Chapter 11 - The Love Story Buried in the Past
Sloane had been seventeen when a fire broke out at a waterfront charity event.
She remembered smoke.
Screaming.
A stranger carrying her through a service corridor.
Then waking inside an ambulance.
Her rescuer had disappeared before she could learn his name.
Her father had told her a young man pulled her from the burning building.
She never knew that young man was Rafe Calder.
Across Manhattan, Rafe opened Daniel's letter after the investigator released a copy.
Rafe,
You saved my daughter when you had every reason to save yourself.
I saw the kind of man you could become before your father taught you what power was supposed to mean.
If Sloane ever needs you again, protect her right to choose, even when her choice hurts you.
Rafe sat motionless.
He remembered the fire.
He remembered a girl coughing against his shoulder as he carried her into the rain.
He had never known her name.
When he met Sloane years later at a charity fundraiser, he'd felt something unexpectedly familiar.
Now he understood why.
But the discovery brought him no comfort.
He had once saved her from a burning building.
Then, without realizing it, he'd built a marriage in which she felt trapped.
His phone vibrated.
A message from Sloane.
I know about the fire.
Rafe stared at the screen.
For a long moment, he couldn't answer.
Finally, he typed:
I didn't know it was you. I never expected anything in return.
Three dots appeared.
Disappeared.
Appeared again.
I believe you.
His eyes stung.
Then another message arrived.
I also know about Leon Mercer. The investigators want me somewhere secure until they make their arrests.
Rafe resisted the urge to demand her location.
Instead, he wrote:
Please follow their advice. I'll cooperate with whatever they need.
This time, she answered immediately.
Thank you.
Two words.
Such a small thing.
Yet Rafe read them like a second chance.
That evening, federal agents prepared to arrest Mercer.
But when they entered his office, they discovered his computers wiped and his safe empty.
On the desk stood a photograph.
Sloane leaving her lawyer's office.
Someone had circled her pregnant stomach in red.
Attached was a message.
If Daniel Bennett's daughter won't come to me, I'll bring Daniel to her.
Minutes later, the investigators received confirmation.
May you like
The Vermont medical facility had been raided.
Daniel Bennett was missing.
