Chapter 7
The police never sent me to the grocery store.
Instead, they sent an empty car that looked like mine.
Patricia called twice while officers moved toward the lake house.
I didn't answer.
For the first time, I stopped playing by her rules.
Emily stayed with Officer Reyes, who had come after hearing what happened.
Before I left, Emily hugged me so tightly I could barely breathe.
“Come back.”
“I will.”
“Promise?”
I almost said yes automatically.
Then I remembered how many promises adults made when they couldn't control the outcome.
So I held her face.
“I am going to do everything I can.”
She nodded.
“That counts.”
Those two words nearly broke me.
James insisted on coming.
Police told him no.
He argued until a detective finally said, “Your wife may be involved in kidnapping. You're emotionally compromised.”
James stared at him.
“So is Sarah.”
“Sarah isn't going either.”
I looked at the detective.
“What?”
“We have enough to act without you.”
For one second I wanted to fight.
Then I realized he was right.
I had spent eleven years being controlled by Daniel.
I didn't need to prove my courage by doing something reckless.
So James and I waited at a sheriff's substation thirty miles from the lake.
It was the longest hour of my life.
At 6:17 p.m., a detective walked in.
“We found your mother.”
My knees nearly gave out.
“Is she alive?”
“Yes.”
I covered my mouth.
James sat down heavily.
“Where's Patricia?”
“Taken into custody.”
“And Daniel?”
The detective's expression changed.
“He wasn't there.”
My relief vanished.
“What?”
“Your mother says he left twenty minutes before we arrived.”
“Marcus?”
“Also gone.”
Of course.
Two of the three.
Still free.
My mother arrived in an ambulance.
She had a bruise on her forehead and a cut on her hand.
I ran toward her.
Then stopped.
We stood three feet apart.
So much had happened between us.
So many lies.
But she was my mother.
I hugged her.
She collapsed against me.
“I'm sorry.”
I didn't say it was okay.
It wasn't.
I simply held her.
After paramedics cleared her, she gave a statement.
Patricia had come to the house with Daniel.
Daniel told her they only wanted to talk.
Then he grabbed her when she tried to call me.
At the lake house, Marcus had been waiting.
My mother recognized him immediately.
She had met him years earlier.
“How?” I asked.
She looked at me.
“Robert sent him to deliver money.”
I clenched my jaw.
“So Marcus knew you too.”
“Yes.”
“Did he know about me?”
“Yes.”
Everyone knew.
That thought hurt in a way I couldn't explain.
Everyone knew who I was except me.
“What did they want?”
“The key.”
“Why?”
She swallowed.
“And the video.”
“Why the video?”
“I don't know.”
I stared at her.
“Mom.”
“I swear.”
The detective leaned forward.
“What did they say at the lake house?”
My mother closed her eyes.
“Patricia kept yelling at Marcus that he should have destroyed everything years ago.”
My pulse jumped.
“What did Marcus say?”
“That Robert made copies.”
“What copies?”
“She never said.”
My mother rubbed her wrists.
“Daniel was different.”
I almost laughed.
“Different how?”
“Scared.”
“He should be.”
“No.”
She looked at me.
“Scared of Patricia.”
I didn't care.
“He kidnapped you.”
“I know.”
“He hit Emily.”
“I know.”
“Don't make excuses for him.”
“I'm not.”
She reached across the table.
I pulled my hand back.
Pain flashed across her face.
She deserved some of it.
Maybe I did too.
“I heard them arguing,” she said. “Daniel told Patricia he wanted out.”
“Out of what?”
“The plan.”
I stared at her.
“He said he only agreed to help move the house because Patricia told him the money belonged to their family.”
I shook my head.
“He knew it was mine.”
“Yes.”
“He had custody papers.”
“Yes.”
“He lied to me for eleven years.”
“Yes.”
My mother leaned forward.
“But then Patricia said something.”
“What?”
“She told him, ‘You don't get to grow a conscience now, not after what happened to Robert.’”
