Chapter 7: The Call I Waited Twenty Years to Receive
The phone rang again.
*Dad.*
I stared at the screen, unable to move my fingers.
For twenty years, I'd imagined what I would do if my father suddenly appeared in my life. Sometimes I'd scream at him. Sometimes I'd ask why he hadn't loved me enough to stay. On lonely nights, I'd imagined simply throwing my arms around him and pretending the missing years had never happened.
I had never imagined seeing his name on a phone.
“Nia,” Captain Hayes said quietly, “don't answer until we can establish—”
I pressed the green button.
“Hello?””
For three seconds, there was only breathing.
Then a man's voice spoke.
“Nia?””
My knees nearly buckled.
“Who is this?””
A quiet, broken laugh came through the speaker.
“That's fair. I suppose I deserve that question.””
I gripped the phone with both hands.
“Who are you?””
“My name is Daniel Carter.””
The world narrowed to those four words.
I covered my mouth, but a sob escaped anyway.
“Prove it.””
The line went silent.
Then he said, “When you were four, you stole a red crayon from a box in my desk and drew a picture of our house. You put a giant yellow sun over the roof, even though it was raining that day. When I asked why, you told me the sun was waiting for us to be happy again.””
I remembered the drawing.
I remembered my mother showing it to me once, then locking it away with the other things she said belonged to the past.
“How do you know that?”” I whispered.
“Because I kept it.””
My breath caught.
“I kept everything I could, Nia. Your photographs. Your birthday cards. The little drawings you left on the refrigerator.””
“Then why didn't you come home?””
The question tore out of me before I could stop it.
“Why did you let me grow up thinking you didn't want me?””
I heard him inhale shakily.
“I didn't let you believe that. I spent years trying to make sure you knew the truth.””
“Then where were you?””
“Somewhere I couldn't safely reach you.””
“That's not an answer!””
“No,” he said, his voice breaking.
“It isn't. And you deserve a better one than I can give you over this phone.””
I pressed my forehead against the cold wall of the station corridor.
“Are you really alive?””
“Yes, sweetheart.””
The word struck me harder than anything else.
Sweetheart.
My mother had stopped calling me that when I was little because she said I was getting too old for childish names. Hearing it from my father felt like finding a piece of myself I hadn't known was missing.
I began to cry.
He did, too.
For several seconds, neither of us spoke.
Then I remembered the warning.
“Dr. Evelyn Shaw says someone is watching you.””
His breathing changed.
“Who told you that?””
“She's waiting for me in Charleston.””
“Don't go to her alone.””
“But she specifically said—”
“Listen to me, Nia. Evelyn is not the danger. The person who has been following her is.””
“Who?””
“I don't know for certain.””
I pulled the phone away and stared at the screen.
“You don't know? Dad, I just found out you might be alive, and now you're telling me you don't know who's trying to hurt you?””
“I know who arranged the operation at Pier Seven. I know who altered the report. I know who helped make me disappear.””
“Then tell me!””
“I will. But not until I know you can hear the truth without someone using it against you.””
My anger surged through my tears.
“You don't get to decide that for me. Everyone has decided what I can know my entire life. Mom decided.
Samuel decided. Captain Hayes decided. Now you're doing it, too!””
Silence.
Then my father spoke so softly I almost missed it.
“You're right.””
I closed my eyes.
“I won't ask you to forgive me,” he continued.
“I won't ask you to trust me. I only need you to understand that I never stopped loving you.””
A sound escaped my throat, half laugh and half sob.
“That's what I needed to hear twenty years ago.””
“I know.””
The simplicity of his answer hurt more than another excuse would have.
I wiped my cheeks.
“Where are you?””
“I can't tell you that yet.””
“Then how am I supposed to find you?””
“You already have the first clue. Find Evelyn. She'll give you something I left with her.””
“What is it?””
“A letter.””
“To me?””
“Yes.””
My hand tightened around the phone.
“What does it say?””
“Everything I couldn't tell you before.””
In the background, I heard a door slam.
My father's breathing changed.
“Nia, I have to go.””
“No! Wait!””
“One more thing. Whatever your mother tells you, remember that fear can make good people do terrible things. But fear doesn't erase responsibility.””
“Dad, please. Don't hang up.””
“I love you, Nia.””
The call ended.
I stared at the screen until it went dark.
Captain Hayes approached slowly.
“Was it him?””
I nodded.
He looked as if someone had struck him.
“What did he say?””
“That he's alive. That he never stopped loving me. And that I need to find Dr. Shaw.””
Hayes lowered his head.
For the first time since I had met him, he looked genuinely relieved.
Then my phone vibrated again.
A text message appeared from the same unknown number that had warned me earlier.
You have no idea what your father sacrificed to keep you alive.
A second message followed.
Ask Victor Hayes why he was promoted six months after Daniel disappeared.
I turned toward the captain.
He saw the screen.
All the color drained from his face.
“Is it true?”” I asked.
He didn't answer.
“Captain, were you promoted after my father disappeared?””
“Yes.””
“Why?””
His shoulders sagged.
“Because the Navy believed I had handled the incident properly.””
I stepped back.
“And did you?””
“No,” he whispered.
“I didn't.””
Before I could question him further, Investigator Bennett returned from the station's security office.
“We have a problem,” she said.
“Someone accessed the case file remotely less than five minutes ago.””
“Who?”” Hayes asked.
“We're tracing the connection.””
She looked at me.
“But the access attempt came from a device registered to an address in Beaufort, South Carolina.””
My mother's address.
I called her immediately.
She answered in a whisper.
“Nia?””
“Did you access the investigation file?””
“No.””
“Then why is your address connected to someone who did?””
My mother began to cry.
“Because I wasn't the only person who knew about the file.””
“Who else?””
She paused.
May you like
Then she said the one thing that made me understand why my father had spent twenty years hiding.
“Samuel still has a key to my house.””
