Chapter 5 - MY FATHER'S SECRET
I had spent twenty-six years believing my father was a poor man crushed by medical debt.
Arthur showed me a photograph.
My father stood beside Gabriel.
I stared.
“No.”
“He worked for my family.”
“As what?”
“Security.”
I shook my head.
“My father was a mechanic.”
“That's what he told you.”
Arthur opened another file.
My father's real name appeared.
Thomas Hayes.
Beneath it:
Costello Security Division.
I sat down.
“Why did he leave?”
Arthur hesitated.
“Because he tried to expose my father.”
“What did he discover?”
“Human trafficking.”
My stomach turned.
Arthur continued.
“My father had been using the family business to move people.”
“And Gabriel?”
“He helped him.”
My hands trembled.
“My father tried to stop them.”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“He disappeared.”
I stared at Arthur.
“You knew?”
“I was seventeen.”
“You remember?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“I didn't know you were his daughter.”
Silence.
Then Arthur looked at me.
“I found out three months ago.”
“That's why you hired me.”
“No.”
“You knew who I was.”
“Yes.”
“Then why?”
“Because your father saved my life.”
I stared.
“When?”
“When I was seventeen.”
Arthur told me the story.
His father had ordered his execution.
Thomas Hayes had helped him escape.
He had disappeared afterward.
Arthur had spent years believing Thomas was dead.
I swallowed.
“My father left me debt.”
Arthur looked at me.
“He left you something else.”
“What?”
“Evidence.”
He placed another envelope on the table.
Inside was a key.
And a note.
For Norah, when she is old enough to understand.
I couldn't stop crying.
Arthur sat beside me.
He didn't touch me.
He simply stayed.
That was when I realized something.
Arthur wasn't just protecting me because I knew his secret.
May you like
He was protecting me because my father had once protected him.
And somehow, that mattered.
