Chapter 3 - THE FATHER WHO CALLED AFTER TWELVE YEARS
Nora didn't remember crossing the room.
One second she stood at the door.
The next, both hands were against Adrian's chest.
“Say it again.”
Dominic started forward.
Adrian didn't move.
“My father is alive?”
“Yes.”
“Now?”
“Yes.”
“Not five years ago?”
“No.”
“Not some technical lie where he survived two days?”
“No.”
Her voice broke.
“Alive now?”
“Yes.”
Nora hit him.
Not hard.
Her bandaged hands couldn't.
Still, she struck his chest.
Again.
Again.
“Where is he?”
“I can't tell you.”
She hit him again.
“Where?”
“I don't know his current location.”
“Liar!”
“That part is true.”
Nora stepped back.
“How does a man contact you without you knowing where he is?”
“Encrypted channels.”
“Then call him.”
“I can't initiate contact.”
“Convenient.”
Adrian accepted the accusation.
Three weeks earlier, he explained, an encrypted message had appeared through an old emergency channel Thomas hadn't used in more than six years.
It contained three things.
A date.
A photograph.
And a sentence.
Ward is moving the archive.
The photograph showed Mayor Elias Ward entering a private warehouse owned through a shell corporation.
“What archive?” Nora asked.
Adrian looked at her.
“The complete financial records.”
“I thought you had them.”
“I had copies.”
“Had?”
“The library.”
The fire.
Nora understood.
“The originals?”
“With your father.”
“Then why contact you?”
“Because Ward apparently found part of Thomas's protection network.”
“What does that mean?”
Adrian hesitated.
“Thomas may have been forced to move.”
Nora's stomach turned.
“Witness protection?”
“Not official.”
“Your protection.”
“Initially.”
She laughed bitterly.
“My father spent twelve years protected by the mafia.”
Adrian's expression darkened.
“Your father spent twelve years surviving men who had people inside law enforcement, city government, construction unions, private security, and two federal contracting offices.”
Nora stared.
“He trusted you that much?”
“No.”
That answer surprised her.
“He trusted Dominic.”
Nora looked toward the security chief.
Dominic said nothing.
Adrian continued.
“Dominic served with Thomas's brother in the Army.”
“My uncle David?”
“Yes.”
Nora remembered Uncle David vaguely.
He had died overseas when she was eight.
Dominic finally spoke.
“Your uncle saved my life.”
Nora stared at him.
“He never told me.”
“He never came home to tell you much.”
Dominic's voice was softer than she'd heard.
“When Thomas needed help, I owed him.”
“So you helped him disappear.”
“Yes.”
“Did you speak to him after?”
“A few times.”
“How recently?”
Dominic looked at Adrian.
Nora snapped:
“Stop asking permission with your eyes.”
Dominic exhaled.
“Seven years ago.”
Her anger found a new target.
“You both knew.”
“Yes.”
“Did he ask about me?”
Dominic's face changed.
“Every time.”
Nora looked away.
That hurt worse.
A father who didn't care would have been easier.
A father who cared and stayed away required a completely different kind of anger.
“What did you tell him?”
“That you graduated high school.”
Her throat tightened.
“That you worked at St. Anne's.”
Nora had spent three years in a hospital laundry department.
“That your mother was sick.”
She closed her eyes.
“That you were taking night classes.”
“Stop.”
Dominic stopped.
Nora whispered:
“So he watched my life from wherever he was.”
“Not watched.”
“You reported it.”
“Yes.”
“Without my consent.”
“Yes.”
She looked at Adrian.
“And you?”
“I stopped receiving updates after Dominic took over that channel.”
“Why?”
“Thomas didn't trust me anymore.”
That surprised her.
“Why?”
Adrian's mouth tightened.
“Because I became head of the family.”
Nora almost laughed.
“Reasonable.”
“Very.”
A knock sounded.
One of the security men entered.
“Sir.”
He handed Dominic a tablet.
Dominic read something.
His face changed.
“What?”
Adrian held out his hand.
Dominic gave him the tablet.
On the screen was surveillance footage.
A dark figure entered the burning library seventeen minutes before the explosion.
Face obscured.
Coat.
Gloves.
Then the person turned slightly.
A distinctive silver tie pin caught the camera light.
Adrian went still.
Nora noticed.
“You know him.”
“No.”
“You recognize something.”
Adrian enlarged the image.
The pin was shaped like a lighthouse.
Dominic swore.
Nora looked between them.
“What?”
Dominic answered.
“City Hall senior staff receive those pins after ten years.”
Nora's heartbeat quickened.
“Ward?”
Adrian shook his head.
“Mayor doesn't wear one.”
“Then who?”
Adrian looked at the timestamp.
“His chief of staff.”
Nora knew the name.
Caleb Ross.
The mayor's closest aide.
He appeared beside Ward at every press conference.
“Can you prove it's him?”
“No.”
Adrian handed the tablet back.
“But we can ask why someone from the mayor's office entered my library before it exploded.”
“Call police.”
Dominic laughed.
Nora stared.
“What?”
Adrian answered.
“The detective assigned to the fire investigation worked security for Ward's campaign six years ago.”
Of course.
Nora rubbed her forehead.
“This city is insane.”
“Yes.”
Her phone rang.
Unknown number.
Everyone looked at it.
Nora answered.
“Hello?”
Silence.
Then breathing.
Her pulse jumped.
“Hello?”
A man's voice.
Older.
Unsteady.
“Nora?”
The room disappeared.
Her knees almost failed.
She knew that voice.
Older.
Rougher.
But she knew it.
“Dad?”
Adrian stood.
Dominic closed his eyes.
The voice on the phone broke.
“Oh, sweetheart.”
Nora began crying before she could stop herself.
“Where are you?”
“I can't tell you.”
Her face hardened instantly.
“No.”
“Nora—”
“No. You do not get to call me after twelve years and say that.”
“I know.”
“Mom died.”
Silence.
“I know.”
“Did you know before?”
“Yes.”
She almost hung up.
Thomas said quickly:
“I was at the funeral.”
Nora stopped breathing.
“What?”
“Across the street.”
Her hand began shaking violently.
“You were there?”
“I couldn't come closer.”
“You watched me bury her?”
Thomas cried quietly on the other end.
“Yes.”
Nora closed her eyes.
Adrian stepped away, giving her space.
“You watched me stand there alone?”
“Not alone.”
“I was alone!”
“I know.”
“Then come home.”
“I can't.”
“Stop saying that!”
“Nora.”
His voice changed.
Urgent.
“The fire means they found the old chain.”
“What?”
“They know Adrian has the copies.”
“They burned.”
Silence.
Then Thomas said:
“No.”
Nora looked toward Adrian.
“What?”
“The files in the library were decoys.”
Adrian's eyes narrowed.
Thomas continued:
“The real copy is somewhere Adrian doesn't know.”
Dominic frowned.
“Thomas—”
“Dominic?”
“Yes.”
Thomas exhaled.
“You're still there.”
“Unfortunately.”
For the first time, Nora heard a trace of the father she remembered in his laugh.
Then his voice hardened.
“Listen carefully.”
Everyone did.
“The archive is hidden inside a place Ward cannot destroy without destroying himself.”
Nora wiped her face.
“Where?”
May you like
Thomas answered:
“City Hall.”
