Chapter 7 - THE NIGHT EVERYTHING BURNED
We ran.
Elise grabbed Lily's hand.
I pulled open the stairwell door.
Another gunshot echoed below.
Police sirens sounded outside.
Warren had planned this.
He knew we'd come.
We reached the roof.
Rain hammered the concrete.
Lily was shaking.
"There's nowhere to go."
I looked around.
An adjoining building stood six feet away.
"Can you jump?"
She stared at me.
"You're serious?"
"I'll go first."
I jumped.
Then Elise.
Then Lily.
We reached the neighboring rooftop just as the stairwell door burst open.
Warren appeared.
He looked at me across the gap.
"Adrian!"
I shouted,
"Where are my sons?"
He laughed.
"You still don't understand."
"Where are they?"
"Safe."
"Bring them back."
"You want your children?"
"Yes."
"Then give me the drive."
I held it up.
"No."
His face hardened.
"You'll regret that."
Police flooded the rooftop behind him.
Warren ran.
Officers chased him.
But he disappeared into the rain.
We made it downstairs.
Lily stayed close to Elise.
I watched them together.
Mother and daughter.
Six years stolen from both of them.
Then Lily said,
"There's something you need to know."
"What?"
"Warren wasn't acting alone."
I already knew.
"Who?"
She looked at me.
"Your father."
I froze.
"My father is dead."
"He isn't."
The world seemed to stop.
"What?"
"My adoptive father discovered your father faked his death."
I couldn't breathe.
"My father died six years ago."
"No."
Lily shook her head.
"He disappeared."
I thought about the funeral.
The closed casket.
The endless legal paperwork.
My mother's grief.
Everything suddenly looked different.
"What was his name on the documents?"
"Daniel Whitmore found a passport."
She opened her phone.
The photograph showed a man.
Older.
But unmistakable.
My father.
Alive.
I sat down.
Elise whispered,
"Adrian."
I couldn't answer.
My phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
My father's voice came through.
"You should have left the past alone."
I stopped breathing.
"Dad?"
"Your children are alive."
"Where are they?"
"With me."
"Give them back."
"You've always been impulsive."
"You stole my family."
"I protected it."
"You destroyed it."
Silence.
Then he said,
"Meet me at the old Caldwell estate."
"Why?"
"Because there is one more thing you need to know."
The line went dead.
Elise grabbed my arm.
"Don't go."
"I have to."
"No."
She looked into my eyes.
"This is what they want."
I knew she was right.
So I called the police.
Then my security team.
Then my attorney.
I wasn't going alone.
We drove toward the estate.
Halfway there, my phone received a video.
Miles and Noah were sitting on a couch.
Alive.
Scared.
But unharmed.
My father's voice played over the recording.
"Come alone."
I stared at my sons.
Then at Elise.
"I can't."
She shook her head.
"You won't."
For the first time, she took my hand.
"We'll get them back together."
And I realized she wasn't standing beside me because she trusted me.
May you like
She was standing beside me because she trusted herself.
That was enough.
