PART 5

For several seconds, I couldn’t understand what my mother had just said.

My father came to the prison.

Six years ago.

But the entire town had watched his funeral.

I had stood beside his coffin.

I had watched them lower it into the ground.

I had watched my mother being sentenced for killing a man who might not even have been my father.

“No,” I whispered.

My mother squeezed my hand.

“I know how it sounds.”

“Mom…”

“I didn’t believe it either.”

Agent Shaw was still kneeling beside the unconscious gunman in the hallway. Two agents were checking my mother’s wound while another secured the doors.

But I couldn’t look away from her.

“What happened?” I asked.

My mother closed her eyes.

“Your father came to my cell three nights before my trial.”

I stared at her.

“You never told anyone.”

“I couldn’t.”

“Why?”

“Because he told me Vance had people everywhere.”

She swallowed.

“He said if I told anyone he was alive, they would kill you and Leo.”

My chest tightened.

“Then who was in Dad’s coffin?”

My mother looked at Agent Shaw.

The agent slowly stood.

“We need to hear everything.”

My mother nodded.

“Daniel told me that Vance had discovered he was collecting evidence. So Daniel staged his own disappearance.”

I shook my head.

“But why?”

“Because he believed the only way to expose them was to let them think they had won.”

She looked at me.

“But something went wrong.”

“What?”

“Vance found out.”

My mother’s voice broke.

“He caught Daniel before he could escape.”

Agent Shaw immediately ordered the memory card analyzed.

It contained only one file.

A video.

The screen showed my father sitting in a dark room.

His face was thinner than I remembered.

His beard had grown.

But it was him.

My father.

Alive.

He looked directly into the camera.

“If you’re watching this, Emma, then your mother finally has the evidence.”

I covered my mouth.

Dad continued.

“I need you to know something. I didn’t abandon you.”

His eyes filled with tears.

“I wanted to come home every single day.”

He paused.

“But Vance found me.”

The video cut briefly.

Then resumed.

“I was forced to disappear again. Vance threatened Emma and Leo. He told me that if I contacted either of you, he would make sure your mother died in prison.”

My mother began sobbing.

Dad looked down.

“I made a deal with a federal investigator. I would stay hidden while they built a case against Vance and Richard Hale.”

Then he said the sentence that shattered me.

“But the investigator was murdered before the case could be completed.”

The video ended.

A second file appeared.

LOCATION — CURRENT

Agent Shaw’s face changed.

“That’s today’s date.”

She looked at me.

“This isn’t an old recording.”

“What?”

“This was recorded recently.”

My heart began pounding.