Chapter 4
I thought Ryan was lying.
He had lied about being our father.
He lied about Mom.
He lied about the children.
So when he said Dad was alive, I refused to believe him.
“You’re lying.”
Ryan looked exhausted now.
“No.”
“My mom said he died.”
“Your mother thought he did.”
“What does that mean?”
Officer Carter stepped between us.
“That’s enough.”
But I moved around her.
“Where is he?”
Ryan looked at Sergeant Collins.
“I want protection.”
Collins laughed.
“You kidnapped children and imprisoned a woman.”
“You have no idea what’s coming.”
“Then explain it.”
Ryan glanced at me.
“I wasn’t working alone.”
Detective Morales folded her arms.
“We know.”
Ryan’s eyes changed.
“You do?”
“We know somebody shut down your basement equipment.”
He looked toward the hallway.
Then the windows.
Suddenly terrified.
“Get these kids away from the glass.”
Collins frowned.
“What?”
“Now!”
Officer Carter reacted first.
She grabbed Lucy and me.
A second later, the station windows exploded.
The sound knocked me to the floor.
Glass flew across the room.
Officers shouted.
Someone dragged us behind the front desk.
Lucy screamed into my chest.
Then came another crack.
A bullet hit the wall.
Collins pulled Ryan down.
“Shooter!”
Police flooded toward the rear of the station.
Sirens erupted.
Officer Carter covered us with her body.
I smelled dust.
Metal.
Blood.
Not ours.
An officer nearby had been cut by glass.
After almost a minute, the shooting stopped.
Ryan was shaking.
“They know.”
Morales grabbed his shirt.
“Who?”
“They know I talked.”
“Who?”
Ryan stared at her.
“The people Daniel tried to expose.”
My head spun.
“Dad?”
Morales looked at me.
“Not here.”
Ryan shook his head.
“He deserves to know.”
“He’s eight.”
“He’s already in this.”
That was true.
I hated that it was true.
Collins ordered the station locked down.
Police searched buildings nearby.
The shooter was gone.
But they found something on a rooftop.
A rifle.
No fingerprints.
And one photograph.
Us.
Lucy and me.
Taken that morning outside our house.
Written across the back:
THE PARKER CHILDREN BELONG TO US.
Officer Carter didn’t let me see it.
But I saw enough.
My name.
Lucy’s.
Dad’s last name.
Within an hour, they moved us through a back entrance.
Unmarked cars took us to the hospital.
Mom was waiting.
The second she saw us, she tried to climb out of bed.
“Ethan!”
“Mom!”
I ran to her.
She wrapped both arms around me.
Lucy crawled onto the bed.
Mom cried so hard she couldn’t speak.
Her face had bruises.
One wrist was bandaged.
A dark mark circled her ankle.
I touched it.
“Ryan chained you.”
Mom closed her eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
“Why are you sorry?”
“For everything.”
Detective Morales stood near the door.
Mom saw her.
Her face changed.
“You found the room.”
Morales nodded.
Mom looked at us.
Then at the door.
“Take them out.”
“No,” I said.
“Ethan.”
“No.”
“You’re eight.”
“And Ryan says Dad is alive.”
Mom stopped breathing.
Lucy lifted her head.
“Mommy?”
Mom stared at Morales.
“You told him?”
“Ryan did.”
Mom covered her face.
That was when I knew.
She believed it too.
“You knew.”
“No.”
“You knew Dad was alive!”
“I didn’t know.”
“You lied!”
“I thought he was dead.”
“Then why aren’t you surprised?”
Mom reached for me.
I stepped back.
Her face crumpled.
“I need to explain.”
“Then explain.”
She looked at Lucy.
Then me.
“Your father worked for a company called Cumberland Logistics.”
“That sounds boring,” Lucy whispered.
Mom almost smiled.
“It was supposed to be.”
Dad handled computer security.
Shipping records.
Employee accounts.
One night he found hidden files.
Routes that didn’t match company business.
Payments to fake names.
Photographs of children.
I looked toward Morales.
She was listening carefully.
“Dad knew about Ryan?”
“Not at first.”
Mom said Daniel contacted federal authorities.
Before he could turn over the evidence, someone inside law enforcement warned the company.
Daniel disappeared two days later.
Police found his car near the Cumberland River.
Blood on the seat.
His wedding ring inside.
No body.
Everyone assumed he was dead.
“Everyone except you?” I asked.
“For years, I believed it.”
“What changed?”
“Ryan.”
Mom’s voice shook.
