Chapter 6: What My Father Left Behind
I didn't remember standing up.
One moment I was on my knees, staring at Richard Voss. The next, I was swinging the hammer.
He ducked.
The hammer struck the coffee table, splitting the wood and scattering legal documents across the floor.
Richard stumbled backward, shouting for his men.
I ran for the staircase.
“Maya!””
My daughter's bedroom door stood open.
The curtains fluttered beside the window, and her pink blanket lay crumpled on the floor. Her schoolbooks had been knocked from the desk. One of her shoes rested in the hallway.
But Maya was gone.
I grabbed the railing.
“NO!””
Daniel appeared behind me, breathing hard.
“Marcus, listen.””
I spun toward him.
“She's gone!””
“Then we have to think. That's what he wants. He wants you panicking.””
I seized his shirt.
“She's my daughter!””
“And Lily is mine!””
His voice cracked so violently that I released him.
For a moment, we stared at each other.
Then he placed a trembling hand on my shoulder.
“I know what it's like to hear them take your child away. I know what it's like to stand there and realize you can't stop it.””
He swallowed.
“But we can still get them back.””
I closed my eyes.
Maya's terrified face flashed through my mind.
Then I heard her voice again.
Grandma! RUN!
She hadn't sounded like a child who was being carried away against her will.
She had sounded as though she were warning someone.
I turned toward the window.
The lower sash was raised.
A narrow tree branch scraped against the exterior wall.
Maya had climbed out.
“She escaped,” I whispered.
Daniel followed my gaze.
“Your daughter is smarter than Richard thinks.””
I wanted to believe that.
I ran downstairs.
The front door stood open. Outside, rain fell across the driveway, and the security lights illuminated the empty road. Helen's car was gone.
I called her.
No answer.
I called again.
This time, a weak voice came through the phone.
“Marcus?””
“Mom, where are you? Is Maya with you?””
“She's safe.””
My knees nearly gave way.
“Where are you?””
“I'm at the old church on Mercer Street. Maya found me after those men came to the house. She climbed out of her bedroom window and ran through the backyard.””
I pressed my forehead against the doorframe.
“Thank God.””
“But Marcus, there's something you need to know.””
Her voice trembled.
“What?””
“Maya wasn't alone when she reached me.””
I stopped breathing.
“Who was with her?””
“A little girl. Maybe six years old. She came out of the drainage passage behind your property.””
Lily.
“Is she safe?””
“Yes, but she's frightened. She keeps asking whether her father is coming.””
Daniel had reached the bottom of the stairs.
He heard the answer.
“Tell her I'm coming,” he shouted.
Helen went silent.
Then she whispered, “Daniel?””
“I'm alive, Helen.””
“Oh, my God.””
There was a muffled sound, like someone covering a mouth while crying.
Helen had attended the funeral. She had held me when I couldn't sleep. She had sent flowers to a grave that contained no body.
She had mourned a son who was still alive.
“I'll explain everything later,” Daniel said.
“Please keep the girls together. Don't let anyone near them.””
“Marcus,” Helen whispered, “there's another problem.””
I closed my eyes.
Of course there was.
“What now?””
“Someone called the church office. They knew where we were.””
I looked toward the house.
Through the open doorway, I could see Richard standing in the living room, speaking into a phone.
He wasn't searching.
He was coordinating.
“Mom, get out of there,” I said.
“Take the girls somewhere public. Somewhere with cameras. Don't tell anyone where you're going.””
“Marcus, what is happening?””
“I don't know yet. But I'm going to find out.””
I ended the call.
Daniel was staring at the brass object Richard had dropped during the struggle.
My father's signet ring lay beside the shattered coffee table.
I picked it up.
The ring was heavy, made of gold, with the Hale family crest engraved into its face. I had seen it countless times on my father's hand. After his death, Vanessa had told me it had disappeared from his belongings.
Now I understood that Richard had possessed it all along.
“Why did he say the key was inside Lily?”” I asked.
Daniel rubbed his wrists.
“Because Dad hid something before he died. Something Richard never found.””
“What?””
“A set of records proving the company was stolen from him.””
I stared at the ring.
“Why would the records be inside a child?””
“They aren't. Richard thinks Dad used a hidden storage device. He believes the ring is part of the mechanism.””
I turned it over in my palm.
The gold band looked ordinary, but a thin seam ran along its inner edge.
I pressed it.
Nothing happened.
Daniel leaned closer.
“Dad told me once that the ring had a secret compartment. He said he'd show me when I was old enough to understand.””
I pressed harder.
A tiny section of the band clicked outward.
Inside was a narrow cavity containing a sliver of metal and a folded strip of paper.
My hands began to shake.
I unfolded the paper.
