Chapter 29: Daniel’s Secret
Daniel ended the call without speaking.
Claire stared at him.
“How does that man know me?”
Daniel sat down.
“Three months before the wedding, I received a letter.”
“From my father?”
“From someone claiming to be him.”
Daniel had believed it was a cruel prank.
The letter contained details about Claire’s childhood that no stranger should have known.
It also instructed Daniel to protect Ethan and marry Claire only if he truly loved her.
“You kept this from me?”
“I didn’t want a ghost controlling our marriage.”
Claire understood his fear, but the secrecy hurt.
“What else did the letter say?”
Daniel hesitated.
“That Lily was alive.”
Claire stepped backward.
“You knew?”
“I didn’t believe it.”
“You should have told me.”
“I know.”
Their argument was interrupted when Ethan entered carrying the wooden train.
A tiny red light blinked beneath one wheel.
The train contained a tracker.
Claire remembered Victoria’s men tearing apart every toy except that one.
They had not missed it.
They had planted it.
Daniel removed the device.
The signal had been active since the apartment break-in.
Every safe house.
Every meeting.
Every location had been exposed.
Lily rushed into the room.
“Where’s Ethan?”
Claire turned.
The hallway was empty.
The back door stood open.
On the ground lay the plastic ring.
A black car was disappearing around the corner.
Daniel ran outside.
Claire picked up the ring.
A folded message had been placed inside.
Bring the original archive to the wedding church at midnight. Come alone.
At the bottom was a second sentence.
Your father will be waiting.
Claire’s phone rang.
Ethan’s voice came through the speaker.
“Claire?”
“I’m here, sweetheart.”
A man took the phone from him.
“Do you still believe in happy endings?”
Then Claire heard a voice she had mourned for seventeen years.
May you like
“Hello, Claire.”
“Dad?”
