Chapter 10 - The Missing Hour
The room disappeared around me.
“What?”
Michael spoke faster.
“An ambulance took Sofia from the road.”
“I know.”
“No. Not the ambulance in the official report.”
Hayes moved toward him.
“Shut your mouth.”
Michael backed away.
“There were two calls that night.”
I looked at him.
“What do you mean?”
“The first ambulance was private.”
My stomach turned.
“Sofia was conscious.”
“No.”
“She called me.”
My voice disappeared.
Michael began crying.
“She called me from the ambulance.”
I stared at him.
“What did she say?”
“She said, ‘They’re taking me somewhere else.’”
Hayes pulled a gun.
Everything happened fast.
Vivienne screamed.
I grabbed Lily and pulled her behind a concrete column.
Michael lunged at Hayes.
The gun went off.
The shot cracked through the unfinished floor.
Michael fell.
“Michael!”
Vivienne rushed toward him.
Hayes swung the gun at me.
“Drives!”
I held Lily behind me.
Then distant shouting echoed through the building.
“Federal agents!”
Hayes turned toward the stairs.
Agent Reed.
Thank God.
Hayes grabbed Vivienne by the arm and dragged her toward the rear corridor.
She fought him.
“Let go!”
He pressed the gun to her ribs.
“You’re coming.”
She stopped fighting.
I knelt beside Michael.
Blood spread across his shirt near the shoulder.
Not center mass.
Maybe survivable.
“Stay with me.”
He grabbed my wrist.
“Daniel.”
“I’m here.”
“The clinic.”
“What clinic?”
“North Ridge.”
“Where?”
“Outside Bedford.”
His breathing turned shallow.
“They took Sofia there.”
“Who?”
“Hayes.”
“Why?”
“Vivienne wanted the files.”
Vivienne shouted from the corridor.
“That’s a lie!”
Hayes dragged her away.
Michael shook his head weakly.
“No.”
I leaned closer.
“What happened?”
“She was alive for almost an hour.”
My entire body went cold.
“What did you do?”
He began sobbing.
“I did nothing.”
That hurt more than if he had admitted pulling the trigger.
“I knew.”
His fingers tightened around mine.
“I knew something was wrong, and I did nothing.”
Federal agents rushed onto the floor.
Reed dropped beside us.
“Medical!”
I looked at Lily.
She stood against the column, trembling.
I opened my arms.
For one second, she didn’t move.
Then she ran into me.
I held a daughter I had only known existed for a few hours.
“I’m sorry.”
I didn’t even know what I was apologizing for.
Everything.
Six years.
Sofia.
The lies.
All of it.
Lily whispered against my shoulder.
“Mom said you’d find me.”
My throat closed.
“When did she say that?”
“Before the accident.”
She pulled away.
Then she reached into her backpack.
From a hidden pocket, she removed a folded piece of paper.
“She said I could only give this to you.”
I opened it.
Three lines.
Daniel,
If Michael finally tells you about North Ridge, don’t go there first.
May you like
Go to the cemetery.
They buried the wrong woman.
