Chapter 7 - THE FATHER I NEVER GOT TO MEET
My father had been declared dead twenty-seven years ago.
I had never met him.
Never heard him laugh.
Never known whether I inherited his eyes or his stubbornness.
My mother kept one photograph beside her bed.
Daniel Bennett.
Dark hair.
Warm smile.
Holding a tiny pair of pink baby shoes.
Now Nico was telling me he might still be alive.
I stared at my phone.
“Don't give me hope unless you're certain.”
His voice softened.
“I know.”
“Then what do you have?”
“A medical transfer record.”
My hands began shaking.
“From when?”
“Six months after Lucia disappeared.”
“Where was he transferred?”
“To a private psychiatric facility in Connecticut.”
I stopped breathing.
Nico continued.
“The records were sealed under a false identity.”
“What identity?”
“David Barnes.”
I closed my eyes.
For years, I'd believed my father died before I was old enough to remember him.
Now I was discovering someone might have kept him alive under another name.
“Why?”
Nico hesitated.
“Because he knew what happened to Lucia.”
My stomach tightened.
“Is she alive too?”
“I don't know.”
For the first time, I believed he wasn't hiding an answer.
He genuinely didn't know.
I contacted Evelyn.
She looked devastated when I told her.
“Daniel?”
I nodded.
“Possibly alive.”
She covered her mouth.
For several seconds, she couldn't speak.
Then she whispered:
“Margaret spent years searching for him.”
My eyes filled with tears.
“She thought he was dead.”
Evelyn nodded.
“She never stopped hoping.”
The next morning, investigators began reviewing the facility's records.
It took time.
There were privacy protections.
Sealed documents.
And questions about the legality of Daniel's original confinement.
But eventually, they located someone registered as David Barnes.
Male.
Seventy-one.
Long-term resident.
And a photograph.
My hands began trembling when I saw it.
An older man.
Silver hair.
Kind eyes.
The same smile.
My father's smile.
I began crying.
“Daddy?”
I had never used the word before.
Not to a living person.
Now it escaped my mouth without permission.
Evelyn held my hand.
But then the investigator opened another document.
A recent visitor log.
Someone had been visiting Daniel every month.
For three years.
The visitor's name appeared clearly.
Nicola Moretti.
Nico.
My Nico.
I stared at the page.
My blood turned cold.
For three years, Nico had been visiting my father.
The father he claimed he'd only just discovered.
May you like
And I understood something terrifying.
The man who said he'd forget my name by Friday had been keeping the biggest secret of my life from me since the day we met.
