Chapter 12 - WHY DANIEL NEEDED ME ALIVE
Daniel Ross had sabotaged Elena’s car.
That was what we believed.
The truth was more complicated.
Federal agents found him before Grant did.
He surrendered outside Maya’s hospital.
He asked for me.
I met him inside an interview room with attorneys present.
He looked ordinary.
That made it worse.
“Did you kill Elena?”
“No.”
“Did you touch her brakes?”
“Yes.”
My hands went cold.
He continued quickly.
“Grant ordered me to disable the car.”
“That sounds like killing her.”
“He said she was driving to meet federal agents. I was supposed to make the car fail in the driveway.”
“Why?”
“To stop her leaving.”
“Instead?”
“She took another vehicle that morning.”
The SUV.
Daniel panicked.
He tried to repair what he had done.
He replaced one line.
Missed another.
Elena drove.
The brakes failed on the highway.
“So you caused it.”
His face collapsed.
“Yes.”
No excuses.
No dramatic absolution.
He had spent four years running.
“Why were you at Maya’s hospital?”
“To watch her.”
“For Grant?”
“At first.”
My fists tightened.
“Then why not hurt her?”
“Because Elena made me promise something before she died.”
I stared.
Daniel had confronted Elena weeks before the crash.
She knew Grant controlled him through gambling debts.
Instead of threatening him, she offered to help him escape.
She gave him documents.
Money.
One instruction:
If anything happened to her, protect Catherine Brooks’s granddaughters.
Me and Maya.
That explained his strange presence.
He had monitored us from a distance.
When Grant found him again, Daniel pretended to cooperate.
The fake recruiter.
The hospital job.
My placement.
Some actions served Grant.
Others secretly served Elena’s plan.
“You put me in that mansion?”
“I helped Marissa.”
“Why not tell me?”
“Because Grant had people everywhere.”
I wanted to hate him cleanly.
But life refused to stay clean.
Daniel caused Elena’s death through criminal obedience.
Then spent years trying to protect the family she cared about.
Both were true.
“What does Grant want from Maya?”
“Nothing.”
“Then why watch her?”
“Because if Grant couldn’t control you, he planned to use your sister.”
My stomach turned.
Daniel reached into an evidence bag.
A key card.
Grant’s private medical foundation office.
“He keeps files there.”
“What files?”
“On everyone.”
The federal search found dossiers.
Caregivers.
Judges.
Employees.
Adrian.
The boys.
Me.
Maya.
Then one folder stopped everything.
NIA CARTER — COMPATIBILITY.
I opened it.
Blood type.
Genetic markers.
Hospital records.
Adrian stared over my shoulder.
“Compatibility for what?”
Daniel looked sick.
“Grant’s daughter.”
No one had ever mentioned Grant having a daughter.
“She’s alive?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“In renal failure.”
My heart pounded.
“Maya’s condition…”
Daniel nodded.
May you like
“Grant wasn’t only watching your sister as leverage.”
He had been secretly testing whether either of us could be a kidney donor for his child.
