Chapter 3 - Her Father’s First Demand
No one moved.
Richard’s voice sounded calm through the phone, almost bored.
It was the same voice he had used throughout Emily’s childhood when announcing punishments that had already been decided.
General Reed gestured for the communications officer to begin tracing the call.
Emily watched the timer glowing on the phone screen.
Six minutes and forty-nine seconds.
“What do you want?” she asked.
“I want the file.”
“You stole part of it.”
“I took the pages that belonged to me.”
“You do not own anything connected to Daniel.”
A soft laugh came through the speaker.
“You still believe this is about Daniel.”
Emily looked at Liam.
The nurse had covered his wet suit with a hotel blanket. He sat quietly, his wooden airplane now resting in his lap. One of the soldiers must have retrieved it from beneath the table.
“Then tell me what it is about,” Emily said.
“It is about inheritance.”
Madison frowned.
“What inheritance?”
Richard ignored her.
“Emily, you will leave the hotel through the west service entrance. You will come alone. Bring the black folder and the brass key your husband gave you before his final deployment.”
Emily’s chest tightened.
No one knew about the key.
Daniel had pressed it into her palm the night before Black Winter.
He had told her it opened a box only if he did not return.
Emily had searched for the box for years and never found it.
“I don’t have it,” she lied.
“You wore it around your neck until you returned to Briar Glen.”
Emily resisted the urge to touch the chain beneath her dress.
Richard continued.
“Six minutes.”
General Reed wrote on a notepad and held it where Emily could see.
KEEP HIM TALKING.
“Show me proof Daniel is alive.”
“You already saw proof.”
“A photograph is not enough.”
A pause followed.
Then a different sound came through the phone.
Breathing.
Labored and slow.
A man spoke.
“Em?”
Emily forgot the ballroom.
She forgot Madison, her parents, the guests, and the soldiers.
There was only that voice.
Rougher than she remembered.
Weaker.
But his.
“Daniel.”
Liam slid from the chair.
“Daddy?”
The voice on the phone stopped.
Emily hurried to Liam and lifted him.
“Daniel, can you hear me?”
“Liam,” Daniel whispered.
The child’s mouth fell open.
“Daddy, where are you?”
A sharp sound interrupted them.
Someone had struck Daniel.
Emily’s vision narrowed.
Richard returned to the call.
“Bring the key.”
“If you hurt him again, there will be nowhere on earth you can hide.”
“You always sounded most like me when you were angry.”
“I am nothing like you.”
“You became exactly what I designed.”
The sentence confused her.
“Designed?”
“Five minutes.”
General Reed pointed toward the trace monitor.
The signal bounced across several towers.
Encrypted relays.
No fixed location.
Emily lowered her voice.
“What is behind the brass door?”
For the first time, Richard hesitated.
That hesitation told her he knew the key’s purpose.
“You will find out after you cooperate.”
“What does Liam have to do with this?”
“He is Daniel’s son.”
“That is not an answer.”
“He carries what Daniel carried.”
Emily looked down at Liam.
The boy watched the phone with frightened concentration.
Richard said, “Ask General Reed why Task Force Aegis recruited your husband.”
Emily turned toward the general.
Reed’s face betrayed nothing.
“What is he talking about?”
Reed did not answer.
Richard laughed again.
“Samuel has kept secrets from you longer than I have.”
“Reed?”
The general looked toward Liam.
“Not here.”
Richard spoke over him.
“Daniel was not selected because he was the strongest soldier. He was selected because he survived exposure to the Orion compound during a childhood accident.”
Emily felt the room tilt.
Daniel had told her about an explosion at a chemical plant near his hometown when he was eight. He had remembered only sirens, smoke, and waking in a hospital.
“Four minutes,” Richard said. “Bring me the key, and I will return your husband.”
“What happens if I refuse?”
“You will receive another photograph.”
Emily tightened her hold on Liam.
“Of what?”
“His final minutes.”
The call ended.
