Chapter 12 - Maria's FatherMaria sat in the kitchen, staring at the table.
Daniel sat across from her.
“Tell me everything.”
Maria looked down.
“My father worked for your family.”
Daniel was stunned.
“What did he do?”
“Security.”
“How long?”
“About ten years.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because he disappeared.”
“When?”
“Twenty years ago.”
Daniel's eyes narrowed.
“What happened?”
Maria took a slow breath.
“I was six.”
She remembered that night.
Rain against the windows.
Her mother crying.
Her father leaving after dinner.
He never returned.
The official explanation was simple.
He had abandoned the family.
But Maria's mother never believed it.
She always said one thing:
“He knew something.”
Daniel sat back.
“About my father?”
“I think so.”
Maria opened her phone and showed him an old photograph.
Her father stood beside a much younger Victor Hale.
Beside them was Daniel's father.
And there was Grace Miller.
Daniel stared.
“This photo was taken at my father's property.”
Maria nodded.
“My mother said they were all involved in something called the Silver Circle.”
Daniel's face went pale.
“You know that name?”
“It was in my father's notebook.”
Daniel stood.
“Where is it?”
“I don't have it.”
Maria hesitated.
“Except…”
“Except what?”
“My mother sent me a package after she died.”
Daniel leaned closer.
“I never opened it.”
“Why?”
“Because the letter said I would be in danger if I did.”
Daniel stared at her.
“Where is it now?”
Maria looked toward her small bedroom above the garage.
“In my room.”
They went upstairs.
Maria opened an old wooden box.
Inside was a sealed envelope.
She broke the seal.
A notebook fell out.
Most pages were covered in numbers.
Names.
Dates.
Locations.
Then she found one page with a sentence underlined.
If Daniel's family ever has a child, watch the mother.
Maria looked at Sarah.
Sarah stepped back.
“No.”
Another line followed.
She doesn't know she is being used.
Daniel looked confused.
“What does that mean?”
Maria turned the page.
There was a drawing of the silver triangle.
Inside it was a single letter:
V
Victor.
Daniel went silent.
Then Olivia entered.
“Dad.”
“What?”
“I checked the hospital records again.”
She handed him a printed document.
“The father listed on Noah's original record was not Ethan.”
Daniel frowned.
“What?”
“The record was altered twice.”
Maria looked at her.
“Twice?”
Olivia nodded.
“The first version lists an unknown man.”
“Who?”
Olivia turned the paper over.
A hospital identification number was written there.
She had traced it.
The number belonged to a patient.
Victor Hale.
Daniel stared.
“No.”
Sarah's eyes filled with tears.
“I told you. I didn't know.”
Daniel looked at her.
“You were with Victor?”
“No.”
“I believe you.”
Sarah looked surprised.
Then Daniel's phone buzzed.
A message.
From Ethan.
Victor is lying.
Another message followed.
Noah isn't Victor's son.
Then a final message.
He's your father's.
Daniel stared at the screen.
His father had been dead for fifteen years.
How could Noah possibly be his father's child?
Then Olivia whispered:
“Dad…”
She had opened one final document.
“It gets worse.”
She turned the screen.
The birth date of Noah matched the date of a secret medical appointment arranged under Daniel's father's name.
May you like
But the appointment took place…
after his death.
