Chapter 7
Daniel moved toward Vanessa.
Brooks stopped him.
“What are you talking about?” he demanded.
Vanessa leaned against the pew.
“I’ll discuss it after my lawyer arrives.”
“You just said Emily had another daughter.”
“I said she chose which daughter Reed could take.”
Daniel looked at Lily.
She was still holding me.
“Is this another lie?”
Vanessa’s eyes shone with satisfaction.
“Emily was pregnant when the crash happened.”
Daniel went silent.
“She never told me.”
“She found out three days before.”
Aaron had mentioned no pregnancy.
The medical report after the crash contained no such detail.
But if Emily had survived, the report itself could have been false.
“What happened to the baby?” I asked.
Vanessa looked toward the altar.
“Reed took care of everything.”
Daniel grabbed her shoulders.
Brooks pulled him away.
“Don’t give her another charge to use against you.”
“I don’t care about charges.”
“Lily does.”
Those two words stopped him.
Lily watched her father with frightened eyes.
Daniel stepped back.
Vanessa smiled again.
She enjoyed every second of our pain.
Brooks ordered her removed.
As two agents lifted Vanessa, she whispered to Daniel.
“Ask Emily why she never came home.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“Take her out.”
Vanessa was transported to a secure detention facility.
Victor was taken separately.
Claire returned with Lily to the command vehicle.
Daniel refused to leave the chapel.
He searched the passage behind the altar himself.
Reed’s escape tunnel opened into the cemetery.
Tire tracks led to the main road and disappeared.
Brooks found a discarded phone near the gate.
It contained one photograph.
Emily stood in front of an old bank building.
A newspaper in her hands showed that morning’s date.
On the back of the phone, Reed had written a message.
BRING VICTOR TO FIRST MERIDIAN.
Aaron arrived from the hospital with his shoulder bandaged.
When he saw the building in the photograph, he stopped.
“That was my branch.”
“Reed wants us to take Victor there,” Daniel said.
Aaron studied the image.
“The branch closed nine years ago. The vault is still underground.”
“Could Emily be there?”
“Yes.”
Brooks radioed her supervisor.
A federal tactical team was sent to surround the bank.
Daniel turned to Aaron.
“Did Emily tell you she was pregnant?”
Aaron’s face revealed the answer.
Daniel stepped closer.
“You knew.”
“She made me promise.”
“My wife was pregnant, she survived the crash, and you knew.”
“I knew about the pregnancy. I did not know she survived.”
“Why didn’t you tell me after she died?”
“What would it have changed?”
“I would have known I lost another child!”
Lily heard him from the chapel doorway.
“Another child?”
Daniel turned.
He had not realized she was there.
Lily walked toward him.
“Did Mommy have a baby?”
Daniel knelt.
“We don’t know exactly what happened.”
“Would the baby be my sister?”
“Yes.”
“Where is she?”
“We’re trying to find out.”
Lily touched her mother’s necklace.
“Maybe she’s with Mommy.”
Daniel looked at Aaron.
For the first time, hope and terror appeared together in his eyes.
“Could the child be alive?”
Aaron swallowed.
“If Emily survived and Reed kept her hidden, anything is possible.”
Brooks received confirmation that the bank had been surrounded.
No one had entered yet.
They feared explosives or hostages.
Victor agreed to cooperate after being told Reed planned to kill him.
He was transported in an armored vehicle.
Vanessa remained in custody.
Before leaving, Brooks warned Daniel that Victor might be helping Reed.
“I know,” Daniel replied.
“Then stay behind the team.”
“I’ll stay behind them until I see Emily.”
The bank stood on a quiet corner outside Plano.
Its windows were covered with plywood.
We entered through the employee entrance.
Dust covered the counters.
Aaron led us toward the basement stairs.
“The vault has two exits. One opens into the parking lot. The other connects to a records tunnel.”
Brooks divided the team.
Victor walked in front with his hands restrained.
“Marcus!” he shouted. “I came alone.”
Reed’s voice answered through an intercom.
“No, you didn’t.”
The basement lights turned on.
Emily sat inside the open vault.
Her wrists were tied to a chair.
She looked weak, but she was alive.
Daniel made a sound I had never heard before.
It was half sob, half gasp.
“Emily.”
Her head lifted.
She stared through the vault bars.
“Daniel?”
He rushed forward.
Brooks caught him.
“Wait.”
Emily began crying.
“Daniel, don’t come closer. The floor is wired.”
A tactical agent examined the tiles.
Thin pressure wires ran beneath them.
Reed had built a trap between us and the vault.
