Chapter 6 - The TargetMy father had kept one terrible secret from me
I didn't speak to Dad for almost an hour.
How could I?
The photograph was real.
My father's signature was real.
And the words beneath it were real.
TARGET APPROVED.
“You signed this,” I said.
Dad looked exhausted.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I didn't know what it meant.”
“You approved surveillance on me.”
“I approved surveillance on a person with your name.”
“What is the difference?”
He closed his eyes.
“A big one.”
I stepped away.
He finally told me the truth.
Years earlier, during an organized-crime investigation, Frank Sullivan had infiltrated a network that moved money, weapons, and people across state lines.
Gabriel Voss was one of the architects.
My father had been close to exposing him.
Then the investigation collapsed.
Witnesses disappeared.
Evidence vanished.
One informant was murdered.
And a new name appeared in the files.
Elena Sullivan.
Mine.
The network believed someone in my father's family was leaking information.
Dad approved surveillance to identify the mole.
But the investigation ended before anyone discovered the truth.
Years passed.
He retired.
I grew up.
And eventually I met Robert.
“What did Voss want with me?” I asked.
Dad stared at the floor.
“We thought you were leverage.”
I laughed bitterly.
“I was?”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe?”
His voice cracked.
“I failed you.”
That hurt more than anything Robert had done.
I turned away.
Then Marianne interrupted.
“We found Robert.”
He was at a motel across town.
He had checked in under a false name.
We moved immediately.
When we entered the room, Robert wasn't there.
But his laptop was open.
And the screen contained a single file.
ELENA.
I opened it.
My life appeared on the screen.
Every address.
Every workplace.
Every family member.
Every photograph.
Every medical appointment.
Every trip I had taken with Robert.
Someone had tracked me for years.
Then I saw the date of the earliest entry.
Five years before I met him.
Robert hadn't chosen me randomly.
Someone had selected me.
Dad looked at the screen.
“There.”
A folder hidden inside the file.
He opened it.
A single video loaded.
Robert appeared on camera.
He looked younger.
Maybe twenty-five.
He was speaking to someone off-screen.
“I can get close to her.”
A man's voice answered.
“And her father?”
“Eventually.”
“What about the marriage?”
Robert smiled.
“She'll stay.”
My heart broke.
Not because I still loved him.
Because every memory had been contaminated.
Every anniversary.
Every apology.
Every flower.
Every time he had said he loved me.
A performance.
A tear slipped down my cheek.
Then Robert's video voice continued.
“But you said her father doesn't know.”
“He doesn't.”
“And if he finds out?”
The unseen man laughed.
“Frank Sullivan will be dead before he gets close.”
Dad stepped back.
“He was planning this from the beginning.”
Then another voice entered the recording.
A woman's voice.
Diane.
“He doesn't know what he married.”
The video ended.
But one final file had appeared.
A meeting scheduled for that night.
Location: Red Hollow.
Time: 11:30 p.m.
Participants: Robert Hale.
Gabriel Voss.
Diane Hale.
My father looked at me.
“Diane is alive.”
I nodded.
“And she's meeting them tonight.”
“No,” Dad said.
“She is meeting them because someone wants us to follow.”
He closed the laptop.
“This is a trap.”
“Then what do we do?”
May you like
Dad's eyes hardened.
“For once, we let them think it worked.”
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