The timer vanished.
The phone screen went black.
Liam began to cry again.
“Mommy, we have to get Daddy.”
Emily pressed her lips against his hair.
“We will.”
Madison stepped forward.
“You are not leaving with my father.”
Emily looked at her.
“Your father kidnapped my husband.”
“Our father.”
“He stopped being mine the moment he threatened my family.”
Patricia sank into a chair.
“This has to be some misunderstanding.”
General Reed faced her.
“Did your husband ever use the name Nathaniel Voss?”
“No.”
“Did he keep secured rooms, private storage facilities, or accounts you could not access?”
Patricia shook her head too quickly.
Emily noticed.
“Mother.”
Patricia looked away.
“What did you know?”
“Nothing.”
“You knew something.”
“I knew he had business overseas.”
“What else?”
Patricia pressed both hands together.
“After you returned to Briar Glen, he asked me to watch Liam.”
Emily’s stomach turned.
“Watch him how?”
“He wanted to know if the boy had nightmares. Fevers. Strange reactions to medication.”
General Reed stepped closer.
“What reactions?”
Patricia swallowed.
“He said Daniel’s family had a history of neurological illness.”
“That was a lie,” Emily said.
“I did not know.”
“You never asked.”
Patricia’s face crumpled.
Emily felt no sympathy.
A military officer approached Reed with the trace report.
“The call routed through five countries. No location.”
“What about hotel cameras?”
“Disabled for nine minutes before the power loss.”
“Inside assistance?”
“Almost certainly.”
Emily studied the guests.
Someone in that room had helped Richard.
Then she noticed Andrew Mercer.
Madison’s fiancé had not looked surprised when Richard’s alias was revealed.
He looked nervous.
His left hand remained inside his jacket pocket.
Emily walked toward him.
“Take your hand out.”
Andrew stared at her.
“What?”
“Slowly.”
Madison moved between them.
“Leave him alone.”
Emily’s voice hardened.
“Move.”
Andrew withdrew his hand.
He held a small remote device.
General Reed’s officers surrounded him.
Andrew raised both hands.
“It controls the ballroom presentation system.”
“Why is there a military-grade signal scrambler attached to it?” Reed asked.
Andrew looked toward Madison.
Her expression changed.
Not surprise.
Fear.
Emily saw the truth pass silently between them.
“You knew,” she said.
Madison backed away.
“Knew what?”
“You knew Father was involved in something.”
“No.”
“Then why are you afraid of Andrew?”
Andrew suddenly lunged.
He seized Madison around the waist, drew a knife, and pressed it beneath her jaw.
Guests screamed.
“Back away,” he shouted.
Military police raised their weapons.
Madison went rigid.
“Andrew,” she whispered.
He pulled her toward the service exit.
“You promised,” she said.
His expression remained cold.
“I promised your father I would keep Emily in the building.”
Madison’s face collapsed.
“You were using me?”
Andrew smiled without humor.
“You made it easy.”
Emily stepped forward.
“Let her go.”
Andrew looked at Liam.
“The boy comes with me.”
Emily stopped.
“No.”
“Then Madison bleeds.”
Madison began to sob.
For the first time that evening, she looked at Emily without arrogance.
“Please.”
Emily saw the sister she remembered from childhood, hiding beneath the woman who had struck her son.
But Liam’s small hand tightened around Emily’s neck.
Emily had spent her entire life rescuing Madison from consequences.
She would not sacrifice Liam to do it again.
“General,” Emily said calmly, “turn off the emergency lights.”
Andrew frowned.
“What?”
The ballroom went dark.
A single shot cracked through the room.
When the lights returned, Andrew lay on the floor with a bullet through his shoulder.
Madison crawled away screaming.
Emily stood behind a marble pillar, her pistol raised.
General Reed’s soldiers restrained Andrew.
As they searched him, an officer removed a silver drive from his pocket.
May you like
A label had been attached to it.
CARTER, LIAM
