Chapter 13 - the father who had been dead for six years
Nora did not go alone.
She agreed to Samuel’s demand only long enough for investigators to establish surveillance around the meeting location.
The address belonged to a closed seaside school in northern Maine.
Adrian insisted on accompanying the operation.
“You are not her father,” Nora reminded him.
“No. But Samuel’s secrets placed Oliver in my house and Elliot in an urn. I need answers too.”
They arrived after sunset.
The school overlooked a dark stretch of ocean. Wind rattled the old windows, and a single light glowed inside the main building.
Detective Chen’s team surrounded the property.
Nora entered through the front door.
Adrian waited in the hallway behind her, out of sight but close enough to intervene.
Samuel stood in the former classroom.
For six years, Nora had imagined this moment.
Sometimes she screamed at him.
Sometimes she ran into his arms.
Sometimes she discovered that the man at the warehouse had never been Samuel at all.
The reality was quieter.
Samuel looked older than the photographs.
A pale scar crossed one side of his face. The smallest finger on his right hand ended above the final joint.
“Nora.”
She crossed the room and struck him once across the face.
Samuel accepted it.
“You watched me bury you.”
“I know.”
“You watched me search for Oliver alone.”
“I know.”
“You knew about Clara.”
“Yes.”
Nora’s voice broke. “Where is she?”
“Safe.”
“That is not an answer.”
“She is in the caretaker’s house behind the school.”
Nora turned toward the door.
Samuel caught her arm, then released it immediately when she looked at his hand.
“She does not know you,” he said. “Evelyn and Celeste changed her identity several times. She believes her mother died.”
“Then I will tell her the truth.”
“Slowly.”
“You do not get to tell me how to meet my child.”
“No. But Clara gets to decide how much truth she can carry at once.”
Nora hated that he was right.
It made her angrier.
“Why did you keep her from me?”
“Richard threatened to kill both children if I exposed the substitution. I believed I could collect enough evidence to destroy the network and bring them home.”
“You had six years.”
“Every time I moved closer, Edwin moved Clara. Every time you hired an investigator, someone inside the police department reported it.”
“You could have sent one message.”
“I sent dozens.”
“I received none.”
Samuel’s expression changed.
“Then someone was intercepting them.”
Adrian stepped into the room.
Samuel’s eyes hardened.
“You brought him.”
“He raised our son.”
“He raised a child his family stole.”
“My father’s crimes are not mine,” Adrian said.
“You benefited from them.”
“So did you.”
Samuel glanced toward Nora.
“You showed him the protocol.”
“I saw your signature.”
“It was part of the agreement that kept Clara alive.”
“And the five million dollars?”
“Still untouched in an account linked to the evidence. I never used it.”
Nora placed Clara’s photograph on a desk.
“Did you help them choose Oliver?”
“No.”
“Did you take me to St. Catherine’s because Richard paid you?”
“I took you there because he said it was the safest hospital. I did not know why he wanted us there until after Oliver was gone.”
Adrian studied him. “Edwin says you knew the whole plan.”
“Edwin is protecting the person above him.”
“My father was above him.”
“No.”
Samuel’s answer was immediate.
“Richard financed the network. He did not create it.”
“Who did?”
Samuel looked toward the ceiling.
A faint creak sounded upstairs.
“We need to leave.”
Nora moved toward the rear door. “I’m getting Clara.”
Samuel blocked the way.
“Someone followed you.”
“Police surrounded the property.”
“That will not stop them.”
The lights went out.
Glass shattered somewhere outside.
Detective Chen shouted through Nora’s earpiece.
“Movement near the caretaker’s house.”
Nora ran.
Adrian and Samuel followed.
They crossed the courtyard as two vehicles crashed through the rear fence.
Masked figures entered the caretaker’s house.
Police closed in from both sides.
No shots were fired, but smoke devices filled the yard.
Nora reached the house and found the front door open.
Inside, a child’s bedroom stood empty.
A window moved in the wind.
On the bed lay the silver star necklace from Clara’s photograph.
Samuel picked up a note beside it.
His face went pale.
Nora tore it from his hand.
May you like
You took the boy from us.
Now we are taking the girl back.
