Chương 4
Rachel gave a bitter look.
"You know exactly where they are."
Daniel turned.
"You lied."
Evelyn looked toward him.
"I protected you."
"That is not an answer."
"No."
Her voice became softer.
"It is not."
Emma's crying grew louder.
Daniel adjusted her against his chest and whispered something useless because babies did not understand words.
Still, the sound of his voice calmed her slightly.
It bothered him that he could comfort his daughter more easily than he could speak to his own mother.
The emergency lights flickered on after a few moments.
They were dim and yellow, making the hallway look older than it was.
Rachel stared toward the basement.
"We need to move."
Daniel looked at her.
"Why?"
"Because whoever is down there knows the system."
"That does not answer why we move."
Rachel paused.
Then she said something that changed the room.
"Because they are not searching for the files."
Daniel felt his grip tighten around Emma.
"What are they searching for?"
Rachel looked at the envelope on the table.
"The photograph."
A strange calm settled over him.
Not peace.
Something colder.
"Why?"
"Because your father wrote something on the back."
Daniel glanced at the photograph.
"She knows what happened."
Rachel nodded.
"That sentence was not for you."
Evelyn looked away.
"It was for me."
Daniel turned slowly.
The honesty of it was almost worse than another lie.
"For you?"
Evelyn sat down.
For the first time that night, she looked like someone who had become tired from carrying something heavy for too long.
"The woman in the photograph was named Laura Bennett."
Rachel watched her carefully.
"Tell him the rest."
Evelyn's eyes narrowed.
"You do not get to decide when I tell my son about his family."
"No."
Rachel's voice stayed quiet.
"But I get to decide whether I let another person disappear because you were afraid."
Daniel looked between them.
"Who was Laura Bennett?"
His mother pressed her fingers together.
A habit he remembered from childhood.
She did it whenever she was preparing to say something she wished she could take back.
"She was someone your father knew before we were married."
Daniel waited.
"That is it?"
"No."
The answer came too quickly.
Evelyn closed her eyes.
"She was pregnant."
The room seemed to lose its air.
Daniel looked at the photograph again.
The woman standing beside his parents suddenly looked different.
Not because her face had changed.
Because the possibility around her had.
"With my father?"
Evelyn did not answer.
She did not need to.
Rachel moved closer to the table.
"Your father believed Laura's pregnancy was connected to a financial crime inside Mercer Holdings."
Daniel looked at her.
"Connected how?"
"He thought someone was using company accounts to hide payments."
"Payments to who?"
Rachel hesitated.
"People who had enough influence to make problems disappear."
Daniel laughed once.
It was not because anything was funny.
It was because his mind needed somewhere for the pressure to go.
"So my father found out something, wrote a note, and then died."
Evelyn looked at him.
"Daniel."
"No."
He stepped away from both women.
"Do not say my name like that."
The anger surprised him.
Maybe because it was not only anger.
It was the feeling of being eight years old again, standing outside a closed office door while adults decided what parts of his life he was allowed to know.
"You all keep doing this."
Evelyn's face tightened.
"Doing what?"
"Deciding I am too young."
"You were."
"Not anymore."
The basement door made a sound.
A slow movement.
Not a crash.
Not a forced entry.
Someone opening it carefully.
Everyone stopped.
Rachel lowered her voice.
"They are already inside."
Daniel looked at the hallway.
A part of him wanted to leave.
Take Emma.
Get in the car.
Drive until nobody knew his name.
That part of him had always existed.
The part that avoided family meetings.
The part that ignored unanswered messages.
The part that told himself distance was the same thing as freedom.
But Emma was in his arms.
And distance was not an option anymore.
"We need to know who is down there," he said.
Rachel stared at him.
"That is exactly what they want."
"No."
He looked at the basement door.
"They want me to stay away."
Evelyn stood.
"Daniel."
"If someone spent years hiding something from me, I am done walking away because everyone tells me it is dangerous."
The sentence came out harsher than he intended.
His mother absorbed it without defending herself.
That hurt more.
The basement door opened another inch.
A faint light appeared from below.
Then a voice came through the darkness.
"Daniel."
His entire body froze.
He knew that voice.
Not well.
Not recently.
But enough.
It belonged to someone he had not heard in eight years.
Someone who was supposed to be gone.
"Dad?"
The word escaped before he could stop it.
Evelyn grabbed his arm.
"Do not go down there."
Daniel looked at her.
The fear on her face was no longer hidden.
It was complete.
"Why?"
She opened her mouth.
Nothing came out.
The voice came again.
"Daniel, please."
Rachel stepped backward.
Her expression had changed.
She looked less surprised than afraid.
"You know this person."
Rachel did not answer.
Daniel turned toward her.
"Who is it?"
The basement light moved.
A shadow appeared on the wall.
Tall.
Still.
Waiting.
Then the person stepped into view.
Daniel forgot how to breathe.
It was not his father.
It was a man he had seen only in photographs.
A man who had stood beside his father at business events.
A man whose name appeared on buildings, charities, and company reports.
"Thomas Mercer," Evelyn whispered.
Daniel stared at the older man standing at the bottom of the stairs.
His uncle.
His father's younger brother.
The man who had given the speech at his father's funeral.
The man who had hugged Daniel afterward and told him he would always protect the family.
May you like
Thomas looked older than Daniel remembered.
His hair had turned almost completely gray.
