Chapter 4
We reached the Blue Ridge property after sunset.
Police went first.
I hated every second I had to wait.
Maya stayed with a female detective inside an unmarked vehicle.
She fought me.
"I want my mom."
"I know."
"You promised you'd help."
"I am helping."
"Then let me go."
I crouched beside the open car door.
"Maya, helping doesn't mean letting you run toward dangerous people."
Her eyes filled.
"My mom is alone."
"No."
I pointed toward the cabin.
"She's got twenty officers looking for her."
"And you."
That nearly broke me.
"Yeah."
"And me."
I smiled sadly.
"You especially."
The cabin sat at the end of a dirt road surrounded by trees.
I remembered it.
My father teaching me to split wood.
Fishing at sunrise.
Playing cards at night.
Memories from another lifetime.
Police searched the property.
No gunfire.
No Victor.
Then an officer shouted.
"Found someone!"
I ran before anyone could stop me.
Lena was behind the cabin.
Curled beside an old storage shed.
Alive.
"Lena!"
Her head lifted.
For one second, seventeen years disappeared.
Same eyes.
Same face.
Older.
Exhausted.
Terrified.
"Isaiah."
I dropped beside her.
Her wrists were bruised.
There was dried blood near her hairline, but she was conscious.
"Where's Maya?"
"Safe."
She grabbed my arm.
"Safe?"
"She's here."
Lena closed her eyes.
Tears rolled down her cheeks.
"Thank God."
Paramedics rushed in.
I moved aside reluctantly.
Maya saw her mother being carried toward the ambulance.
She broke free from the detective.
"Mom!"
Lena sat up immediately.
"Maya!"
They collided beside the ambulance.
I turned away.
Some moments didn't belong to me.
Maya cried into her mother's chest.
Lena kept kissing her braids.
"I'm sorry."
"You came back."
"I'm sorry."
"You came back."
Maya repeated it like nothing else mattered.
I understood.
After Lena was stabilized, police began questioning her.
She insisted I stay.
So did Maya.
Lena looked at me.
"I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"Eleven years."
That wasn't the first thing I expected.
"You vanished."
"I know."
"Why?"
She glanced at Maya.
"Because I found out I was pregnant."
My chest tightened.
Maya was nine.
The numbers didn't fit.
Lena noticed.
"Not with Maya."
I froze.
"What?"
Her eyes filled.
"I lost the baby."
My heart dropped.
Eleven years earlier, Lena and I had been engaged.
Then she disappeared without explanation.
"You were pregnant?"
"Yes."
"Mine?"
She looked hurt.
"Of course."
I sat back.
Every old wound reopened at once.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because Robert found me."
I stared.
"When?"
"Two days after I took the test."
"What did he want?"
"He had discovered I'd been searching for Samuel's records again."
My stomach tightened.
"You knew Dad was alive?"
"I knew he had survived the staged crash."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"I promised him."
Anger rose.
"Everyone keeps making promises about my life."
"I know."
"No, Lena. You don't."
Her eyes filled.
"I watched Samuel die."
That silenced me.
"What?"
She looked down.
"Victor found the cabin where Samuel was hiding seventeen years ago."
"The photograph."
"Taken three days before."
"Robert betrayed you."
She nodded.
"Victor came at night."
Her voice shook.
"Samuel got me out through the back."
"What happened?"
"He stayed."
My chest tightened.
"He told me to run."
"And you did?"
"I was twenty-four and terrified."
Tears slid down her face.
"I heard gunshots."
I couldn't breathe.
"Did you see his body?"
"No."
There it was again.
No body.
No certainty.
"But Robert told me Samuel was dead."
"Robert lies."
"I know that now."
Lena continued.
"For years, I tried to find proof."
"Then we met."
She smiled sadly.
"You were supposed to be separate from all of it."
"Instead you nearly married me."
"I loved you."
"Then why leave?"
Her face crumpled.
"Robert showed me photographs."
"What photographs?"
"You."
My chest tightened.
"You leaving work. Riding your motorcycle. Going to your mother's house."
I understood.
"He threatened me."
"He said if I stayed with you, Victor would realize I had told you something."
"So you disappeared."
"I thought I was saving you."
I stood.
Anger surged through me.
"Do you know how many people have said that today?"
She flinched.
"I'm sorry."
"I spent eleven years thinking I wasn't enough."
"Isaiah."
"I thought you woke up and decided your life was better without me."
She started crying.
"It wasn't."
"You don't get to decide what truth I can survive."
"No."
Her answer was immediate.
"You're right."
That stopped me.
No excuse.
No defense.
Just right.
Maya looked between us.
"You knew each other?"
Lena gave a broken laugh.
"Very well."
Maya stared at me.
"Were you going to marry my mom?"
I looked at Lena.
"Yes."
Maya's eyes widened.
"Whoa."
Despite everything, I almost laughed.
Then Detective Hollis approached.
"We found something inside."
Lena's face changed.
"The basement?"
He nodded.
"What basement?" I asked.
Lena looked at me.
"Your father built it."
