Chapter 6
The old boathouse sat at the end of a rotting dock.
Police wanted to surround it.
Michael had anticipated that.
A red light blinked from a camera attached to a tree.
Another was mounted beneath the roof.
“If he sees officers, he could hurt Lily,” Detective Monroe said.
Daniel stepped forward.
“Then I’m going.”
“No.”
“She’s my daughter.”
“Michael specifically requested Claire and Jonathan.”
“I don’t care.”
I grabbed Daniel’s arm.
“He wants you angry.”
“I am angry.”
“He wants you reckless.”
Daniel looked at me.
“That’s my little girl in there.”
“I know.”
My voice cracked.
“I carried her. I rocked her every night for the first six months because she wouldn’t sleep unless she could hear my heartbeat. I know exactly who is in there.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
I touched his face.
“Let me bring her back.”
He pressed his forehead to mine.
“If you see one chance, take it.”
“I will.”
Jonathan stood nearby.
“You don’t have to trust me.”
Daniel looked at him.
“I don’t.”
“I understand.”
“But if anything happens to Claire or Lily…”
“You won’t need to threaten me.”
Jonathan looked toward the boathouse.
“I have spent thirty-eight years running from this family’s secrets.”
His expression hardened.
“I’m done running.”
Monroe fitted a tiny transmitter inside my coat.
“We will hear everything.”
“What if he searches me?”
“He probably will.”
“So this might be useless.”
“Yes.”
I appreciated her honesty.
Jonathan and I walked onto the dock.
The boards creaked beneath our feet.
Halfway down, a loudspeaker crackled.
“Stop.”
Michael’s voice.
“Claire removes her coat.”
Jonathan looked at me.
I took it off.
The transmitter went with it.
“Leave the phones.”
We placed them on the dock.
“Keep walking.”
The boathouse door opened automatically.
Inside, a single lantern burned.
Lily sat tied to a chair.
“Mommy!”
I ran forward.
Michael stepped from the shadows and pointed a handgun toward the floor.
“Stop.”
I froze.
“Please.”
Lily sobbed.
“I want Mommy.”
“I know, baby.”
Michael looked at me.
“She has been asking for you every five minutes.”
“You’ve made your point.”
“No.”
He smiled.
“Not yet.”
Jonathan moved slightly.
Michael aimed at him.
“Hello, Jonathan.”
“Michael.”
“You remember me.”
“Yes.”
“I’m touched.”
“Let the child go.”
Michael laughed.
“You sound like my father.”
Jonathan’s face tightened.
“That isn’t a compliment.”
“My father loved giving orders.”
“He destroyed lives.”
“And your sister almost destroyed his.”
Jonathan stared at him.
“Rebecca discovered what Richard and Thomas were doing.”
Michael nodded.
“She should have minded her business.”
My stomach turned.
“You talk about murder like it was nothing.”
Michael looked at me.
“You sound like your mother.”
“You knew her?”
His smile disappeared.
“I hated her.”
“Why?”
“Because Anna convinced my mother to leave Richard.”
Jonathan frowned.
“What?”
Michael leaned against a workbench.
“You don’t know everything.”
“Then tell us.”
Michael looked almost pleased.
He had waited decades for someone to listen.
“My mother was Richard’s first wife. Carol.”
Daniel had never heard the name.
Neither had I.
“Richard beat her.”
Michael said it without emotion.
“She stayed because she had nowhere to go.”
He looked at Jonathan.
“Then Anna Bennett found her.”
“My mother?”
“She helped Carol open a bank account. Found her an apartment. Helped her file for divorce.”
He laughed bitterly.
“And Richard blamed Anna for everything.”
I looked at the gun.
“So this is revenge against my mother?”
“Partly.”
“And Evelyn?”
“Evelyn married him less than a year later.”
His eyes hardened.
“She moved into the house my mother had been thrown out of.”
“She didn’t know.”
Michael exploded.
“They never know!”
Lily screamed.
I moved instinctively.
Michael pointed the gun.
“Stay.”
I stopped.
Jonathan spoke calmly.
“You were a kid.”
Michael breathed hard.
“You don’t know what I was.”
“I know Richard manipulated people.”
“Don’t defend me.”
“I’m not.”
Jonathan moved one slow step.
“I’m telling you that whatever Richard did to your mother wasn’t Evelyn’s fault.”
Michael smiled.
“You still love her.”
Jonathan said nothing.
That was answer enough.
Michael shook his head.
“Thirty-eight years.”
“I never stopped.”
My chest tightened.
Michael pointed toward Lily.
“And this little girl brought you all back together.”
“Don’t involve her.”
“She is already involved.”
“No,” I said. “You involved her.”
He looked at me.
“Your mother involved you before you were born.”
“What does that mean?”
Michael reached into a drawer and pulled out another photograph.
He threw it onto the floor.
It showed my mother holding a newborn baby.
Me.
Standing beside her was a man whose face had been partly scratched away.
I bent slightly.
“Who is that?”
Michael smiled.
“You wanted your father.”
Jonathan stepped closer.
“Claire, don’t.”
I looked at him.
“You know?”
“No.”
Michael laughed.
“Yes, he does.”
Jonathan shook his head.
