Chapter 8 - THE FATHER I NEVER KNEW
My father was not a mechanic who died in Mexico.
That story had been built for children.
The truth was uglier.
Gabriel Morales had worked as Patrick Callahan’s driver and security specialist.
Then Patrick was nearly killed in a warehouse explosion.
Gabriel disappeared the same night.
Chicago assumed he caused it.
My mother took Elena and me to California.
Changed our routines.
Never talked about him again.
“Was he guilty?” I asked.
Ethan hesitated.
“That’s what I was told.”
Michael shook his head.
“Dad didn’t believe it.”
He opened the ledger.
Patrick had written notes beside several names.
Gabriel Morales:
NOT TRAITOR. FIND VICTOR.
My knees weakened.
“So my father was framed.”
“Yes,” Michael said.
“For what?”
“Discovering the fertility project.”
Everything connected.
My mother.
Gabriel.
Patrick.
Victor.
Even me.
I looked at Sophie.
“This was revenge.”
Michael nodded.
“Partly.”
Victor had chosen me because I was Gabriel Morales’s daughter.
And Ethan because he was Patrick Callahan’s son.
He wanted to create a child linking the two families whose fathers nearly exposed him.
A human insurance policy.
A future weapon.
I wanted to throw up.
Ethan looked at Sophie.
“She’s not a weapon.”
“No,” Michael said.
“But Victor believes she gives him leverage over both families.”
Then gunfire shattered a stained-glass window.
Ethan moved before I processed the sound.
He shoved me and Sophie behind a stone column.
His men returned fire from outside.
Michael grabbed the ledger.
“Back exit!”
We ran.
I heard tires.
Shouting.
Then Michael collapsed.
Blood spread across his shoulder.
I screamed.
Ethan dragged him behind cover.
“Stay with me.”
Michael laughed weakly.
“You always were bossy.”
“Shut up.”
Before losing consciousness, Michael grabbed Ethan’s sleeve.
“There’s one more thing.”
“What?”
“Gabriel’s alive.”
I stared.
“My father?”
Michael nodded weakly.
“Victor’s had him for twenty years.”
“Where?”
Michael whispered one word.
“Wisconsin.”
Then his eyes closed.
But Ethan’s security chief came running from the street with another discovery.
One of Victor’s captured men had been carrying a photograph.
A recent photograph.
My father, older but unmistakable, stood beside a lake.
Holding Sophie’s newborn picture.
May you like
Written on the back:
SHE HAS HER GRANDFATHER’S EYES.
