Chapter 7 - The Daughter in the Black Coat
She remembered everything except me
Emily stood behind Claire.
She had Claire's eyes.
My smile.
The same small habit of pressing her lips together when she was nervous.
I knew every detail.
She was my daughter.
And she was afraid of me.
I took one step forward.
Emily stepped backward.
"Dad?"
Her voice trembled.
I nearly collapsed.
"Emily."
She shook her head.
"That's what everyone says your name is."
I stared.
"What?"
Claire moved between us.
"She's been told stories."
"What stories?"
"That you abandoned us."
My chest hurt.
"I never abandoned you."
Emily looked toward Claire.
"Then why were you gone for ten years?"
I could not answer.
Because every answer I had sounded like an excuse.
I was told she died.
I was shown a coffin.
I was given a death certificate.
But none of that could erase the fact that she had spent ten years believing her father chose not to find her.
Claire approached slowly.
"I tried to tell you."
"You disappeared."
"I was hiding Emily."
"From Victor."
"From everyone."
She looked at Daniel.
Including him.
I turned toward Daniel.
He lowered his eyes.
"I didn't know where Claire was for years," he said.
"Then how are you here?"
Claire answered.
"Because he found me first."
I looked at her.
"When?"
"Eight months after the accident."
"You let me believe you were dead."
"I had no choice."
"You had ten years."
Her face broke.
"So did you."
That silenced me.
She stepped closer.
"Do you know what Victor told me?"
I said nothing.
"He said you would eventually stop looking."
"I never stopped."
She looked at me.
"That's not what he said."
She took a folded document from her coat.
It was a report.
My own handwriting.
My signature.
A statement saying I had abandoned the search for Emily.
I stared at it.
"That's forged."
"I know."
"I would never sign this."
"I know."
Emily watched us.
Then she whispered,
"There was one night."
Claire turned.
"What night?"
"The night before I left."
Emily's face went pale.
"I remember Daddy."
My heart stopped.
"What do you remember?"
Emily looked directly at me.
"Your hand."
I could barely breathe.
"You were holding mine."
"At the hospital?"
She nodded.
"You said, 'I'll come back.'"
Tears filled my eyes.
"I did."
"But you didn't."
"I thought you were dead."
Emily looked confused.
Claire closed her eyes.
"I know."
A sudden alarm sounded.
Daniel rushed toward the control panel.
"Someone accessed the archive."
"Who?"
His face went white.
"Victor."
The screens came alive.
Security footage filled the walls.
Victor was walking through the warehouse.
Thirty men behind him.
Claire grabbed Emily.
"We have to move."
Daniel opened a hidden corridor.
We ran.
Behind us, doors exploded open.
Gunshots echoed.
Emily grabbed my hand.
For the first time in ten years, my daughter was holding me.
I didn't let go.
We reached the tunnel.
Claire stopped.
"You go."
I turned.
"You're coming."
She shook her head.
"They're after me."
"They're after all of us."
She looked at Emily.
"Take her."
"Claire."
She pressed a key into my hand.
"Your father left one last file."
"What file?"
"The one Victor has spent ten years trying to destroy."
She kissed Emily's forehead.
Then she pushed us through the door.
The steel door slammed shut between us.
Emily screamed.
"Mom!"
Claire shouted from the other side.
May you like
"RUN!"
And then the first explosion shook the tunnel.
