Chapter 4 - The Daughter Nobody Was Supposed to Find
We escaped through a maintenance exit.
Nobody spoke much during the drive north.
Dante sat beside me in the back of the SUV.
Julian followed in another vehicle under Sal’s watch.
Finally Dante asked, “Why didn’t your father tell you?”
“I’m planning to ask him.”
“You’re angry.”
“Excellent detective work.”
“I know something about fathers keeping secrets.”
I looked at him.
“You really didn’t know?”
“About my sister? No.”
His voice lowered.
“My father told me my mother died because Gabriel betrayed us. I spent sixteen years believing it.”
“And now?”
“Now I don’t know what to believe.”
My father lived in a small house outside Brattleboro.
When we arrived, he was chopping firewood.
He looked up.
Saw me.
Then Dante.
The ax slipped from his hand.
“Mara.”
“Hi, Dad.”
His face went pale.
“You shouldn’t be here.”
“That seems to be everybody’s favorite sentence lately.”
Dante stepped forward.
“Thomas Ellis?”
Dad looked at the Saint Michael medal around my neck.
“Oh, God.”
“Dad, who is Dante’s sister?”
He closed his eyes.
“Come inside.”
We sat around his kitchen table.
Dante remained standing.
“Where is she?”
Dad looked at him.
“Her name is Sofia.”
Dante’s jaw tightened.
“Where?”
“Cambridge.”
I stared at him.
“That close?”
“That was the point. People search far away when they believe someone has disappeared.”
“Who raised her?”
“A good family. Isabella chose them.”
Dante leaned over the table.
“Does she know who she is?”
“No.”
“How old?”
“Sixteen.”
Dante turned away.
For the first time since meeting him, I saw something close to fear.
Dad continued.
“Isabella discovered Carlo Moretti was laundering money through charities and using political connections to bury anyone who questioned him. Gabriel collected evidence.”
“My father killed them,” Dante said.
Dad looked down.
“Gabriel, yes.”
“And my mother?”
“Isabella survived the first attempt.”
Dante turned.
“What?”
“She came here.”
Dad’s voice cracked.
“Evelyn helped her. We hid Sofia. Isabella planned to testify.”
“What happened?”
“She disappeared two days later.”
“Body?”
“Never found.”
Dante stared at him.
“So she could still be alive.”
“I don’t know.”
A phone rang.
Dad looked at his screen.
His face drained.
“What?”
He turned it toward us.
A photograph showed a teenage girl leaving a school building.
Sofia.
The message beneath it read:
THE PAST STAYS BURIED.
Dante was already moving.
“Address.”
Dad gave it to him.
We reached Cambridge forty minutes later.
Sofia’s foster parents were terrified.
“She never came home,” her mother said.
Dante’s voice became dangerously quiet.
“Who took her?”
“We don’t know.”
Julian arrived behind us.
Sal blocked him.
“Let him through,” I said.
Dante looked at me.
“Mara.”
“Someone attacked both of you. Whoever took Sofia wants you fighting each other.”
Julian nodded.
“She’s right.”
Dante hated hearing that.
“Who knew about Isabella?” I asked.
Dad answered.
“Carlo. Gabriel. Evelyn. Me.”
“Anyone else?”
Dad hesitated.
“Carlo’s attorney.”
Dante froze.
“Vincent Hale?”
Dad nodded.
Dante took out his phone.
Sal answered before he called.
“Boss?”
“Find Hale.”
Sal’s expression changed.
“Boss… Hale disappeared this morning.”
Julian cursed.
I looked between them.
“Then stop thinking like criminals.”
They both stared at me.
“Think like a florist.”
Julian blinked.
“I have absolutely no idea what that means.”
“People leave traces.”
I pointed at Sofia’s photograph.
“She’s carrying flowers.”
Dante looked closer.
A small bouquet of blue delphiniums.
My chest tightened.
“I know that wrapping.”
“From where?”
“My shop.”
Dante stared at me.
“She came to you?”
“Yesterday.”
I remembered her immediately.
Quiet girl.
Dark hair.
She had asked one strange question.
“Do you know Evelyn Ellis?”
I had assumed she was asking about the photograph of my mother behind the counter.
Then I remembered something else.
“She left an envelope.”
Dante’s eyes widened.
“Where?”
“Under my register.”
We drove back to Boston.
The envelope was still there.
Inside was a note.
If anything happens to me, ask Murphy.
Julian stared at the dog.
“Ask the dog?”
Murphy wagged his tail.
I crouched.
“What did she give you, buddy?”
Murphy trotted toward his bed.
Beneath it was a small USB drive.
Dante picked it up.
A single video file waited inside.
Sofia appeared on-screen.
“If you’re watching this, Vincent Hale knows I found my mother.”
Dante whispered, “Your mother?”
Sofia continued.
“She’s alive.”
May you like
Everyone stopped breathing.
“And I know where she is.”
