Chapter 9 - THE LIE ON THE BIRTH CERTIFICATE
Maya dropped the certificate.
“No.”
Julian stepped backward as though the paper itself could burn him.
Rosa grabbed it.
“This is false.”
Maya stared at her.
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Because Gabriel Croft is not your father.”
Rosa’s voice was fierce.
“I never met Gabriel Croft before you were born.”
Julian turned toward Derek.
“Verify it.”
Derek took a photograph.
“Immediately.”
Maya pressed both hands against her temples.
“This is insane.”
Julian remained across the room.
The sudden distance hurt more than she expected.
She noticed.
So did he.
Neither knew what to do with it.
Maya laughed shakily.
“Yesterday I was a maid with debt.”
Nobody answered.
“Today I apparently have three fathers.”
Rosa reached for her.
Maya stepped away.
“I need air.”
“There is no air thirty feet underground.”
Maya glared at Derek.
“Not helping.”
“Sorry.”
Julian opened the vault door.
They went upstairs.
Outside, morning light spread between skyscrapers.
Maya stood on the sidewalk.
Cars passed.
People carried coffee.
Someone argued with a taxi driver.
The normality felt offensive.
Julian remained several feet behind her.
Maya turned.
“You can stand closer.”
His face tightened.
“We don’t know yet.”
“If that certificate is real, then—”
“It isn’t.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Rosa does.”
“What if she’s wrong?”
Julian’s voice dropped.
“Then nothing happens.”
Maya stared.
“What?”
“Nothing happens.”
“Julian.”
“I meant what I said.”
“Which part?”
“All of it.”
Her chest tightened.
“You are seriously telling me that if we’re related—”
“I am seriously telling you that I will respect whatever truth we find.”
He paused.
“And that I will not punish you for it.”
Maya’s anger softened.
“You make everything sound like a contract.”
“It helps.”
“It doesn’t.”
“I know.”
Derek’s phone rang.
Everyone froze.
He answered.
Listened.
Then looked at Julian.
“The certificate is forged.”
Maya’s knees nearly gave out.
Julian closed his eyes.
Rosa whispered a prayer.
Maya laughed and cried at the same time.
Julian stepped toward her instinctively.
Then stopped again.
Maya crossed the distance herself.
She hit his chest once.
Not hard.
“You idiot.”
“I did not forge it.”
“You moved six feet away from me.”
“I was trying to be respectful.”
“You looked like I had become radioactive.”
“I was panicking.”
Maya stared.
“You panic?”
“Rarely.”
Derek muttered.
“Constantly around you.”
Julian looked at him.
Derek walked away.
Maya almost smiled.
Then reality returned.
“Why forge it?”
Julian looked back toward the vault.
“To destabilize us.”
“Meaning Gabriel expected us to find it.”
“Yes.”
“So the letter might also be fake.”
“No.”
“How can you know?”
“Because the ink and paper date correctly.”
“Someone could have planted it years ago.”
“Yes.”
Maya folded her arms.
“This family is exhausting.”
Rosa almost laughed.
Julian’s phone buzzed.
A secure text.
DANIEL IS ALIVE.
Julian stared.
Maya noticed.
“What?”
He showed her.
Her heart stopped.
“From who?”
“No identifier.”
Another message arrived.
YOU WANT HIM?
COME TO WHERE CROFTS BURY THEIR SINS.
Maya looked at Julian.
“Where is that?”
His face darkened.
“I know exactly where.”
Derek returned.
“No.”
Julian looked at him.
“You know too?”
“The old quarry.”
Maya frowned.
“What quarry?”
Julian’s expression became grim.
“My grandfather used it.”
“For what?”
No one answered.
Maya sighed.
“Bodies.”
Julian reluctantly nodded.
“Of course.”
They drove southwest.
This time Julian brought twelve men.
Maya rode beside him.
Halfway there, Julian spoke.
“If Daniel is alive—”
“He is.”
“We don’t know that.”
“I need to believe it.”
Julian nodded.
“All right.”
Maya looked at him.
“What if he abandoned us voluntarily?”
Julian considered before answering.
“Then you get to be angry.”
“What if I hate him?”
“You get to.”
“What if I love him anyway?”
“You get to do that too.”
She looked down.
“What if I don’t know what I feel?”
Julian’s voice softened.
“Welcome to the club.”
