Chapter 12 - THE NIGHT THE BAKERY BURNED
Before we could leave for the New Dawn property, smoke appeared above town.
It came from the direction of my bakery.
I drove faster than I should have.
By the time I reached Main Street, flames were pouring through the second-floor windows.
Firefighters fought to keep the blaze from spreading to the neighboring store.
My bakery had belonged to me for nineteen years.
It was the one part of my life built without Margaret’s permission or Raymond’s shadow.
Now it burned because I refused to stop asking questions.
Owen found a gasoline container behind the alley.
Raymond had left a message on the brick wall.
ONE FAMILY IS ENOUGH.
My phone rang.
The number was blocked.
I answered.
Raymond’s voice sounded tired.
“I warned you.”
“Where are you?”
“Where your father should have buried the truth.”
“What do you want?”
“The copies.”
“They have already been sent to the state.”
“Not all of them.”
He knew about the missing final payment page.
“What is on that page?”
“The truth about Jack.”
“He is my son.”
“He is Daniel’s son.”
“What else is there?”
Raymond laughed softly.
“Ask why Thomas Mercer agreed to take him.”
“He was paid.”
“No.”
“He was given something more valuable than money.”
“What?”
“His own child.”
I looked toward Dolores.
She stood beside the fire truck with a blanket around her shoulders.
“Explain.”
“Thomas and Elaine Mercer had a baby girl.”
“She was taken by New Dawn a year before Jack was born.”
My chest tightened.
“Why?”
“Elaine was seventeen.”
“Her parents signed the papers.”
“Thomas never stopped searching.”
“Samuel promised to return the child if Thomas helped expose the operation.”
“Did he?”
“Margaret gave Thomas Jack.”
“Raymond gave Thomas information about his daughter.”
“You used Jack as payment.”
“Thomas made his choice.”
“Where was his daughter?”
Raymond became quiet.
Then he said, “Ask Dolores.”
The call ended.
I walked toward her.
Her face changed before I asked.
“Thomas had a daughter?”
Dolores closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
“Where is she?”
“She died before he found her.”
“How?”
“New Dawn sold her to a couple in Missouri.”
“The adoptive father killed her when she was six.”
The horror of the operation widened again.
“These were not private adoptions.”
“No.”
Dolores began crying.
“They were sales.”
I understood why Thomas kept Jack.
He had failed to save his daughter.
Then someone placed another stolen child in his arms.
He could not return Jack to the people who had killed his own little girl.
Jack had believed his father raised him out of guilt or payment.
The truth was more painful and more loving.
Thomas had spent the rest of his life protecting the child he could save.
My phone received a message.
A photograph showed Raymond standing inside a concrete room.
Behind him were shelves filled with sealed boxes.
Hospital bracelets hung from the walls.
The final New Dawn archive.
A second photograph showed a gasoline can.
A timer displayed two hours.
A message followed.
COME ALONE OR THE NAMES BURN.
Owen read it over my shoulder.
“You are not going alone.”
“He will destroy everything if he sees police.”
“He may destroy it anyway.”
Jack’s voice came from behind us.
I turned.
He stood beside Boone’s truck.
His right arm was in a sling.
Hospital tape remained around his wrist.
“You should be in bed.”
“I have spent thirty-two years in someone else’s story.”
He walked toward me.
“I am not missing the ending.”
Emily stepped from the passenger side.
Her face was bruised.
Her eyes were steady.
“Neither am I.”
For the first time, my two children stood together in front of me.
I wanted to hold them.
I did not know whether I had the right.
Jack looked toward the burning bakery.
“Raymond wants you alone.”
“He is not getting you alone.”
Emily nodded.
May you like
“He stole our first thirty-two years.”
“He does not get another hour.”
