CHAPTER 15 — THE SON OF THE ENEMY
Ethan Voss was nothing like his father.
That made Daniel distrust him more at first.
Arthur had been polished.
Controlled.
Ethan’s hands shook.
He apologized too often.
He looked at exits but not like an agent.
Like someone who expected to be chased.
Inspector Kim searched him before he entered.
Ethan did not object.
The metal box contained copies of internal communications.
One name appeared repeatedly.
Deputy Director Caroline Shaw.
Daniel knew her.
Everyone did.
She had publicly led reforms after the Serrano-Briggs scandal.
She had stood before cameras promising accountability.
She had personally congratulated Kim.
Now evidence suggested she had helped Arthur locate Eleanor.
Kim stared at the records.
“This could be fabricated.”
Ethan nodded.
“I know.”
“Why bring it here?”
“Because my father told me something before he was arrested.”
“What?”
Ethan looked at Daniel.
“He said Hart families always protect institutions before people.”
Daniel’s expression hardened.
“He doesn’t know my family.”
“He knew your father.”
Daniel stood.
Maria spoke quietly.
“Sit.”
He looked at her.
She raised an eyebrow.
Daniel sat.
Ethan continued.
“My father believed you’d bury this if exposing Shaw damaged the agency.”
Daniel laughed without humor.
“I resigned.”
“He said you’d still protect the badge.”
Daniel looked at Kim.
Her face revealed nothing.
Then Daniel pushed the box toward her.
“Your case.”
Ethan blinked.
“That’s it?”
Daniel nodded.
“You expected me to investigate a deputy director personally?”
“Yes.”
“Then your father hasn’t been paying attention.”
Maria smiled.
Kim did not.
“This may require a formal inquiry.”
Daniel shrugged.
“Then do one.”
“What if it embarrasses the agency?”
Daniel looked at her.
“People matter more.”
The investigation took four months.
Shaw was not part of Miguel’s network.
That mattered.
She had helped Arthur for a different reason.
Blackmail.
Arthur possessed evidence her brother had accepted illegal payments years earlier.
Shaw tried to hide the scandal.
In doing so, she gave Arthur access to restricted information.
Another person choosing secrecy because truth seemed too expensive.
Daniel recognized the pattern immediately.
So did Anna.
When Shaw was arrested, Daniel felt no satisfaction.
Only exhaustion.
“Does everybody become stupid when they’re scared?” Lily asked after overhearing adults discussing it.
Maria answered:
“Frequently.”
Daniel glared.
“She’s nine.”
“She has eyes.”
Lily nodded seriously.
“I do.”
Noah, now almost three, shouted:
“I have eyes!”
Everyone laughed.
The laughter mattered.
So did the years beginning to pass between crises.
Ethan testified.
Then disappeared from the headlines.
Before leaving Connecticut, he asked to see Daniel.
They met at a diner.
No agents.
No dramatic lighting.
Just coffee.
“My father wants me to visit him,” Ethan said.
“Do you want to?”
“No.”
“Then don’t.”
Ethan stared.
“That simple?”
“No.”
Daniel sipped coffee.
“But the decision is.”
Ethan looked at him.
“You visited your mother.”
“My mother wasn’t Arthur.”
“What about your father?”
“He was dead before I knew what he did.”
“Would you have visited him?”
Daniel considered.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To ask questions.”
“Forgive him?”
“I don’t know.”
Ethan nodded.
Daniel leaned forward.
“You don’t owe your father reconciliation because he’s your father.”
Ethan looked surprised.
Daniel continued.
“You also don’t owe everyone else hatred just because they think he deserves it.”
“What do I owe?”
“Yourself?”
Daniel smiled faintly.
“Honesty.”
Ethan eventually visited Arthur.
Once.
He never told Daniel what happened.
Daniel never asked.
Boundaries.
Another thing he had learned late.
Back home, Anna completed probation.
The day her ankle monitor came off, Lily threw a party.
The cake read:
MOM IS LEGALLY LESS COMPLICATED.
Daniel stared.
“Who ordered this?”
Maria raised her hand.
Anna laughed until she cried.
That evening, she carried two suitcases from the guesthouse.
Daniel met her halfway.
“You sure?”
Anna nodded.
“No secrets.”
“No disappearing.”
“No undercover operations inside the house.”
Daniel winced.
“Fair.”
“No using our children as encryption keys.”
“That was you.”
“I’m making rules for myself too.”
He smiled.
Then became serious.
“If this doesn’t work—”
“We say it.”
“If you’re scared—”
“I say it.”
“If I’m controlling—”
“I tell Maria.”
Anna laughed.
“Coward.”
“Absolutely.”
They entered the house together.
Maria watched from the kitchen.
Not a perfect reunion.
Not a reset.
A new marriage built beside the ruins of the old one.
Then Noah ran into the hallway.
“Mommy home?”
Anna crouched.
“Yes.”
He hugged her.
Lily joined.
Daniel stood behind them.
Maria looked at the family.
Months earlier, Noah had been sinking beneath blue water while a woman screamed that Maria had pushed him.
Now he was laughing in his mother’s arms.
That should have felt like an ending.
Instead, Maria’s phone rang.
She glanced at the screen.
Unknown number.
Her smile disappeared.
Daniel noticed.
“Don’t answer.”
Maria looked at him.
Then at the phone.
The ringing stopped.
A voicemail appeared.
Maria played it on speaker.
A man’s voice.
Weak.
Old.
“Maria Serrano?”
She frowned.
“My name is Father Gabriel.”
Anna went white.
Maria turned.
“You know him?”
Anna whispered:
“Yes.”
The recording continued.
“I knew your mother.”
Maria stopped breathing.
Their mother had died when Maria was sixteen.
At least, that was what Miguel always told them.
Father Gabriel continued:
“And before I die, you need to know what she did the night she disappeared.”
Maria looked at Anna.
Anna shook her head.
For once, she did not know.
The message ended with an address.
A church in New Mexico.
Daniel looked at Maria.
“You don’t have to go.”
Maria stared at the phone.
All her life, she had followed other people’s secrets.
Anna’s.
Miguel’s.
Celeste’s.
Daniel’s.
Now one belonged to her.
She looked at Daniel.
“No.”
May you like
She picked up her coat.
“But I want to.”