The quarry appeared at noon.
Abandoned machinery rusted near steep rock walls.
Their convoy stopped.
Julian’s men spread out.
A chair stood in the center of the quarry floor.
Someone sat in it.
Maya forgot how to breathe.
The man had gray hair.
A beard.
A scar along his left temple.
But she knew his eyes.
Because they were hers.
“Dad.”
She started forward.
Julian grabbed her.
“Wait.”
The man lifted his head.
“Maya?”
Her knees nearly failed.
Rosa made a broken sound behind them.
Daniel Torres began crying.
“Mija.”
Maya pulled free.
She ran.
Julian followed.
Daniel’s wrists were tied.
Maya dropped in front of him.
“Is it you?”
Daniel laughed through tears.
“Yes.”
She slapped him.
Everyone froze.
Daniel closed his eyes.
Maya hit his chest.
“You were alive.”
“I know.”
“Twenty years.”
“I know.”
“You left us.”
“I know.”
Her hands became fists against his jacket.
“You left me.”
Daniel began crying harder.
“I know.”
Maya collapsed against him.
He could not lift his arms to hold her.
So he bent forward and rested his forehead against hers.
“I’m sorry.”
Maya sobbed.
“I hate you.”
“I know.”
“I missed you.”
“I know.”
“I don’t even remember you.”
Daniel’s face broke.
“I remember everything.”
Julian looked away.
Rosa approached slowly.
Daniel saw her.
Everything else disappeared from his face.
“Rosa.”
She stopped several feet away.
“You bastard.”
Daniel almost smiled.
“I deserved that.”
“You deserve worse.”
“Yes.”
She slapped him too.
Derek muttered.
“Family resemblance.”
Julian almost laughed.
Then he saw something.
A small red light beneath Daniel’s chair.
His face changed.
“MOVE!”
Julian lunged.
He tackled Maya sideways.
Derek dragged Rosa back.
The chair exploded.
The blast threw them across the quarry.
Maya’s ears rang.
Dust filled the air.
She tried to stand.
“Dad!”
Julian pulled her down.
“Stay.”
“No!”
“Maya!”
She crawled toward the crater.
Daniel lay several feet away.
The explosion had been beneath the chair but angled downward.
He was bleeding.
Alive.
Maya reached him.
“Dad.”
Daniel opened his eyes.
“Maya.”
Gunshots erupted from the ridge.
Julian’s men returned fire.
Daniel grabbed Maya’s sleeve.
“Gabriel.”
“I know.”
“No.”
Daniel coughed.
“You don’t.”
Maya leaned closer.
“He’s not trying to destroy Julian.”
“What?”
“He’s trying to take the city.”
Julian crouched beside them.
Daniel saw him.
For a moment, his expression was strange.
“Adrian’s son.”
Julian nodded.
“Daniel.”
Daniel grabbed Julian’s coat.
“Your father was innocent of Black Harbor.”
Julian froze.
“Gabriel framed him.”
Gunfire echoed.
Julian leaned closer.
“Where are the records?”
Daniel shook his head.
“Not here.”
“Where?”
Daniel looked at Maya.
“Inside something I gave Rosa the night Maya was born.”
Rosa stared.
“You gave me nothing.”
“Yes.”
Daniel struggled to breathe.
“The music box.”
Rosa’s face changed.
Maya remembered it.
A tiny wooden music box that had sat on her childhood dresser.
Blue moon and stars painted across the lid.
Maya had kept it.
“It’s at my apartment.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“Find it.”
Maya grabbed his hand.
“Stay awake.”
“Maya.”
“No.”
He looked at her.
“I never stopped being your father.”
She began crying.
“Then prove it.”
His eyes opened.
“Stay alive.”
Daniel smiled weakly.
“That sounds like your mother.”
Another explosion sounded at the ridge.
Derek shouted.
“We have to move.”
Julian lifted Daniel.
They carried him to the SUV.
As Maya climbed in, her phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
A photograph appeared.
Her apartment.
The front door was open.
Her bedroom had been destroyed.
Another photograph followed.
The music box sat in a man’s hand.
Then a message.
THANK YOU FOR REMINDING ME WHERE DANIEL HID IT.
Maya stared.
May you like
Gabriel had been listening.
And by saving her father, they had just told him exactly where to find the evidence he had spent twenty years hunting.
