Chapter 10 - MY MOTHER’S FINAL LIE
Jack stopped moving.
I stared at Raymond.
“You are lying.”
“He always lies,” Owen said.
Raymond smiled.
“Ask Margaret why Daniel’s blood was on her sleeve.”
The memory returned again.
My mother entering my hospital room.
Blood on the cuff of her nurse’s uniform.
I had thought it belonged to me.
“What happened?” I asked.
Raymond watched me carefully.
“Daniel escaped the deputies.”
“He found Margaret carrying both babies.”
“He thought she was helping me steal them.”
“What did he do?”
“He tried to take Jack.”
“Margaret believed he was working with New Dawn.”
Jack’s face tightened.
“She attacked my father?”
“She struck him with a surgical instrument.”
“That did not kill him,” Raymond continued.
“But it knocked him down.”
“Samuel came into the corridor.”
“He saw his son bleeding.”
“Then I arrived.”
Owen raised his gun higher.
“You shot them.”
Raymond’s smile disappeared.
“Yes.”
The answer echoed through the basement.
“You murdered both men and let Margaret believe she caused Daniel’s death.”
“She had already chosen betrayal.”
“She took records from New Dawn.”
“She tried to escape with the babies.”
“You threatened Laura.”
“I gave her a reason to cooperate.”
Emily struggled against the chair.
“Why was I separated from Jack?”
“Thomas could not leave town with two infants.”
“Police were searching his truck.”
“Elaine Price took the girl through the kitchen exit.”
Jack’s hands curled into fists.
Raymond looked at him.
“Thomas Mercer was paid to take you.”
“He was not a hero.”
“He kept me alive.”
“He kept quiet.”
Raymond turned toward the heater.
“He understood the value of survival.”
He lifted the ledger.
Flames touched the lower corner.
I moved forward.
“Stop.”
“Every name in this book belongs to a person who built a life.”
“You expose them, and you destroy families.”
“You destroyed those families when you stole the children.”
“Some of those children grew up loved.”
“That does not make the theft mercy.”
Raymond dropped the burning ledger onto the floor.
Jack lunged.
Raymond fired.
The bullet struck Jack’s shoulder.
He crashed against the wall.
I screamed.
Owen fired back.
Raymond disappeared behind the steel door.
Boone and Cole entered from the opposite corridor.
Boone kicked the burning ledger away from the heater.
Cole cut Emily free.
I dropped beside Jack.
Blood covered his leather vest.
His eyes remained open.
“It went through,” Boone said.
“He needs a hospital.”
Jack gripped my wrist.
“Do not let Raymond leave.”
Owen ran into the hidden room.
A second door stood open behind the skeletons.
An underground passage led toward the hillside.
Raymond had escaped.
My phone began ringing.
The hospice number appeared.
I answered while pressing my hand against Jack’s wound.
A nurse spoke quickly.
“Laura, your mother’s condition is worsening.”
“She is asking for you.”
I looked at Jack.
He had spent thirty-two years searching for answers.
Margaret had very little time left to give them.
We carried Jack to Boone’s motorcycle trailer.
Emily climbed in beside him.
She kept staring at his face as though searching for her own features.
Owen called every available officer toward the hillside.
I drove to the hospice.
My mother was barely conscious when I entered Room Seven.
I sat beside her.
“Raymond told us what happened.”
Her eyes opened.
“Jack?”
“He was shot.”
Margaret began crying.
“Is he alive?”
“For now.”
“I did not know Daniel was trying to save them.”
“I know.”
“I hit him.”
“Raymond shot him.”
“I left him on the floor.”
“You were protecting the babies.”
“I should have looked back.”
Her hand searched for mine.
“Did you find your daughter?”
“Yes.”
“Is she safe?”
“For now.”
Margaret exhaled.
The monitor slowed.
“There is one final name.”
“What name?”
“The person who financed New Dawn.”
“Raymond?”
“No.”
Her voice became almost inaudible.
“Your father.”
I pulled my hand away.
“Dad tried to expose them.”
“After he helped create it.”
The monitor sounded a warning.
Margaret looked directly at me.
May you like
“Henry started New Dawn.”
Then the line went flat.
