Chapter 8 - The Secret Aldrich Carried for Nine Years
Orion wanted to stay.
Ren saw it.
Every instinct in him demanded that he drag the truth from Damian immediately.
But headlights were disappearing beyond the gate.
Children were inside those vans.
Orion chose them.
“Pike, stay with Cross.”
He pointed at Ren.
“You and Meadow go downstairs.”
“No.”
“Ren.”
“Those kids protected my daughter for three years.”
Meadow pulled from her mother’s embrace.
“She’s right.”
Ren stared at her.
Meadow wiped her face.
“Chloe took punishment for me.”
Her voice shook.
“Ben gave me his food when I was sick. Lila sleeps beside the little kids because they’re scared.”
She looked at Orion.
“We’re not leaving them.”
Something in Orion’s expression softened.
“Fine.”
He turned to Ren.
“Keep her behind you.”
Ren almost laughed.
“I spent three years trying to get her back. You think I’m letting her out of reach?”
They raced downstairs.
Victor had already moved one SUV toward the driveway.
“Two vans went east. One south.”
Orion made a decision.
“Victor, east. Call every clean contact you have.”
“How do we know who’s clean?”
“We don’t.”
“That’s encouraging.”
“Use state patrol units that joined in the last two years. Damian’s old network is mostly senior command.”
Victor nodded and sped away.
Orion climbed into the other SUV.
Ren and Meadow entered the rear seat with Caesar.
The dog pressed himself against Meadow.
She stared at him.
“What’s his name?”
“Caesar.”
Meadow smiled through tears.
“I like him.”
Caesar licked the side of her face.
She laughed.
Ren stopped breathing.
That laugh.
Older now.
But still Meadow.
Ren turned away so her daughter wouldn’t see her cry again.
They followed the southern van.
Orion drove.
Snow thickened across the highway.
The van stayed two minutes ahead.
“Why did Damian say Meadow was leverage against you?” Ren asked.
“I don’t know.”
Meadow’s expression changed.
“I do.”
Orion looked into the mirror.
“What?”
“Mr. Cross used to ask me questions about you.”
Ren turned.
“What questions?”
“Whether I remembered a man visiting the hospital before I disappeared.”
“Did you?”
Meadow nodded slowly.
“A man gave me apple juice.”
Ren went cold.
“Who?”
“I didn’t know his name.”
Meadow looked at Orion.
“But he looked like you.”
Orion’s grip tightened on the steering wheel.
“How?”
“Same eyes.”
Ren stared at him.
“Aldrich?”
Meadow nodded.
Orion swore softly.
His father had met Meadow before she vanished.
Why?
The answer came forty minutes later.
The southern van had been stopped by a snowbank after trying to avoid a state patrol car.
Two guards fled into the woods.
The three children inside were frightened but unharmed.
By the time Victor called, the eastern vans had also been intercepted.
No children missing.
No deaths.
For the first time in years, Mercer estate was empty of prisoners.
They returned to the safe house near midnight.
Aldrich was awake.
When Meadow entered his room, the old man cried.
Ren saw it before he turned his face away.
“Mr. Gray,” Meadow whispered.
Aldrich held out his hand.
“You made it.”
“You said my mom would come.”
“I hoped.”
Meadow looked at Ren.
“She did.”
Aldrich smiled.
Then he noticed Orion standing behind them.
The smile disappeared.
Orion closed the door.
“Why did you know Meadow before she disappeared?”
Aldrich became still.
Ren stepped forward.
“My daughter remembers you.”
Aldrich looked at Meadow.
“I’m sorry.”
Orion’s voice hardened.
“Answer me.”
Aldrich closed his eyes.
“Ren.”
She waited.
“Do you remember Meadow’s father?”
Ren’s face changed.
Of course she did.
Evan Callaway.
Her husband.
A paramedic.
Kind.
Funny.
Terrible at money.
Dead in a ferry accident when Meadow was two.
“Yes.”
Aldrich looked at Orion.
“Evan wasn’t her biological father.”
Silence.
Ren stared.
“That’s impossible.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Evan was my husband.”
“I know.”
“He was there when she was born.”
“I know.”
“What are you saying?”
Aldrich swallowed.
“Before you married Evan, you worked one summer at a private emergency clinic.”
Ren remembered.
Bellevue.
She had been twenty-three.
One night.
One mistake after a brutal shift and too much alcohol at a colleague’s farewell party.
A man whose full name she never knew.
She had been separated from Evan then.
They reunited weeks later.
Meadow was born nine months after.
Evan believed she was his.
Ren had believed it too.
Aldrich reached toward the drawer.
Orion opened it.
Inside was a sealed envelope.
A DNA report.
Ren’s pulse thundered.
“No.”
Orion read the top line.
His face drained of color.
He looked at Ren.
Then Meadow.
Then his father.
“What is this?”
