Chapter 7 - The Father No One KnewWe drove until sunrise.
Neither child spoke.
Neither did I.
Daniel finally pulled into a remote ranch outside Phoenix.
It belonged to an old friend.
Safe.
For now.
I confronted him the moment we entered.
“Were you with me before I knew you?”
“No.”
“Did we meet before the highway?”
“No.”
“Then why would someone forge Ava's birth certificate?”
“I don't know.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because it's true.”
I turned away.
Then I noticed something.
A scar on Daniel's wrist.
A small crescent-shaped mark.
I had seen it before.
On someone in an old photograph.
My mother.
“What is that?”
Daniel looked at his wrist.
“Burn scar.”
“When?”
“Childhood.”
I stared.
My mother had written about it in her diary.
A boy with a crescent scar who helped her escape Saint Mary's.
Could Daniel have been there?
“Your father took you to Saint Mary's when you were a child.”
He stared at me.
“How do you know?”
“My mother wrote it.”
Daniel sat down.
“I remember.”
“What?”
“I remember you.”
I froze.
“What?”
“You were there.”
He closed his eyes.
“You were maybe nine.”
I stepped closer.
“I knew you.”
“I didn't remember your name.”
He opened his eyes.
“But I remember the girl who hid under the stairs.”
My heart raced.
“You were the boy who brought me water.”
“Yes.”
Something shifted inside me.
A memory.
A hallway.
Smoke.
A boy holding my hand.
A voice whispering:
“Don't cry.”
I staggered backward.
“You saved me.”
Daniel nodded.
“And your mother made me promise something.”
“What?”
“To find you if anything happened to her.”
Silence.
“You knew me all this time?”
“No.”
“Then why did you stop on the highway?”
Daniel looked down.
“I don't know.”
That answer terrified me more than anything.
Because perhaps he hadn't chosen me.
Perhaps someone had arranged for us to meet.
Then the front door opened.
An old man entered.
He looked at Daniel.
Then at me.
His face drained of color.
“Sarah?”
I nodded.
He whispered:
“Your mother is alive.”
Everything stopped.
“Where?”
He stepped closer.
“She's been hiding in Mexico for seventeen years.”
Daniel stood.
“Who are you?”
The man smiled sadly.
“Her husband.”
I looked at him.
“My mother had two husbands?”
“No.”
He looked at Daniel.
“Your father was never her legal husband.”
I froze.
“Then what was he?”
“Her brother.”
Daniel's face went white.
The man continued.
“The records were altered.”
My mind couldn't keep up.
“Why?”
“To protect you.”
“From whom?”
He looked toward the window.
“Charles.”
A bullet shattered the glass.
The old man collapsed.
Daniel pulled me to the floor.
Another shot.
Ava screamed.
Ethan grabbed her.
Daniel crawled toward the man.
Blood spread across the floor.
The man's final words were barely audible.
“Your mother... is not in Mexico.”
He coughed.
“She is... in the Hayes estate.”
Daniel stared at him.
“What?”
The man smiled weakly.
May you like
“She never left.”
Then he died.