It contained a series of numbers, a date, and a name.
*MERCER STREET ARCHIVE. OCTOBER 17. ASK FOR ELIAS.*
Beneath it, in my father's unmistakable handwriting, were six words.
*Trust neither the wife nor her father.*
I read the sentence twice.
Then a third time.
Daniel watched my face.
“What does it say?””
I handed him the paper.
He stared at it, his lips moving silently as he read.
“No,” he whispered.
“What?””
He looked up at me.
“October seventeenth was the day Dad died.””
The date was nine years old.
The ink was faded, but the handwriting was clear.
I looked at the ring again.
“Who is Elias?””
“I don't know.””
“Where's the Mercer Street Archive?””
Daniel shook his head.
“Somewhere Dad used to go for business records. I never went with him.””
I pocketed the ring and the note.
Behind us, a floorboard creaked.
We turned.
Vanessa stood at the end of the hallway.
Her hair was disheveled, and a thin cut crossed her cheek. She had changed out of her house slippers into black boots. In her right hand, she held a small pistol.
Daniel moved in front of me.
“Don't,” he warned.
Vanessa pointed the gun at him.
“Give me the ring.””
I stepped sideways, keeping myself between her and the open front door.
“Where is Richard?””
“Gone.””
“Where did he take the men?””
“I don't know.””
“Where is Lily?””
Vanessa's eyes filled with tears.
“Safe, I hope.””
“You hope?””
She flinched.
“I was trying to get her out.””
“You had seven years to get her out!””
“I couldn't!””
Her scream echoed through the house.
For a moment, the pistol trembled in her hand.
Then she lowered it slightly.
“You don't understand what my father is capable of. If I disobey him, he destroys everyone I love. He destroyed my mother.
He destroyed my brother. He destroyed—”
She stopped.
I stared at her.
“Your brother?””
Vanessa's mouth closed.
Daniel went pale.
“You told me you were an only child,” he said.
She looked away.
“His name was Thomas,” she whispered.
“He disappeared when I was sixteen.””
A terrible silence followed.
I thought of the photographs beneath the house.
The dates.
The children.
The hidden rooms.
“Was he one of them?”” I asked.
Vanessa closed her eyes.
“He was the first.””
Daniel took a step toward her.
“What happened to him?””
She raised the pistol again, this time pointing it at the floor between us.
“I don't know.””
“Stop lying!””
“I'm not lying!””
Her voice broke.
“I saw him go into the house. I saw my father close the door. And when I asked where Thomas was, he told me my brother had never existed.””
The room fell silent.
For the first time, I saw something in Vanessa that looked like genuine grief.
But grief did not make her innocent.
She had inherited her father's cruelty, then repeated it against Daniel and Lily.
I took another step toward her.
“Put the gun down.””
She shook her head.
“Give me the ring first.””
“No.””
“Marcus, please. He will kill you for that.””
“Then tell me how to find him.””
She looked at the ring-shaped outline in my pocket.
Then she said, “The archive isn't on Mercer Street anymore.””
I frowned.
“What?””
“The building was demolished six years ago. My father bought the property and buried the entrance beneath the new development.””
Daniel stared at her.
“You knew about this?””
“I helped him move the records.””
My stomach tightened.
“Where are they now?””
Vanessa's face crumpled.
“In the basement of the house where I grew up.””
I looked at her.
“You mean your father's house.””
She nodded.
Then she slowly raised her eyes to mine.
“Marcus, there's something else. Your father didn't die in an accident.””
I felt the room tilt.
“Tell me.””
Vanessa swallowed.
“He was murdered because he discovered what Richard had done to Thomas.””
Before I could speak, my phone vibrated.
An unknown number.
A message appeared on the screen.
*BRING THE RING TO THE OLD VOSS HOUSE BY MIDNIGHT. COME ALONE.*
A second message followed.
It contained a photograph.
Maya sat on a wooden chair in a dimly lit room, her hands tied in front of her.
Beside her stood a little boy wearing a blue sweater.
His face was turned toward the camera.
Underneath the photograph were seven words.
*YOUR DAUGHTER FOR THE TRUTH ABOUT YOUR FATHER.*
Daniel staggered backward.
Vanessa began sobbing.
I stared at the picture, searching Maya's face for any sign that she was injured.
Then I noticed the boy beside her.
The small scar above his right eyebrow.
The silver bracelet on his wrist.
And the name written on the wall behind them.
*THOMAS VOSS — AGE 16.*
Vanessa whispered, “That's impossible.””
The boy in the photograph looked exactly like her missing brother.
May you like
And beneath the picture, the sender had added one final sentence.
*HE HAS BEEN WAITING FOR YOU FOR NINE YEARS.*