We went inside.
The cabin smelled exactly how I remembered.
Wood.
Dust.
Old smoke.
Police had pulled a rug away from the floor.
Underneath was a trapdoor.
Stairs led into a hidden room.
Shelves.
Boxes.
Files.
Photographs.
Twenty years of evidence.
Lena looked around.
"I found this six months ago."
"How?"
"My father left a journal."
Calvin.
"He mentioned Samuel's cabin."
"And you came here?"
"Yes."
"Alone?"
She nodded.
"That was smart."
She almost smiled.
"I've made better decisions."
Detective Hollis opened one case.
Inside were financial records connecting Victor Hale to stolen shipments, bribery, and the warehouse fire.
Then he found the ledger.
The one Robert said Lena had.
"Why didn't you take this to police?"
I asked.
"I tried."
"What happened?"
"The detective I contacted disappeared."
My stomach sank.
"Victor?"
"I don't know."
Hollis looked grim.
"We'll find out."
Lena pointed toward another shelf.
"I hid copies elsewhere."
"Where?"
She looked at Maya.
"With people Victor doesn't know."
That was smart.
Then I noticed an old cassette recorder.
Same kind from the station case.
I pressed play.
Static.
Then my father's voice.
"November 18."
My knees nearly gave out.
Samuel.
Older than I remembered.
Tired.
"If anyone finds this, Victor knows I'm alive."
Lena covered her mouth.
Dad continued.
"Robert says he wants to help. I don't trust him."
I looked at Lena.
"He knew."
She nodded.
The tape continued.
"I've arranged copies of everything. If something happens to me, Isaiah must never be brought into this."
I closed my eyes.
Of course.
Even from hiding, my father was deciding what I should know.
Then he said something unexpected.
"Lena refuses to stop."
A small laugh.
"Calvin's daughter has more courage than all of us."
Lena began crying.
Dad continued.
"I told her if I die, she must protect Isaiah from Victor."
My jaw tightened.
Then:
"She told me Isaiah deserves truth more than protection."
I looked at her.
She whispered, "I failed at that."
The tape crackled.
My father continued.
"And if you're listening, son, I need you to know something."
My heart stopped.
"I made choices that helped Victor become powerful."
His breathing was heavy.
"I told myself I was protecting our future."
A pause.
"Men like us use that phrase when we're too ashamed to admit we're afraid."
I sat down.
It felt like he was speaking directly to every secret surrounding me.
"I should have trusted you with truth."
My eyes burned.
"I am sorry."
The tape ended.
Silence.
For nineteen years, I wanted one more conversation with my father.
This was all I got.
An apology on magnetic tape.
It was enough to hurt.
Not enough to heal.
Then a police officer called from upstairs.
"Detective!"
We climbed back up.
A laptop had been found beneath a loose floorboard.
Lena stared at it.
"That isn't mine."
Hollis opened it.
Password protected.
A sticky note beneath the keyboard contained one word.
ROADHOME.
My father's phrase.
The laptop opened.
Folders appeared.
Video files.
Financial records.
Names.
Hundreds.
Then one folder caught my attention.
ISAIAH.
I opened it.
Photographs of me.
Years of them.
From age thirty.
Thirty-five.
Forty.
Forty-seven.
Someone had been watching me.
One image showed my motorcycle shop.
Another showed my mother's funeral five years ago.
Another showed me sitting alone outside my apartment.
My skin crawled.
"Victor?"
Lena whispered.
"No."
"How do you know?"
She pointed to the file dates.
The newest photograph was uploaded eight months ago.
"But Victor didn't know this cabin existed until recently."
Hollis frowned.
"Then who was maintaining the files?"
I scrolled.
At the bottom was a video recorded eight months earlier.
I clicked.
A man appeared on screen.
Older.
Thin.
Gray beard.
My entire body stopped.
I knew those eyes.
My eyes.
"Isaiah."
The man stared into the camera.
My father.
Samuel Brooks.
Alive.
Eight months ago.
Maya whispered, "That's your dad."
I couldn't speak.
Samuel continued.
"If you're seeing this, then Victor finally found the cabin."
My hands shook violently.
"I know you were told I died seventeen years ago."
He looked down.
"When Victor attacked, I survived."
Lena gasped.
She didn't know.
Neither did I.
Dad continued.
"I stayed dead because the people protecting Victor reached farther than I understood."
My heart hammered.
"Where are you?" I whispered at the screen.
Then he answered as if he heard me.
"I'm going home."
The video ended.
I stared.
Eight months ago.
He had planned to come home.
But he hadn't.
Detective Hollis checked the file information.
"Uploaded remotely."
"From where?"
"We'll need digital forensics."
Lena grabbed my arm.
"Isaiah."
I looked at her.
"If Samuel was alive eight months ago..."
"I know."
There was only one question left.
Where was my father now?
Then Maya pointed toward the screen.
"What's that?"
A new message had appeared.
Incoming connection.
May you like
One line of text.
STOP LOOKING OR SAMUEL DIES TONIGHT.