“Where is Reed?” Brooks asked.
Emily looked toward the records tunnel.
“He left five minutes ago.”
“He left you here?” Daniel called.
“He said he needed Victor.”
Victor backed toward the stairs.
Aaron blocked him.
“You knew this was a trap.”
“I knew Marcus wanted me. I didn’t know why.”
A metal door slammed upstairs.
The building shook.
Smoke poured down the stairwell.
Reed’s voice returned through the speaker.
“Victor, the rear vault exit opens when you enter the code.”
Victor stared at the keypad beside Emily.
“He wants me to cross the floor.”
“He wants you dead,” Brooks said.
Victor looked at Emily.
“What is the code?”
She shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
“Yes, you do. You heard him enter it.”
“I was unconscious.”
Victor turned toward Daniel.
“Your wife is lying.”
Daniel stepped in front of him.
“Don’t speak to her.”
“We will all burn if she doesn’t open that door.”
Fire spread across the stairs.
Brooks ordered agents to extinguish it, but the smoke thickened.
Aaron examined the pressure wires.
“The system was built from old alarm circuits. I can disable them from the maintenance panel.”
“Where is it?” Brooks asked.
“Inside the vault.”
Daniel looked at the narrow path.
“I’ll cross.”
“No,” Emily cried. “The wires detect weight.”
Victor smiled bitterly.
“Then send the child. She weighs less.”
Daniel struck him.
Victor fell against the wall.
“Mention Lily again and I’ll forget the agents are here.”
Emily looked at the ceiling.
“There’s another way. The records chute.”
Aaron pointed to a metal door above the filing cabinets.
“It leads behind the vault.”
The opening was small.
An adult could barely fit.
Aaron climbed the cabinets despite his injured shoulder.
Daniel followed.
They forced the chute open.
Smoke filled the room.
Brooks placed a wet cloth over my mouth and ordered me upstairs.
“I’m not leaving Emily.”
“You will if you want to be alive when she comes out.”
Victor began coughing.
Brooks dragged him toward the rear wall while her agents fought the fire.
Daniel disappeared into the chute.
Aaron followed.
A minute later, we heard metal crashing behind the vault.
Emily screamed.
“Daniel!”
The vault lights went out.
Then the rear door opened.
Daniel emerged carrying Emily.
Aaron crawled out behind them.
The pressure system shut down.
Daniel crossed the floor and lowered Emily into my arms.
She looked older and thinner, but she was my daughter-in-law.
She touched my face.
“Margaret.”
I hugged her.
“We thought you were dead.”
“I know.”
Daniel knelt beside her.
For a moment, he could not speak.
Emily reached for him.
He pulled her close.
Both of them sobbed.
“I tried to come home,” she whispered.
“Why didn’t you?”
“Reed showed me photographs of Lily every week. He said he would kill her if I escaped.”
Daniel held her face.
“You’re safe now.”
Emily shook her head.
“No one is safe while he has Grace.”
Daniel froze.
“Grace?”
“Our daughter.”
The room fell silent.
Emily placed a hand against her heart.
“I gave birth seven months after the crash. Reed took her before I could hold her.”
Daniel looked as if the world had split open again.
“She’s alive?”
“I heard her cry.”
“Where did he take her?”
“I don’t know.”
Victor began laughing weakly.
Everyone turned toward him.
“You know where she is,” Emily said.
Victor’s laughter stopped.
“You signed the transfer documents,” she continued. “I saw your name.”
Daniel grabbed Victor.
“Where is my daughter?”
Victor shook his head.
“She wasn’t supposed to survive.”
Emily lunged at him.
I held her back.
“What did you do?” she screamed.
Victor stared at the floor.
“Reed ordered the doctor to take her away. Vanessa arranged a new identity.”
Daniel pushed Victor against the vault.
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
Aaron searched Victor’s pockets.
He found a small key card.
A white flower was printed on the front.
The same symbol used for recruited children in Emily’s ledger.
Emily recognized it.
“That card opens Reed’s private archive.”
Aaron turned it over.
An address was printed on the back.
It belonged to a children’s home near the Oklahoma border.
Emily covered her mouth.
Daniel looked toward the burning stairwell.
“We’re going there.”
Brooks stopped him.
“Reed knows we found the card. He could be waiting.”
“I have already lost six years with my daughter.”
“Daniel, she would be three, not six,” Emily said.
He looked at her.
Confusion spread across his face.
“The crash was three years ago.”
Emily slowly shook her head.
“No.”
May you like
Her voice trembled.
“Daniel, Reed kept me prisoner for nearly seven years.”
