Chapter 8 - THE FATHER WHO NEVER CAME HOME|
The photograph was grainy, captured by a security camera outside a private medical facility in Wisconsin.
A man wearing a dark coat stood beside a black SUV. His face was older, his hair thinner, and his shoulders slightly stooped.
But Sera recognized him immediately.
Her father.
She sat down because her legs no longer seemed reliable.
“He's alive.”
Adrian crouched beside her.
“Yes.”
“Where is he?”
“We don't know yet.”
“Then find him.”
“We will.”
She looked at him sharply.
“No promises you can't keep.”
His expression softened.
“I'll do everything I can.”
That was the first answer she trusted.
For the next forty-eight hours, Adrian's security team traced the vehicle's registration through a chain of shell companies. The trail led to a secluded property near Lake Geneva, owned by a corporation that had no public employees or business activity.
Sera insisted on going.
Adrian refused.
They argued for nearly an hour until she placed her father's photograph on his desk.
“You've spent years telling yourself that you couldn't save him because you didn't have enough information. Now we have information, and you're trying to take the choice away from me.”
“I'm trying to keep you alive.”
“Then come with me.”
He stared at her.
“What?”
“Don't send guards to follow me. Don't lock me in your apartment. Come with me, and we'll face whatever is there together.”
Adrian looked as though nobody had ever offered him that kind of partnership.
Finally, he nodded.
They drove north before dawn.
The property stood behind a line of bare trees, its windows dark against the gray morning. Marcus and two trusted guards secured the perimeter while Adrian and Sera approached the front entrance.
The door was unlocked.
Inside, the house smelled of dust and cold coffee.
A television played quietly in an empty living room.
On the kitchen table sat a recent newspaper, a half-finished cup of tea, and a photograph of Sera at twelve years old.
She picked it up with trembling fingers.
“Dad?”
A floorboard creaked upstairs.
Adrian moved in front of her instinctively, but she stepped around him.
A man appeared at the top of the staircase.
His face had aged, but his eyes were unmistakable.
“Sera?”
She covered her mouth.
For seven years, she'd imagined this moment in a hundred different ways. In none of them had she been prepared for how small her father looked.
She ran toward him.
He caught her in his arms and held her so tightly she could barely breathe.
“I thought you were dead,” she sobbed.
Daniel pressed his face into her hair.
“I know, sweetheart.”
“Why didn't you come home?”
His arms tightened.
“Because the people who took me were waiting for you to follow.”
Behind them, Adrian noticed Daniel staring at him.
The older man released his daughter and stepped backward.
“You brought her here,” he said, his voice suddenly cold.
Adrian frowned.
“I'm trying to protect her.”
Daniel shook his head.
“No. You have no idea what you've done.”
May you like
He looked directly at Adrian.
“Your father didn't disappear the night you think he did. And if this man has told you he's dead, he's already lied to you about the most important thing in your life.”
