Chapter 7
I reached my construction office before the fire department.
Smoke poured from the rear windows.
The night guard’s car stood in the parking lot.
I tried to enter.
A firefighter pulled me back.
“Someone is inside!”
“We know.”
They broke through the side door.
Minutes later, two firefighters carried the guard out.
He was unconscious but breathing.
Daniel was nowhere inside.
The records room burned, but our off-site backups survived.
The fire destroyed his chance to steal employee identities.
It also gave police another charge.
Arson.
Attempted murder.
The guard woke in the ambulance long enough to describe the attack.
Daniel struck him from behind, stole his access card, and asked where I kept my private files.
“He wanted your schedule,” the guard whispered.
My schedule.
Daniel was no longer running only from police.
He was hunting me.
Federal agents moved me, Emma, and Laura to separate secure locations.
Emma protested.
“I want to stay with Michael.”
The lead agent shook his head.
“Daniel may expect that. Separation makes you harder to locate together.”
She looked at me.
“What if something happens?”
“We follow instructions.”
Her eyes showed surprise.
Months earlier, I would have ignored every order and tried to control the danger myself.
Now I understood that courage sometimes meant trusting people trained to help.
Laura was discharged into supervised custody.
Prosecutors charged her with unauthorized transfer of joint funds and obstruction for hiding Daniel’s early contact.
She accepted responsibility.
Her attorney negotiated home confinement while she cooperated.
Emma moved to a guarded residence with Rosa.
I stayed in an apartment near my office.
Three days passed without any sign of Daniel.
On the fourth morning, I received a package.
Inside was the silver graduation bracelet.
I had left it in my desk at home.
Daniel had entered the house after we were moved.
A note lay beneath it.
She called you when she was afraid. That ends tonight.
I called the agents.
They searched the property.
Daniel had already gone.
Security footage showed him wearing one of my suits and leaving through the garage.
He wanted us to know he could enter my life whenever he wished.
That evening, Emma called from Rosa’s phone.
“Are you safe?”
“Yes.”
“Did he really steal the bracelet?”
“How do you know?”
“An agent told Rosa.”
I rubbed my forehead.
“He wants to frighten us.”
“It’s working.”
“That doesn’t mean he wins.”
She became quiet.
“I keep thinking about graduation.”
“So do I.”
“If I could do it again, I would give you the ticket.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t. I need to say it.”
I waited.
“You were there when I learned to ride a bike. You stayed up when I was sick. You paid for school. You loved me when I treated your love like it was less important because we don’t share blood.”
Her voice broke.
“I gave him that ticket because I thought choosing him would make him stay.”
The truth reached me.
Her rejection had not been about my worth.
It had been a frightened child bargaining with an absent father.
“If I chose you,” she continued, “I thought he would leave again.”
“And if you rejected me?”
“I believed you would stay anyway.”
I closed my eyes.
She had wounded me because she trusted my love more than his.
That did not erase the wound.
But it helped me understand it.
“I should not have taken you for granted,” she whispered.
“No.”
“I’m sorry, Dad.”
It was the first time she had used the word since graduation.
I could not answer immediately.
“Michael?”
“I’m here.”
“Was it wrong to call you that?”
“No.”
My voice cracked.
“It was not wrong.”
A sound came through her line.
A door opening.
Emma stopped breathing.
“Rosa?”
No answer.
Then Daniel spoke.
“Hang up the phone.”
“Emma,” I said sharply.
The line went dead.
I called the agents while running toward my car.
Rosa had been attacked in the parking garage.
Her guard was unconscious.
Daniel had used my stolen suit and identification to enter the secure building.
He took Emma through a service exit.
Traffic cameras found their vehicle heading toward the airport.
The private plane he originally booked remained inside a remote hangar.
Police surrounded it.
I arrived behind the tactical convoy.
The hangar doors were closed.
Daniel’s voice came through the airport radio.
He had fuel spread across the floor.
If anyone entered, he threatened to ignite it.
“I want Michael,” he said.
The commander refused.
Daniel pressed the gun against Emma and forced her into view near a window.
“Send him in, or she dies.”
I took the radio.
“Let her go.”
“You stole my daughter.”
“I raised the child you abandoned.”
“She belongs to me.”
“She belongs to herself.”
He became silent.
Then Emma’s voice came through faintly.
“I don’t belong to you.”
Daniel struck her.
I started toward the hangar.
The commander blocked me.
Emma appeared again, blood on her lip.
She looked directly toward the police lights.
Then she shouted the words Daniel could never survive hearing.
“Michael is my real dad!”
His face twisted with rage.
May you like
He raised the gun.
A shot exploded inside the hangar.
