Chapter 11 - CABIN SEVENTEEN
Trevor survived surgery.
Barely.
Malcolm refused to speak.
We drove to Lake Briar before sunrise.
Cabin seventeen sat deep among pine trees.
No guards.
No cameras.
Just an old wooden building overlooking black water.
Roman opened the door first.
Empty.
My heart sank.
Then we heard movement beneath the floor.
Marcus found a trapdoor.
Roman opened it.
A man stood below.
Gray hair.
Thin face.
A shotgun shaking in his hands.
“Don’t move.”
I froze.
Roman slowly raised his hands.
The man looked at me.
His face collapsed.
The shotgun lowered.
“Sadi?”
I couldn’t breathe.
“Dad?”
He climbed the stairs.
Older.
Broken.
Alive.
For seventeen years, I had imagined this moment.
I thought I would run to him.
Instead I stood frozen.
He reached toward me.
I stepped back.
His face shattered.
“I understand.”
“No.”
My voice trembled.
“You don’t.”
Tears filled his eyes.
“I wanted to come home.”
“Then why didn’t you?”
He looked at Roman.
Then at me.
“Because Malcolm threatened your mother.”
“That was seventeen years ago.”
“I kept watching from a distance.”
I stared at him.
“You watched me?”
“Yes.”
“Mom died.”
“I know.”
“You didn’t come.”
His face folded.
“I was afraid.”
I laughed through tears.
“I was twenty-two years old and burying her alone.”
“Sadi—”
“I thought you abandoned us!”
“I know.”
“You let me believe it!”
He covered his face.
“I thought staying gone kept you safe.”
Roman stood silently behind me.
My father looked at him.
“You married her.”
“Yes.”
“Does she know?”
Roman’s expression changed.
I turned.
“Know what?”
My father stared at Roman.
“Elias,” Roman warned.
“No.”
I stepped between them.
“Enough secrets.”
My father swallowed.
“The night Victor tried to kill me, Roman was there.”
I looked at Roman.
He went still.
“You said you were seventeen.”
“I was.”
“You said your father came home covered in blood.”
“He did.”
My father shook his head.
“But Roman saw everything.”
My stomach dropped.
Roman closed his eyes.
May you like
And I knew.
There was still one lie left.
