Chapter 3 - THE MESSAGE DECLAN NEVER FINISHED
Sadie had kept Declan Cain’s final message for four years.
Not on paper.
Not on her phone.
Inside a music box.
Poppy thought the box belonged to her grandmother.
Sadie let her.
That evening Ronan’s driver took her home at exactly 5:07.
A second vehicle followed.
Security.
Sadie hated it.
Poppy loved the black SUV.
“Mommy, are you famous now?”
“No.”
“Rich?”
“Definitely no.”
“Secret agent?”
Sadie almost smiled.
“Eat your carrots.”
After Poppy fell asleep, Sadie pulled the music box from beneath the loose floorboard in the closet.
Declan had given it to her the night he died.
Or the night everyone believed he died.
She had spent years refusing to open the false bottom.
Because he told her:
Only if my mother finds you.
Evelyn had found her.
Sadie pressed the tiny brass latch.
The bottom opened.
Inside:
A flash drive.
A military challenge coin.
And a folded page.
Declan’s handwriting.
SADI—
IF YOU EVER REACH RAVEN HILL, DO NOT TRUST MY DEATH CERTIFICATE.
Sadie stopped breathing.
Four years.
She had assumed he meant the circumstances surrounding his death.
Not the death itself.
The next line:
MY MOTHER KNOWS THE SECOND HALF.
Second half of what?
Then:
Ronan cannot know until Marsh is removed from her medication.
Sadie’s stomach tightened.
Declan had anticipated this.
He knew Evelyn would be silenced medically.
He knew Marsh would remain near her.
Then the final line:
If Poppy is old enough to understand questions when you read this, I am sorry.
Sadie froze.
Why would Declan mention Poppy?
Her daughter had been two when Declan died.
He had met her only once.
One afternoon.
Ten minutes.
Poppy had slept in Sadie’s arms the entire time.
Sadie inserted the flash drive into an old laptop.
Password prompt.
She tried Declan’s name.
Nothing.
Falcon.
Nothing.
I AM NOT LOST.
The screen unlocked.
One video.
Declan appeared.
Face bruised.
Military shirt stained with blood.
Alive.
“Sadie.”
Her eyes filled.
“If you’re watching this, Mom communicated.”
He smiled faintly.
“Good.”
Then:
“Do not tell Ronan everything yet.”
Sadie whispered:
“Why?”
The recording answered.
“Because the person who arranged the operation that killed my team had access to Ronan’s private security.”
Her stomach dropped.
Declan’s “death” had occurred during a private security mission overseas.
The casket returned closed.
Flag-draped.
Nobody questioned it publicly.
Then he said:
“Marsh knows I survived.”
Sadie stopped.
“If he is still treating my mother, she is not safe.”
Then:
“The operation was called NIGHT FALCON.”
The tattoo.
The private code.
Everything connected.
Declan leaned closer.
“And Sadie—”
A sound interrupted the recording.
Declan looked behind him.
Then whispered:
“Your husband was not killed in Afghanistan.”
Sadie’s entire body went cold.
Poppy’s father, Aaron Cole, had supposedly died during military deployment seven years earlier.
Declan continued:
“He was with me.”
The video cut to black.
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And Sadie realized the Cain family had been hiding not one dead man from her.
But two.
