Chapter 7 - UNDER THE CHURCH
Daniel pulled Mara through the side door as guests scattered across the lawn.
Emily and Alan followed. The videographer came too, still clutching her camera like evidence was more valuable than common sense.
They raced past the sacristy and down a narrow staircase. Behind them, someone slammed into the door.
"Left," Mara shouted.
The basement smelled like stone, dust, and old wax. Pipes rattled overhead.
Daniel ran beside the mother he had believed was dead for most of his life.
At the far end, Mara pushed open a metal door and led them into a brick tunnel no wider than a hallway.
Emily looked at Daniel. "Your wedding is officially insane."
Nate had found the stairs.
"My knee," she gasped. "Old injury."
Something about the movement hit him - a flash of himself as a child being lifted the same way.
"You carried me," he whispered.
"Everywhere. You were lazy."
They reached a rusted door behind the rectory garage. Alan forced it open with a fire extinguisher.
Daniel looked back as Nate emerged from the garage.
"He's warning Victor."
"About what?"
She reached inside the torn lining of her coat and pulled out a small brass key.
"Twenty years ago, when I realized no court was going to help me, I started saving everything. Letters. medical records. Copies of checks. One recording."
"Where?"
"Safe-deposit box. First National on Adams."
Alan checked the time. "The downtown branch closes in forty minutes."
Daniel's phone rang.
He answered.
His father's voice was cold now, stripped of every trace of warmth.
"If you open that box, Daniel, you will destroy more than me."
"Good."
May you like
"Then you should know the other voice on the recording belongs to someone standing in that car with you."
Daniel slowly turned toward Alan Reed.
