PART 5
Every light in the yellow house went out.
For one second, nobody moved.
Then Gary ran toward me.
“Inside!” he shouted again.
I didn’t argue.
We rushed through my front door and slammed it behind us.
I locked it.
Then the deadbolt.
Then the chain.
Gary leaned against the wall, breathing hard.
There was blood on his eyebrow and a tear in his shirt.
I grabbed a clean towel from the kitchen and pressed it against his forehead.
“What happened?”
He looked at me.
“Where’s Sharon?”
“At home.”
“Call her.”
I did.
She answered immediately.
“Tom?”
“I’m with Gary.”
Silence.
Then Sharon whispered, “Oh God.”
“He’s hurt.”
“Is he alive?”
“I’m standing right here,” Gary muttered.
Sharon began crying.
“Where are you?”
“My house.”
“Don’t leave.”
“Sharon, I saw Tobias.”
Another silence.
Then she said, “You weren’t supposed to.”
I looked at Gary.
He shook his head.
“Who is the girl?” I asked.
Sharon didn’t answer.
“Mom?”
It was Rachel.
I turned.
She was standing in my doorway.
I hadn’t heard her come in.
Her face was wet with tears.
She looked older than I had ever seen her.
Not physically.
Something inside her had changed.
“Dad,” she said.
I stared at her.
“You’re Tobias’s mother.”
She nodded.
“And the little girl?”
Rachel closed her eyes.
“My daughter.”
I felt my knees weaken.
“You have a daughter?”
“Yes.”
“How old?”
“Five.”
I sat down.
Five.
A five-year-old granddaughter I had never known existed.
Rachel sat beside me.
Her hands were shaking.
“I wanted to tell you.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because Mom said you would be in danger.”
I looked at Sharon’s name still displayed on my phone.
“She was right about one thing.”
Rachel looked at me.
“Daniel is dangerous.”
Gary interrupted.
“He isn’t the only one.”
I looked at him.
“What do you mean?”
Gary pulled the blood-stained bicycle bell from his pocket.
“This was on the floor at the yellow house.”
He placed it on the table.
“Where is Tobias now?” I asked.
Rachel looked toward the window.
“Still there.”
“Why?”
“Because he won’t leave without his sister.”
I stared at her.
“What?”
Rachel nodded.
“They took my daughter five years ago.”
My stomach dropped.
“Who?”
“Daniel.”
“Why?”
“Because he wanted Tobias to come back.”
Gary said quietly, “He used the girl as leverage.”
Rachel wiped her eyes.
“Daniel didn’t raise them. He kept moving them between houses. Different people. Different names.”
“Then how did you find them?”
“I didn’t.”
She looked at me.
“They found me.”
I didn’t understand.
“Tobias has been searching for me for years.”
“How?”
“Your mother’s storage unit.”
I looked at Gary.
He nodded.
“We kept letters there.”
“Letters?”
“From Rachel to Tobias.”
I stared at my daughter.
“You were writing to him?”
“Yes.”
“For six years?”
“Yes.”
“But you believed he was dead.”
“I was told he was dead.”
“Who told you?”
Rachel looked toward the window.
“Daniel.”
She took a breath.
“He came to the hospital after Tobias disappeared. He told me my son had been killed.”
I remembered the photographs.
The bed.
The bicycle.
The storage unit.
The years of lies.
Then I asked the question that mattered most.
“Why did Tobias come back now?”
Rachel looked at me.
“Because he found the letters.”
My throat tightened.
“He knew I was his mother?”
“Yes.”
“Does he know who his father is?”
Rachel looked at Gary.
Then at me.
“Yes.”
“Who?”
She whispered:
“Daniel.”
The room went silent.
Gary shook his head.
“That was the part we never wanted you to know.”
I stared at my daughter.
“You had Daniel’s child?”
“I was twenty-six.”
“Did you love him?”
Rachel shook her head.
“No.”
“Then why?”
“He wasn’t who I thought he was.”
She looked down.
“He was charming. He helped me when I was struggling at college. He knew exactly what to say. By the time I realized what he was involved in, I was pregnant.”
“What happened?”
“He wanted the baby.”
“Why?”
“Because he had a family business.”
I frowned.
“What kind of business?”
“Private security.”
Gary interrupted.
“That’s the clean version.”
Rachel nodded.
“They weren’t just security.”
I understood.
“They were criminals.”
“Yes.”
“Money?”
“Money. Drugs. Extortion. Anything people paid them to do.”
I looked at the little girl in the photograph.
“And your daughter?”
Rachel’s voice broke.
“Daniel’s people took her when she was five months old.”
“Why?”
“To control me.”
She covered her face.
“I tried to get her back. I went to the police. But every time I got close, they threatened Tobias.”
“So you went along with them.”
“I had no choice.”
I looked at Gary.
“And you?”
“I helped Sharon hide Tobias.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because you were the only person in the family Daniel didn’t know how to control.”
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