“I don’t.”
“He just doesn’t want to consider it.”
I stared at the photograph.
The visible part of the man’s face looked familiar.
Then I saw the ring.
A heavy signet ring.
I had seen the same ring in old family photographs.
On Richard Whitmore’s hand.
My blood turned cold.
“No.”
Michael watched me.
“Now you understand.”
Jonathan whispered, “That’s impossible.”
“Why?”
“Richard hated Anna.”
Michael smiled.
“Not always.”
I felt sick.
“You’re saying Richard Whitmore was my biological father?”
Michael shrugged.
“I’m saying that’s what Anna told my mother.”
Jonathan stared at him.
“When?”
“Before Carol died.”
Evelyn’s husband.
Daniel’s legal father.
If Richard was my biological father, Daniel and I were not siblings.
But the truth was still monstrous in another way.
Daniel had grown up believing Richard was his father.
I had grown up believing Thomas was mine.
Our entire marriage rested on two lies told by the same group of adults.
Michael walked toward Jonathan.
“Richard knew Claire was his.”
“That’s why he protected Anna,” Jonathan whispered.
“That’s why he helped Thomas disappear evidence.”
Michael nodded.
“Thomas had leverage.”
“What leverage?”
“Thomas knew Richard had been sleeping with Anna.”
My heart hammered.
“Did my mother love him?”
“No.”
Michael’s answer came too quickly.
I stared at him.
“How do you know?”
“Because Carol found Anna after it happened.”
I felt cold.
“What happened?”
Michael’s face lost some of its cruelty.
For the first time, he looked uncomfortable.
“Richard cornered Anna after a party.”
Jonathan’s hands curled into fists.
Michael continued.
“She never called it love.”
I closed my eyes.
I didn’t need details.
My mother’s fear suddenly made sense in a way I wished it didn’t.
“She got pregnant.”
“Yes.”
“And Thomas thought I was his.”
“For years.”
Jonathan whispered, “Anna married Thomas because she was afraid of Richard.”
Michael nodded.
“Then Thomas became worse.”
I looked at Lily.
All of this horror.
All these secrets.
And a four-year-old child was paying for it.
“Michael.”
He looked at me.
“You hate Richard.”
“Yes.”
“You hate what he did to your mother.”
“Yes.”
“Then why are you acting like him?”
His expression changed.
I continued.
“He used fear to control people. He threatened children. He destroyed families to punish people who hurt him.”
Michael’s jaw tightened.
“Shut up.”
“You kidnapped a little girl.”
“Shut up.”
“You hit the same people he hit because it’s the only language he taught you.”
“SHUT UP!”
Lily screamed.
Michael swung the gun toward me.
Jonathan moved.
Fast.
He slammed into Michael.
The gun fired.
The sound inside the boathouse was deafening.
I dropped to the floor.
Lily screamed my name.
Jonathan and Michael crashed into a table.
The gun slid across the boards.
I ran for Lily.
Michael punched Jonathan.
Jonathan fell.
Michael lunged for the gun.
I reached Lily.
Her wrists were tied.
“Mommy!”
“I’m here.”
I pulled at the knot.
Behind me, Jonathan tackled Michael again.
The rotten railing beside the water cracked.
Michael stumbled.
Jonathan grabbed him.
For one second they hung together over the black lake.
Michael looked at him.
“You should have stayed gone.”
Then he kicked Jonathan.
Jonathan lost his grip.
Michael fell backward through the railing.
Splash.
Police rushed toward the boathouse.
Daniel was first through the door.
“Lily!”
“Daddy!”
He dropped beside us.
I finally freed her.
Daniel grabbed Lily and me at the same time.
She buried her face against his chest.
“I want to go home.”
“I know, baby.”
Outside, officers pulled Michael from the water.
Alive.
Handcuffed.
Jonathan sat against the wall holding his bleeding shoulder.
The bullet had grazed him.
Daniel looked over at him.
Their eyes met.
Neither spoke.
Then Lily lifted her head.
She looked at Jonathan.
“Is that man hurt?”
“A little,” I said.
She slid out of Daniel’s arms.
Before anyone could stop her, she walked toward Jonathan.
He looked surprised.
Lily stared at his bandage.
“You saved Mommy.”
Jonathan swallowed.
“I tried.”
She held out the tiny stuffed rabbit an officer had recovered from Michael’s bag.
“You can hold Bunny.”
Jonathan’s eyes filled with tears.
“Thank you.”
Daniel looked away.
It was too much.
For all of us.
But the nightmare wasn’t over.
Detective Monroe walked toward me carrying Michael’s phone.
“Claire.”
Something in her expression frightened me.
“What?”
“We found messages between Michael and someone else.”
“Who?”
She looked toward Daniel.
Then Jonathan.
Then back at me.
“Someone inside Evelyn’s house.”
Daniel stood.
“What?”
“Michael wasn’t working alone.”
My stomach dropped.
Monroe held up the screen.
The final message had been sent shortly before Lily disappeared.
The sender’s name wasn’t saved.
Only a number.
May you like
But the message was clear.
THE CHILD IS IN THE TV ROOM. BACK DOOR UNLOCKED. YOU HAVE TWO MINUTES.
