Chapter 6 - THE MAN WHO FUNDED THE SEARCHDaniel felt sick.
“You're lying.”
Eva shook her head.
“I wish I were.”
For twenty-eight years, a private foundation had sent Daniel money.
Anonymous donations.
Investigative grants.
Travel expenses.
Database access.
Everything he needed to keep searching for Lily.
Daniel had always assumed someone compassionate was helping him.
A grieving father with resources but no money.
He had never questioned it.
Now Eva was telling him the foundation had been created by the very people who stole his daughter.
“Who founded it?”
Eva whispered the name.
“Adrian Cross.”
Daniel stared.
Adrian Cross.
Billionaire.
Philanthropist.
Chairman of the Crosswell Group.
The man who had publicly supported missing children charities for decades.
The man Daniel had met twice.
The man who had personally offered to finance DNA testing after Lily's twentieth birthday.
The man who had told Daniel:
Never give up.
Daniel remembered the handshake.
The smile.
The sympathy.
Now it looked monstrous.
Morales immediately picked up his phone.
“I'll investigate.”
Eva grabbed his arm.
“Don't.”
“Why?”
“Because you're already being watched.”
The lights flickered.
Everyone looked toward the ceiling.
Then the building fire alarm started screaming.
Doors opened.
Officers rushed into the corridor.
Daniel grabbed Lena.
“Stay beside me.”
They ran.
Outside, sirens filled the street.
Daniel looked toward the airport.
A black SUV waited across the road.
It was the same vehicle from Lena's photographs.
The rear window lowered.
Marcus Vale was inside.
He pointed at Daniel.
Not with a weapon.
With one finger.
Then he pointed toward Lena.
And finally toward the city.
A warning.
Daniel didn't understand.
The SUV disappeared.
Morales returned.
“Eva is gone.”
“What?”
“She vanished during the evacuation.”
Daniel stared.
“She was right here.”
“I know.”
Daniel's phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
A photograph appeared.
It showed Daniel and Lena standing outside the police station.
Taken seconds earlier.
Below it:
You have twelve hours.
Another message appeared.
Bring Lena to the old St. Catherine's Hospital.
Daniel's stomach tightened.
Then another.
Come alone.
Lena saw the screen.
“No.”
Daniel looked at her.
“We don't go.”
A final message arrived.
If you want to know why your second daughter died, come before midnight.
Daniel froze.
“Second daughter?”
Lena whispered.
“That means she knows.”
Daniel looked at the photograph again.
For twenty-eight years he had believed he had lost one daughter.
Now he had discovered he might have lost two.
And somewhere inside the city, someone knew exactly what had happened to both.
Daniel turned to Lena.
“We're going.”
She stared at him.
“You said we're not.”
“I changed my mind.”
“Why?”
Daniel's eyes hardened.
“Because whoever is doing this knows something about our family that we don't.”
May you like
He looked toward the darkening sky.
“And I'm done letting other people tell me what happened to my children.”