Aldrich’s voice broke.
“Meadow’s biological father was your younger brother.”
Orion stopped breathing.
Ren frowned.
“Your brother?”
“Gabriel,” Aldrich said.
Orion turned away.
Ren looked at him.
“You had a brother?”
“He died nine years ago.”
Aldrich nodded.
“Overdose.”
Orion stared at the report.
“Gabriel met Ren in Bellevue.”
Ren remembered the man now.
Gabe.
He had said his name was Gabe.
Funny.
Restless.
Sad beneath the charm.
They had spent one night together.
Nothing more.
Weeks later, she and Evan reconciled.
Evan became Meadow’s father in every way that mattered.
Aldrich continued.
“Gabriel told me about Ren shortly before he died.”
Ren looked at him.
“He knew I was pregnant?”
“No.”
“Then how—”
“Years later I saw Meadow’s missing-person report.”
Aldrich’s voice shook.
“Her age. Your name. The dates.”
He suspected.
He quietly obtained DNA from an evidence item in Meadow’s old case and compared it to Gabriel’s stored medical sample.
The result confirmed it.
Meadow was Gabriel Steel’s daughter.
Aldrich’s granddaughter.
Orion’s niece.
Ren stared at Aldrich in disbelief.
“You knew for years?”
“Nine months before she disappeared.”
“And you never told me?”
“I intended to.”
“But?”
“Damian discovered the test.”
Ren’s anger sharpened.
Aldrich closed his eyes.
“He realized Meadow gave him leverage over me.”
Not Orion.
Aldrich.
But Damian had eventually realized something more.
If Orion died without children, much of the family structure and several trusts would pass through Gabriel’s surviving legal descendants.
Meadow.
A child no one knew existed.
A child Damian could control.
Or erase.
Or present whenever useful.
Ren looked at Orion.
“You have no children?”
His expression tightened.
“No.”
Aldrich continued.
“Damian kept Meadow alive because she was valuable.”
Ren’s face twisted.
“My daughter is not an inheritance.”
“No.”
Aldrich’s voice broke.
“She’s my granddaughter.”
Ren rounded on him.
“You lost the right to say that when you knew who she was and left us alone.”
“I know.”
“You knew we were being hunted.”
“I didn’t know Damian had taken her until recently.”
“But you knew he knew about her.”
“Yes.”
Ren’s eyes filled.
“And you didn’t warn me.”
“I thought hiding the truth protected you.”
Ren laughed bitterly.
“Every man in this story keeps saying that.”
Aldrich looked destroyed.
“I was wrong.”
“Yes.”
No excuse.
No defense.
That mattered.
Ren turned away.
Meadow stood near the door, listening.
Ren immediately regretted the argument.
“Sweetheart.”
Meadow looked at Orion.
“So you’re my uncle?”
Orion seemed more frightened by that question than by gunfire.
“Yes.”
Meadow considered this.
“Do you have dogs?”
“No.”
“Kids?”
“No.”
“Do you know how to make pancakes?”
Orion blinked.
“No.”
Meadow looked at Ren.
“He’s not very useful.”
Aldrich laughed.
Then winced in pain.
Even Ren smiled.
Orion shook his head.
“Apparently not.”
Meadow walked toward him.
For several seconds, she simply studied his face.
Then she reached up and touched the scar near his jaw.
“You do have my eyes.”
Orion swallowed.
“Yes.”
Meadow surprised everyone by hugging him.
Orion’s arms stayed at his sides.
He looked helplessly toward Ren.
She whispered, “Hug her back.”
Slowly, Orion did.
Something in him broke open.
His brother had left one piece of himself in the world.
And Orion had nearly spent his whole life never knowing.
Then a phone rang in the hallway.
Lena answered.
Her face changed.
“Orion.”
He released Meadow.
“What?”
“Pike disappeared.”
Everyone froze.
“When?”
“Ten minutes ago.”
Orion looked toward the security feed.
The room where Damian had been held was empty.
The chair overturned.
Blood on the floor.
No Damian.
Ren’s heart dropped.
“How?”
Lena shook her head.
“Pike took him.”
Orion stared.
“No.”
Security footage replayed.
Pike entered Damian’s room.
They spoke for three minutes without audio.
Then Pike unlocked the restraints.
The two men left together.
Ren felt betrayed all over again.
“Why would he help him?”
Orion’s expression darkened.
“Because Damian still had something.”
Aldrich whispered from the bed.
“No.”
Orion turned.
His father’s face was white.
“What?”
Aldrich looked at Ren.
“Damian kept one last hostage.”
Ren instinctively grabbed Meadow.
“Who?”
Aldrich’s voice shook.
“Pike’s granddaughter.”
And on the security screen, Damian Cross looked directly into the camera before disappearing into the snow.
May you like
He smiled.
Because the game still wasn’t over.
