Chapter 9 - THE PRICE OF SILENCE
Thomas looked impossibly small in the hospital bed.
His face was bruised.
One arm was bandaged.
But he was awake.
Elena sat beside him.
“Who did this?”
Thomas gave a weak smile.
“You sound like your mother.”
“Apparently that isn’t the compliment I once thought it was.”
Thomas laughed.
Then winced.
“Elena.”
“Yes?”
“The ledger.”
“Samuel has it.”
Thomas shook his head.
“No.”
“What?”
“Samuel gave you the decoy.”
Elena stared at him.
“Why?”
“Because we knew Marcus would eventually find him.”
“Where’s the real one?”
Thomas reached toward the bedside drawer.
Inside was an old brass key.
“Grand Central.”
“Another locker?”
Thomas nodded.
“Elena.”
She waited.
“I need you to understand something.”
“What?”
“I didn’t stay away because I stopped loving you.”
Her eyes burned.
Thomas continued.
“I stayed away because every time I got close, Marcus noticed.”
“You could have told me.”
“I was ashamed.”
That answer felt more honest than all the others.
“I had become nothing.”
Thomas looked around the hospital room.
“And you had become everything.”
Elena leaned closer.
“You’re my father.”
Thomas’s eyes filled.
“You were enough before I had a dollar.”
For the first time in twenty-five years, Elena reached for his hand.
Thomas held it.
Neither spoke.
May you like
They didn’t need to.
Not yet.