Ryan appeared in our lives eight months earlier.
He said he had known Daniel.
He claimed Daniel had owed dangerous people money.
Mom didn’t trust him.
Then he showed her a video.
Dad.
Alive.
The video had been recorded recently.
I grabbed the bedrail.
“What did Dad say?”
“He looked at the camera and said my name.”
“Did he say ours?”
Mom nodded.
“He said, ‘Keep Ethan and Lucy hidden.’”
My chest hurt.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because Ryan threatened you.”
She began crying again.
“He said if I contacted police, Daniel would die. Then he started controlling everything. My phone. The car. Your school pickups. Every week he became worse.”
“Why didn’t we run?”
“I tried.”
She pointed to the bruises.
“The last time I tried, he caught me.”
Lucy pressed against her.
Mom kissed her hair.
“He told me we were leaving Nashville today. I thought he meant all of us.”
“He was taking only me and Lucy,” I said.
Mom went still.
“What?”
“He told us to pack.”
Mom looked at Morales.
“He was separating us.”
Morales asked, “Why?”
Mom shook her head.
Then I remembered something.
“The passports.”
Ryan had Charlotte and Noah’s passports.
“He was going to give us different names.”
Morales’ expression hardened.
Mom whispered, “Oh God.”
A knock came at the door.
Sergeant Collins entered.
Behind him was a federal agent.
Tall.
Gray-haired.
Agent Thomas Reed.
He introduced himself to Mom.
She stared at his badge.
Then turned pale.
“You.”
Reed stopped.
“You know me?”
“You came to our house after Daniel disappeared.”
I looked between them.
Reed’s face tightened.
“I was assigned to the case.”
Mom’s voice became cold.
“No. You told me Daniel was definitely dead.”
“At the time—”
“You told me to stop asking questions.”
Reed closed the door.
“Sarah, there were reasons.”
She pulled Lucy closer.
“Get out.”
Morales watched him carefully.
Reed sighed.
“Daniel was working with me.”
The room went silent.
“What?” Mom whispered.
“He contacted my unit three weeks before he vanished.”
“You said you barely knew him.”
“I lied.”
Mom grabbed the plastic water cup from her tray and threw it.
It hit Reed’s chest.
“You let me bury an empty coffin!”
“Because the people after Daniel believed he was dead.”
“So you did know he survived?”
Reed looked at me.
“Yes.”
My knees felt weak.
“You knew my dad was alive?”
“Yes.”
“Where is he?”
Reed didn’t answer.
I shouted.
“Where is my father?”
“Ethan—”
“Tell me!”
Reed looked at Mom.
Then at Morales.
“Until six weeks ago, Daniel was in federal witness protection.”
Mom gasped.
“You kept him away from his children for six years?”
“He refused contact because the network was still active.”
“Network?” Collins asked.
Reed rubbed his face.
“Cumberland Logistics was only one piece. The organization moves stolen identities, money, and children across state lines.”
Morales stepped closer.
“And six weeks ago?”
“Daniel disappeared from protection.”
Mom whispered, “Again?”
Reed nodded.
“He left voluntarily.”
“Why?”
“We believe he learned someone had located Ethan and Lucy.”
I looked at my mother.
“Ryan.”
Reed’s expression said yes.
Then his phone rang.
He checked the screen.
Everything about him changed.
“What?”
He answered.
“Reed.”
He listened.
“Say that again.”
Mom grabbed my hand.
Reed turned toward the television mounted in the corner of the hospital room.
“Turn on the news.”
Collins grabbed the remote.
A local Nashville station appeared.
Breaking news.
Police station shooting.
Kidnapped children rescued.
Then the anchor held a piece of paper.
“We have also received an anonymous message connected to today’s investigation.”
A photograph appeared.
My father.
Older.
Bearded.
But unmistakable.
Daniel Parker.
Dad.
Alive.
Lucy whispered, “Daddy.”
Words appeared beneath the photograph.
Reed read them aloud.
“If you want the children to survive, bring Ryan Miller to the old Cumberland terminal before midnight.”
Mom squeezed my hand.
Then another sentence appeared.
ONE TRAITOR FOR ANOTHER.
Detective Morales looked at Reed.
“What does that mean?”
Before Reed answered, Mom whispered:
“It means Daniel isn’t the only traitor.”
Everyone turned toward her.
She looked directly at Agent Reed.
“Tell them, Thomas.”
Reed’s face went blank.
May you like
Mom’s voice hardened.
“Tell them why Daniel never trusted you.”
