Chapter 12 - THE OLD APARTMENT
By the time Daniel reached the parking garage, Victor's car was gone.
Police took statements while firefighters fought the server-room blaze. Daniel could barely stand still.
"Where would he take her?" Emily asked.
Mara's safe-deposit papers listed an old address on East Polk Street.
"I know where."
The building had been abandoned for years, trapped between two new developments Victor's company owned. Windows were boarded. A demolition notice hung crookedly on the fence.
Apartment 214 stood open.
She sat in a chair with one wrist zip-tied to a radiator. Victor held a metal cash box.
"Stop," Victor said. "One more step and everything in this box burns."
The tiny kitchen hit him like a blow.
He heard a woman singing in his head.
"This was our home," he whispered.
"For three years."
Victor laughed bitterly. "A dump. I rescued you from this."
Daniel looked at him. "You stole me from it."
"I gave you everything."
"Except the truth."
Victor lifted the box. "The truth is that she chose revenge over you. She could have disappeared. She kept coming back. She made me spend years protecting you from scandal."
Mara pulled against the tie. "I came back because I was his mother."
Victor snapped, "You were poor. Sick. Broken. I made him a Voss."
"What is in the box?"
"Every letter she sent you."
May you like
Inside were hundreds of envelopes, all addressed to Daniel in Mara's handwriting.
Then Victor struck a match.
