Chapter 10 - The Trade
Mason hated the plan.
I hated it too.
But Emily was alive because she had spent six years running from people who destroyed our family.
I would not leave her there.
The doctors fitted me with a specialized mobility brace.
My injuries were severe, but not every part of the original cast had been medically necessary.
Some had been kept deliberately restrictive after Detective Mason realized Margaret might return.
Now portions could be removed.
For the first time since the fall, I could sit partially upright.
I still couldn’t walk.
So I arrived at the exchange in a wheelchair.
The location was an abandoned manufacturing plant forty miles outside the city.
Police teams surrounded the area from a distance.
A transmitter was hidden beneath my brace.
The “master key” was inside a small black drive.
Except it wasn’t the real key.
It was a tracker and data capture device designed by federal cybercrime agents.
Arthur wanted information.
We wanted his network.
The warehouse doors opened.
Ethan stepped out first.
I stared at him.
He was supposed to be in custody.
“How?”
Arthur appeared behind him.
“Your husband finally became useful.”
Ethan avoided my eyes.
Arthur had arranged his escape during a courthouse transfer using one of his remaining insiders.
Then Emily was dragged forward.
She looked exactly like the photograph.
Older.
Thinner.
But alive.
Our eyes met.
Something passed between us instantly.
Family.
Recognition without history.
Arthur smiled.
“Drive.”
“Emily first.”
“You’re Daniel’s daughter.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
His smile disappeared.
I saw my father in myself then.
The refusal to bend.
Arthur pushed Emily forward.
She stumbled toward me.
Ethan caught her arm.
“No.”
Arthur turned.
Ethan looked terrified.
But for the first time, he looked ashamed too.
“You said nobody else had to die.”
Arthur stared at him.
“You still believe promises?”
Then Arthur reached inside his coat.
Police immediately moved closer through the darkness.
But Ethan suddenly lunged.
He knocked Arthur’s arm aside.
A gunshot exploded into the ceiling.
Emily ran.
Officers stormed the warehouse.
Arthur fled through a side door.
Mason chased him.
I grabbed Emily’s hand.
“You’re Claire.”
“Yes.”
She started crying.
“Your father saved my life.”
Before I could ask what she meant, Ethan dropped to his knees.
He raised both hands.
“I’ll testify.”
I looked at him.
“Why now?”
He stared toward the doorway where Arthur had disappeared.
“Because there’s something Arthur never told you.”
“What?”
Ethan’s face went white.
“Your father didn’t die in that warehouse.”
May you like
My entire world stopped again.
“He survived the fire.”
