”
“I sent pictures of your first school play.”
“Stop!”
“I emailed him when you broke your arm because you kept asking for him.”
“STOP!”
She covered her ears.
Tears ran down her face.
“I don't believe you!”
Daniel moved toward her.
She backed away immediately.
“Don't touch me.”
He stopped.
The pain on his face nearly broke me.
“Okay,” he whispered.
Emma ran upstairs.
Her bedroom door slammed.
The house fell silent.
I turned toward Daniel.
“Tell me.”
He rubbed both hands over his face.
“Rachel—”
“Don't.”
I pointed at the photograph.
“Tell me why you were with Jason that night.”
Daniel looked toward the stairs.
Then back at me.
“Because he called me.”
I stared at him.
“Why?”
“He needed a ride.”
“You told me you barely knew him.”
“I did.”
“Then why would he call you?”
Daniel's jaw tightened.
“We worked on the same construction crew for about six months.”
I knew that.
At least I thought I did.
Daniel had once mentioned knowing Jason from work.
He made it sound casual.
“He said his truck wouldn't start,” Daniel continued.
“When?”
“The night he left.”
“And you picked him up?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“At a gas station on Highway 41.”
The photograph.
I looked down at it.
“Who took this?”
“I don't know.”
“That doesn't make sense.”
“I know.”
“You don't remember someone standing there taking your picture?”
“No.”
I stared at him.
Daniel looked exhausted.
“What happened after the gas station?”
He didn't answer.
“Daniel.”
“He asked me to drive him to the bus station.”
A chill moved through me.
“The bus station?”
“Yes.”
“He told me he was leaving town.”
My throat tightened.
“And you let him?”
Daniel's expression changed.
“He was a grown man, Rachel.”
“He was also the father of my three-year-old daughter.”
“I know.”
“Did he say why he was leaving?”
Daniel looked down.
That was when I knew.
There was more.
“What aren't you telling me?”
He whispered, “He had money.”
“What money?”
“A lot.”
“How much?”
“I don't know exactly.”
“Daniel.”
“Maybe twenty thousand dollars.”
My heart began pounding.
Jason had disappeared the same week money vanished from our joint savings account.
Money my parents had given me after my grandmother died.
Twenty-two thousand dollars.
I had believed Jason stole it.
He denied it in the one phone call we had after he vanished.
Then he changed his number.
“You knew he had my money?”
Daniel swallowed.
“I suspected.”
“And you never told me?”
“I didn't know it was yours.”
“You knew we were together.”
“Yes.”
“You knew we had a child.”
“Yes.”
“And you drove him to a bus station with twenty thousand dollars?”
Daniel's eyes filled with regret.
“Yes.”
I stepped backward.
For nine years, I had trusted this man with everything.
My daughter.
My heart.
My entire life.
“Why?”
Daniel whispered, “Because Jason told me something.”
“What?”
He looked toward Emma's room again.
Then said, “He told me he was terrified of what he'd do if he stayed.”
My anger faltered.
“What does that mean?”
“He was high that night.”
I went still.
“He'd been using pills for months.”
I knew about the pills.
Not how bad they had become.
Daniel continued.
“He said he'd lost money gambling. He owed people. He said you'd found out part of it and threatened to leave.”
“I did.”
“He said he couldn't handle losing you.”
My heart was racing.
“What did he say, Daniel?”
Daniel's voice dropped.
“He said he'd thought about taking Emma and disappearing.”
My blood ran cold.
“He said what?”
“I didn't know whether he meant it.”
“And you never told me?”
“I should have.”
“Why didn't you?”
“Because the next morning he was gone.”
I stared at him in disbelief.
“That makes it worse.”
“I know.”
“No, I don't think you do.”
I walked toward him.
“You knew the father of my child was thinking about kidnapping her, and you said nothing.”
“I was twenty-eight years old and stupid. I barely knew you. I barely knew him. I thought he was talking nonsense because he was high.”
“But later?”
Daniel looked ashamed.
“Later, when we became friends, I should have told you.”
“Friends?”
“When Emma was four and we started seeing each other.”
“You definitely should have told me then.”
“I was afraid.”
“Of what?”
“That you'd think I had helped him abandon you.”
“Didn't you?”
The question hit him hard.
Daniel didn't answer.
That silence frightened me more than anything.
Before I could speak again, Emma's bedroom door opened upstairs.
She stood at the railing.
Her eyes were red.
In her hand was her phone.
“He did more than help him leave,” she said.
Daniel slowly turned.
Emma came down the stairs.
She held out the phone to me.
A photograph of a bank statement filled the screen.
There was a transfer.
Twenty-five thousand dollars.
Sender:
Daniel Reed.
Recipient:
Jason Carter.
Date:
Six months after Jason disappeared.
I looked at Daniel.
“What is this?”
He didn't move.
Emma started crying again.
“My dad says Daniel paid him to stay away from me.”
“Daniel?”
His face had gone gray.
“It's not what it looks like.”
Emma screamed.
“Then what is it?”
Daniel opened his mouth.
Nothing came out.
I felt something inside me break.
“Tell us.”
He looked at me.
Then at the girl he had raised.
“I gave Jason twenty-five thousand dollars.”
Emma's face collapsed.
Daniel's voice shook.
“But I didn't pay him to disappear.”
“Then why?” I demanded.
He looked directly at me.
“Because he came back.”
The room went completely silent.
I whispered, “What?”
Daniel nodded slowly.
“Six months after he vanished, Jason came back to Nashville.”
I could barely hear my own voice.
“And you never told me?”
“No.”
Emma stepped backward.
Daniel's eyes filled with tears.
“He didn't come back because he missed Emma.”
My stomach twisted.
“He came back because he wanted money.”
May you like
Daniel looked at the phone.
“And he threatened to take her if I didn't give it to him.”
