Chapter 2: The Lie Buried in the Fire
My mother had never told me to run from anything.
Not when I was twelve and got bullied at school.
Not when I was sixteen and wanted to quit because I felt like I wasn’t good enough.
Not when life got hard.
Renee Ellis always told me the same thing.
“Stand up, Nia. The world will try to make you smaller if you let it.””
But now she was telling me to run.
From Malik Drayton.
The man whose photograph she had kept hidden for twenty-seven years.
The man whose face had just appeared in my life like a ghost stepping out of the past.
I couldn’t move.
I couldn’t breathe.
“Mom,” I whispered into the phone.
“What are you talking about?””
Across the room, Malik was staring at me.
Not like a stranger.
Like someone searching my face for pieces of a woman he thought he lost forever.
“Nia,” my mother said.
“Leave that building.””
“Why?””
“You don’t understand.””
“No, I don’t understand because you never told me anything!””
My voice came out louder than I intended.
Several customers turned.
I didn’t care.
Twenty-seven years of unanswered questions were standing in front of me.
“I asked you about my father my whole life,” I said.
“You told me he was gone. You told me there was nothing to know.””
“Nia—”
“You lied to me.””
The silence on the other end hurt more than yelling would have.
Then my mother whispered:
“I was trying to protect you.””
I looked at Malik.
The dragon tattoo.
The photograph.
The baby who stopped crying when he touched my hand.
“Protect me from who?””
My mother didn’t answer.
And that scared me more than anything.
Malik stepped closer.
“Nia.””
I covered the phone slightly.
“What?””
His eyes were fixed on me.
“Ask her if she remembers the night of the fire.””
My blood went cold.
Because he didn’t say it like a question.
He said it like he already knew.
My mother heard him.
And suddenly, her breathing stopped.
“Nia,” she said.
“Mom?””
“Get away from him.””
“Why?””
“Because he doesn’t know the truth.””
Malik’s jaw tightened.
“What truth?”” I asked.
My mother’s voice became softer.
More broken.
“The truth is that the fire wasn’t an accident.””
The room seemed to disappear.
I looked at Malik.
His expression changed.
“What did she say?””
I didn’t answer.
My mother continued.
“Baby, you need to leave right now.””
“Mom, what happened?””
“I thought I buried that part of my life forever.””
My eyes filled with tears.
“Who is my father?””
A long pause.
Then I heard her whisper:
“You already know.””
I looked at Malik.
My heart knew before my mind accepted it.
“No,” I said quietly.
My mother started crying.
“Nia…”
“Tell me.””
Another silence.
Then:
“His name is Malik Drayton.””
The phone slipped slightly in my hand.
Even though I expected it.
Even though some part of me already knew.
Hearing it felt different.
The man standing in front of me wasn’t just a powerful stranger.
He was the person I spent my entire life wondering about.
My father.
Malik watched my face.
And he knew.
“I’m your father,” he said.
Not a question.
A fact.
A truth that had been missing for twenty-seven years.
I should have felt happy.
I should have felt relieved.
Instead, I felt angry.
Because fathers who loved their daughters showed up.
They didn’t disappear.
They didn’t let birthdays pass.
They didn’t miss first steps, graduations, heartbreaks, and every moment in between.
“You knew about me?”” I asked.
Malik’s face tightened.
“No.””
The answer came immediately.
“I swear to you, I didn’t.””
I wanted to believe him.
That was the problem.
Some part of me wanted to believe every word.
Because no matter how much anger I carried, there was still a little girl inside me who had wondered what it would feel like to have a father say, “I’m here.””
Malik looked down at Zion.
“My whole life, I thought I lost them both.””
“Them?””
He looked back at me.
“Your mother and you.””
My chest tightened.
“You thought I died?””
He nodded slowly.
“Renee was pregnant when the fire happened. They told me nobody survived.””
“Who told you?””
His expression darkened.
“I never found out who started the fire.””
My mother’s words echoed.
The fire wasn’t an accident.
I stepped away.
Suddenly, the story I had grown up with felt incomplete.
My mother wasn’t just hiding a man.
She was hiding a war.
Malik reached into his jacket and pulled out his phone.
“I need to make some calls.””
“Why?””
His eyes met mine.
“Because if Renee is alive, then someone has been lying to me for twenty-seven years.””
Before I could respond, a man from Malik’s security team approached.
“Mr. Drayton.””
Malik turned.
The man leaned close and whispered something.
I watched Malik’s face harden.
“What happened?””
The security guard looked at me.
Then back at Malik.
“We found out someone accessed your old fire investigation files this morning.””
Malik went completely still.
“Who?””
“We’re trying to find out.””
My phone was still pressed against my ear.
My mother was still there.
“Nia,” she whispered.
I almost forgot.
“Mom?””
Her voice sounded terrified.
“He found you.””
I looked around the restaurant.
At Malik.
At Zion.
At the people pretending not to listen.
“What does that mean?””
“It means they know.””
“Who?””
My mother started crying.
“The people who tried to kill us.””
A cold silence settled over me.
Malik heard her.
His eyes changed.
“What people?”” he demanded.
My mother went quiet.
Then she said something so softly I almost didn’t hear it.
“Tell Malik the dragon wasn’t the danger.””
I frowned.
“What?””
“The danger was the person wearing it beside him.””
The call ended.
I stared at the phone.
Malik stared at me.
And for the first time since I met him, the powerful man everyone feared looked completely lost.
Because whatever happened twenty-seven years ago…
Whatever secret my mother had carried…
It wasn’t buried with the fire.
It had been waiting.
Waiting for me to find my father.
May you like
Waiting for him to find his daughter.
And now that we had found each other, someone else had found us too.
