Chapter 6 - THE FATHER
“Where are you?” Lewis demanded.
Daniel didn’t answer her. “Claire, listen to me. Ben has your address.”
“So do you,” I said. “You’re the one who took him.”
A breath crackled over the line.
“Yes.”
That single word made the room tilt.
“You let me think my son was dead.”
“I know.”
“You let him think I didn’t want him.”
“No. I never told him that.”
“But you left him with a man who did.”
Daniel went quiet.
Lewis took over. “We need your location.”
“Ben took my phone once already. I borrowed this one. He knows I’m alive now.”
Noah stood beside me, holding the strap of his borrowed backpack. He had heard every word.
“Dad?” he said.
Daniel’s breath caught. “Ace?”
Noah stepped closer to the phone. “You told me we were going home.”
“I tried.”
“Where did you go?”
The call ended.
Noah stared at the dark screen. “He didn’t say goodbye.”
Lewis moved quickly. She had officers check the station entrances and arranged a different place for us to spend the night. Rachel brought Lily to a small hotel on the other side of town. An officer waited downstairs while the four of us settled into two adjoining rooms.
Lily ran to Noah, then stopped when she saw his face.
“You can have the bed by the window,” she said.
“I’m okay on the floor.”
“There are two beds.”
He looked genuinely surprised.
After they ate, Rachel took Lily into the next room. Noah sat on the edge of his bed, fully dressed. I left the lamp on.
“Did Dad really call?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“He said he was going home. Then Ben said he left because he didn’t want me anymore.”
“I don’t know why your dad stayed away,” I said. “But Ben has lied to you about me. We can ask your dad what happened when the police find him.”
Noah picked at the edge of the blanket. “Are you mad at me for believing Ben?”
“Never.”
“Are you mad at Dad?”
“Yes,” I said. “Very.”
He gave a tiny nod, as if an honest answer was easier to hold than a comforting one.
At midnight, Lewis called. Officers had traced the borrowed phone to a gas station off Highway 8. A clerk remembered Daniel. He had left behind an envelope addressed to me.
Lewis read the note aloud.
Claire, the river was staged. I agreed to leave with Noah for a few days because I believed you were taking him away. Ben showed me papers. They were fake. When I learned that, I tried to bring Noah back. Ben wouldn’t let me. There’s proof at the old bridge.
At the bottom was one more line:
Rachel knows why I believed him.
May you like
I looked through the open door at my sister.
She was awake, watching me.