The room went silent.
I looked at James.
He looked back at me.
“What happened to Robert?” I asked.
My mother shook her head.
“I don't know.”
“He died from cancer.”
That was what every article said.
Pancreatic cancer.
Fast.
Brutal.
Public.
“Yes,” my mother said. “But Daniel was in Houston the week Robert died.”
My heart stopped.
“No.”
“I remember because you told me he had a business conference.”
I did remember.
Four years earlier.
Daniel had been gone for three days.
He returned exhausted.
I had asked if the conference went well.
He said it was boring.
Then brought Emily a stuffed rabbit from the airport.
I felt nauseated.
“What are you suggesting?”
“Nothing.”
“Good.”
“I'm telling you what I heard.”
The detective wrote everything down.
James stood suddenly.
“I need Robert's video.”
I looked at him.
“So do I.”
We returned to my house with police.
I hadn't wanted to go there.
Not yet.
But the flash drive was in my bag, and Evelyn arranged a secure laptop that wasn't connected to the internet.
Officer Reyes brought Emily.
The moment she saw me, she ran.
I picked her up.
She was getting too big for that.
I didn't care.
“Grandma Linda?”
“Safe.”
“Grandma Patricia?”
I hesitated.
“In trouble.”
Emily nodded slowly.
“Daddy?”
“We don't know where he is.”
She held me tighter.
We watched Robert's video after Emily fell asleep upstairs with my mother nearby.
James sat across from me.
Two detectives stood in the room.
Evelyn joined by video.
I inserted the drive.
A man appeared on the screen.
Robert Hale.
My father.
He looked thinner than in the photographs.
Older.
Tired.
He stared into the camera for several seconds before speaking.
“Sarah.”
My breath caught.
“I have recorded this message because my doctors tell me I may not have much time.”
I covered my mouth.
“I hoped we would meet before you ever saw it.”
He smiled sadly.
“If we did, then perhaps you can laugh at an old man's paranoia and throw this recording away.”
My eyes filled.
“But if we didn't, then I need you to hear what I was too cowardly to tell you when I had the chance.”
He took a breath.
“Patricia Bennett knew me long before she knew you.”
James leaned forward.
Robert continued.
“Twenty-six years ago, Patricia and I had an affair.”
James made a broken sound.
I couldn't move.
“It lasted four months.”
Robert looked down.
“I was married. So was she.”
James stood.
“No.”
Nobody stopped the video.
“Patricia told me she was pregnant.”
My stomach dropped.
Robert closed his eyes.
“She said the child was mine.”
James stumbled backward.
Daniel.
No.
No.
My husband.
Robert's possible son.
My possible half-brother.
I lunged for the laptop and hit pause.
The room spun.
I couldn't breathe.
James whispered, “Oh God.”
I ran to the kitchen sink and vomited.
My mother rushed toward me.
“Sarah.”
“Don't touch me!”
She stopped.
I slid to the floor.
Eleven years.
A child.
Emily.
My daughter.
Daniel's daughter.
If Robert was Daniel's father—
I couldn't finish the thought.
Evelyn's voice came through the laptop from the other room.
“Sarah, stop.”
I looked up.
“What?”
Her face filled the screen.
“You need to hear the rest.”
“I can't.”
“You need to.”
James was crying.
“I don't.”
Evelyn shook her head.
“Robert says Patricia claimed Daniel was his.”
“Claimed.”
The word landed.
Not knew.
Claimed.
I returned slowly.
My hands were freezing.
I pressed play.
Robert continued.
“I believed her for almost a year.”
He looked directly into the camera.
“Then a blood test proved Daniel could not be my son.”
James stopped breathing.
I gripped the table.
Robert's next sentence changed everything again.
“Patricia lied about Daniel's paternity because she wanted money.”
James sank into a chair.
I closed my eyes.
Not siblings.
Daniel and I were not siblings.
Relief came so hard it hurt.
May you like
Then Robert continued.
“But that lie was only the beginning.”
