Chapter 5
I spent fourteen years mourning Sarah.
In less than one day, I learned I had also spent fourteen years missing a son I never knew had survived.
I didn’t know how to process it.
So I didn’t.
There was no time.
We returned to the clubhouse under police escort.
The detective Cole trusted was Elena Ruiz, a major-crimes investigator who had known him since high school.
Sarah didn’t trust her.
I noticed immediately.
When Ruiz entered the room, Sarah moved closer to Emily.
“Who knows we’re here?”
“Only my captain.”
“Name?”
Ruiz hesitated.
“Captain Warren.”
Sarah went pale.
“Get out.”
Ruiz frowned.
“What?”
“Get out right now.”
I stood.
“Sarah?”
“Warren was on Cross’s list fourteen years ago.”
Ruiz stared at her.
“That’s impossible.”
“I saw payments.”
Ruiz pulled out her phone.
Sarah knocked it from her hand.
“Don’t call anyone!”
Cole stepped between them.
“Everybody slow down.”
Sarah pointed at Ruiz.
“If Warren knows I’m alive, he’ll tell Cross.”
Ruiz looked shaken.
“He’s been my commander for seven years.”
“So was Victor.”
That silenced everyone.
Victor sat at the far end of the table, shoulder bandaged.
He didn’t defend himself.
Ruiz slowly removed her badge.
Then her weapon.
She placed both on the table.
“I’m not your enemy.”
Sarah watched her.
Ruiz continued.
“But if my department is compromised, I need proof.”
“We get it from the archive,” Sarah said.
“If Keller hasn’t destroyed it.”
I looked at her.
“Show me where.”
Sarah shook her head.
“Not yet.”
Anger flared.
“My son’s information is there.”
“So are the names of people who would kill you to keep it buried.”
“I already have people trying to kill me.”
“Ray.”
She stepped closer.
“This is exactly who you were fourteen years ago.”
“What does that mean?”
“You ran toward every danger because standing still made you feel helpless.”
“And you ran away.”
The words left before I could stop them.
Sarah flinched.
Emily looked between us.
I regretted it immediately.
“Sarah—”
“No.”
She looked away.
“You’re right.”
“I didn’t mean—”
“Yes, you did.”
Her voice cracked.
“And maybe I deserve it.”
Emily stood.
“Stop.”
We both turned.
She was crying.
“I just got my mom back.”
Sarah’s face crumpled.
“And now you’re both fighting about things that happened before I was born.”
She looked at me.
“I don’t know who you are to us yet.”
Then at Sarah.
“But I know I’m tired of adults keeping secrets because they think children can’t handle the truth.”
The room became silent.
Sarah hugged her.
“I’m sorry.”
Emily hugged back.
Then she looked at me.
“Find your son.”
Those three words settled everything.
Sarah finally agreed.
Saint Catherine’s Hospital had expanded over an old medical records building years earlier.
Beneath the parking structure was an underground maintenance level.
The Meridian archive sat beyond a sealed tunnel.
Only key 317 opened the internal lock.
Keller had the key.
But Sarah knew another way.
“A storm drain connects to the foundation.”
Cole groaned.
“Of course it does.”
We moved after midnight.
Ruiz came without notifying her department.
Victor stayed behind with Emily and Boone.
Sarah insisted on joining us.
“You were kidnapped yesterday.”
“And I’m the only person who knows the tunnel.”
I couldn’t argue.
At the storm drain, we crawled through nearly two hundred yards of concrete darkness.
Sarah moved confidently.
I stayed behind her.
Every few minutes I wanted to touch her.
Not romantically.
Just to prove she remained real.
We reached a rusted ladder.
Sarah climbed.
At the top was a narrow service corridor.
Then a steel door.
My blood went cold.
Same number.
Same type of door.
Same nightmare.
Sarah saw my face.
“You okay?”
“No.”
“Good.”
I almost laughed.
We heard voices beyond the door.
Keller.
Another man.
Then a voice I recognized from television.
Adrian Cross.
Sarah whispered, “He’s here.”
I looked through a gap in the wall panel.
Cross stood beside a bank of old file cabinets.
He was in his sixties.
Silver hair.
Perfect suit.
A man who looked like he belonged at charity dinners.
Keller held the key.
But the lock wasn’t opening.
Cross slapped him.
“You said you had both pieces.”
“I do.”
“Then why isn’t it working?”
Sarah smiled faintly.
“There’s a third step.”
“What?”
“My fingerprint.”
I stared at her.
She raised her hand.
“Meridian installed biometric confirmation because the archive contained blackmail material.”
“So they need you.”
“That’s why Keller didn’t kill me.”
Cross shouted again.
“Bring Sarah here.”
Keller’s face changed.
“She escaped.”
Cross stared at him.
“You lost her?”
Before Keller could answer, Ruiz’s phone vibrated.
We all froze.
She grabbed it.
Too late.
Inside the archive room, Keller turned.
“What was that?”
Sarah whispered, “Run.”
The door burst open.
We scattered.
Gunfire hit the concrete wall.
Cole pulled Sarah behind a support column.
Ruiz returned fire.
I tackled Keller as he came through the doorway.
We hit the floor.
The key flew from his hand.
I punched him once.
Twice.
He drove an elbow into my ribs.
Cross ran.
“Ray!” Sarah shouted.
Keller reached for a gun.
I grabbed his wrist.
We fought across the concrete.
Then Sarah kicked the weapon away.
Keller looked at her.
“You should’ve died fourteen years ago.”
Sarah hit him with a metal pipe.
He dropped.
Cole stared at her.
“Remind me never to upset you.”
Ruiz handcuffed Keller.
Cross was gone.
But he had left something behind.
His briefcase.
Inside were passports.
Cash.
And a folder labeled RELOCATION.
Sarah opened it.
Names filled the first page.
Then photographs.
Children.
Young adults.
People Cross had moved under new identities.
Sarah flipped faster.
Suddenly she stopped.
Her whole body shook.
“What?”
She pulled out one page.
A photograph of a young man.
Dark hair.
Gray eyes.
Twenty years old now.
My eyes.
My face when I was young.
Sarah began sobbing.
“That’s him.”
My hands went numb.
The name below the picture read:
JACOB REEVES.
Current residence: Tucson.
Occupation: EMT trainee.
I stared at the boy I had never held.
My son.
Then Ruiz turned the page.
A red notation appeared beside his name.
RECOVERY AUTHORIZED.
I looked at Sarah.
“What does that mean?”
May you like
She went white.
“They’re going after him.”
