Chapter 10 - The Father in the ShadowsI couldn't move.
Emily whispered:
“Dad?”
He nodded.
Anna began crying.
Twenty years disappeared.
I was six years old again.
Our father lifting me onto his shoulders.
Our father teaching Anna to ride a bicycle.
Our father making pancakes on Sunday mornings.
Our father walking out one winter evening.
Never returning.
Except he had returned.
Just not to us.
“You're alive.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
He looked at the ledger.
“Because I was a coward.”
Anna stepped forward.
“You let us believe you were dead.”
“I had no choice.”
“You always had a choice.”
He looked at her.
“You don't know what they threatened.”
Anna laughed bitterly.
“They killed Lauren.”
“No.”
Lauren spoke quietly.
“They tried.”
My father looked at her.
“I thought you were dead.”
“I wanted you to think that.”
My father's face collapsed.
I stepped closer.
“Tell me everything.”
He nodded.
“The network began with three families.”
Mercer.
Alden.
Another family.
“One controlled the money.”
“One controlled the courts.”
“One controlled the institutions.”
“And the fourth?”
He looked at me.
“The Collins family.”
I felt sick.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Our grandfather built the original financial system.”
“He used construction companies to move money.”
“Our father inherited it.”
“And you?”
“I tried to destroy it.”
“But you were too late.”
“Yes.”
“Why did you leave us?”
“Because I knew the network would use you.”
“They already did.”
He closed his eyes.
“I know.”
Harris asked:
“Who is the Architect?”
My father answered:
“Peter Alden.”
I thought of the judge on the bridge.
But my father shook his head.
“Not Judge Alden.”
“Then who?”
His eyes hardened.
“His wife.”
Silence.
“Margaret Alden.”
Emily stared.
“The woman in the photograph.”
My father nodded.
“She built the women trafficking operation.”
“She recruited them.”
“Tracked them.”
“Controlled the hospitals.”
“Paid the judges.”
“Paid the police.”
“Daniel inherited her network.”
I felt my anger become something colder.
“Where is she?”
My father looked at Anna.
“She has been living under another name.”
Lauren whispered:
“Evelyn Mercer.”
I stared at her.
“Daniel's mother.”
My father nodded.
“She married into the Mercer family after the old network merged.”
Everything suddenly made sense.
The polished charity events.
The judge.
The missing women.
The private hospital.
The security men.
The money.
It was all one machine.
Then Emily whispered:
“Daniel said there was one person he was afraid of.”
“Who?”
She looked at me.
“Evelyn.”
My father turned sharply.
“What did he say?”
“He said she was the only person who could make him disappear.”
My father grabbed my arm.
“You need to move.”
“Why?”
“Because she knows you have the original ledger.”
A gunshot shattered the hallway.
My father fell.
“DAD!”
He hit the floor.
Blood spread across his coat.
Harris fired toward the doorway.
Caleb disappeared around the corner.
We dragged my father behind a wall.
He was alive.
Barely.
“Where is Emily?”
“She’s here!”
He looked at me.
“No.”
“What?”
“Not Emily.”
He reached for the ledger.
“Inside.”
“What?”
“There is a second section.”
I opened it.
Hidden beneath the final page was a small metal compartment.
Inside was a photograph.
My father.
Margaret Alden.
Evelyn Mercer.
And Captain Reeves.
Standing together.
Under the photo was one sentence.
THE LAST PAYMENT WAS MADE TO MARA COLLINS.
I stared at the page.
“What does this mean?”
My father whispered:
“They paid for your silence before you were old enough to speak.”
Then his eyes closed.
I checked his pulse.
Alive.
But fading.
Sirens sounded outside.
Not police.
Dozens of them.
I looked through the broken window.
Black SUVs surrounded the hospital.
Harris whispered:
“We're trapped.”
Then every vehicle door opened.
Men stepped out.
All wearing police uniforms.
And at the center of them stood Captain Reeves.
He raised a loudspeaker.
“Mara Collins, surrender.”
I looked at my father.
Then at the exits.
Then at the ledger.
And finally at Anna.
May you like
She whispered:
“Now we find out who is loyal.”
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