Chapter 8 - The Christmas TrapDaniel refused to go to the warehouse.
Instead, he sent three empty vehicles.
They drove toward Keegan's property.
The real group went in the opposite direction.
Claire sat in the middle seat.
Emma slept beside her.
Ethan drove.
Daniel sat in front.
“Where are we going?” Claire asked.
“Somewhere Keegan can't find.”
“Does such a place exist?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
Daniel looked at her in the mirror.
“My mother's house.”
Claire stared.
“I thought she was captive.”
“She is.”
“Then why go there?”
“Because the house was abandoned twenty years ago.”
Ethan spoke quietly.
“Abandoned publicly.”
Daniel nodded.
“Not privately.”
The house stood on the edge of the city.
Snow covered the roof.
The windows were boarded.
Nobody would think anyone lived there.
Inside, Daniel found an old photograph of his mother.
He touched it.
Claire watched.
“You loved her.”
Daniel smiled faintly.
“She was the only person who ever told me I wasn't a monster.”
“What changed?”
“My father.”
Daniel opened a hidden compartment behind the fireplace.
Inside was a metal box.
He found documents.
Bank records.
Passports.
A birth certificate.
Claire looked at it.
“Daniel.”
He read the name.
His hands shook.
The document wasn't his.
It belonged to Emma.
Claire stepped closer.
“What is that?”
Daniel looked at the date.
Emma's birth certificate.
But the mother's name was wrong.
Claire's name wasn't there.
It belonged to another woman.
A woman named Elena Seo.
Daniel's mother.
Claire stared.
“That can't be.”
Daniel shook his head.
“It says Emma was registered under my mother's identity.”
Ethan looked stunned.
“Father started this before Emma was born.”
Claire hugged her daughter.
“She is my child.”
“No one is saying otherwise.”
“Then why?”
Daniel found another document.
A DNA report.
His eyes moved down the page.
Then stopped.
Claire saw his face.
“What?”
Daniel couldn't speak.
Ethan took the paper.
He read it.
Then looked at Daniel.
“It's impossible.”
Claire stepped toward them.
“What does it say?”
Daniel finally answered.
“Emma isn't Michael's biological daughter.”
Claire stopped breathing.
“What?”
“The test says…”
He swallowed.
“She is mine.”
Silence.
Claire shook her head.
“No.”
Daniel stared at the report.
“I've never met you before.”
Claire's voice broke.
“That's impossible.”
Ethan looked toward the hallway.
Footsteps.
Someone was inside the house.
Daniel folded the report.
“Later.”
He drew his weapon.
“Whoever is here knows we found this.”
A door creaked.
Emma woke up.
“Mom?”
Claire picked her up.
Daniel moved toward the sound.
Then a woman's voice came from the darkness.
“Daniel.”
He froze.
A figure stepped into the hallway.
An older woman.
Gray hair.
Thin face.
Tired eyes.
Daniel's gun dropped from his hand.
“Mom?”
The woman looked at him.
Tears filled her eyes.
“My son.”
Claire stared.
Ethan stepped backward.
“Our mother.”
Daniel approached slowly.
“You're alive.”
She nodded.
“I waited twenty years.”
Daniel embraced her.
Then she whispered into his ear.
“I'm sorry.”
“For what?”
She pulled back.
Her eyes moved to Emma.
May you like
And she said:
“She was never supposed to be yours.”
