Chapter 14 - THE ROAD NORTH
Lenora was driving Melissa's car.
Police spotted it twelve miles north, weaving between trucks as rain began to fall across the highway. Daniel gripped the passenger handle while Salazar drove ahead of us in an unmarked SUV.
Elise called every thirty seconds.
"Tell me when you see him."
"I will."
A construction closure forced traffic into one lane. Lenora abandoned the car on the shoulder and ran toward an old visitor center with Owen wrapped beneath her coat.
Daniel was out before our car fully stopped.
"Mom!"
Lenora turned at the building entrance.
Owen was crying beneath her coat.
"Stay back."
"Give me my son."
"He's not your son."
Daniel's expression broke.
"I signed his birth certificate. I chose him before he existed. I sat through every appointment. I held Elise's hand. I cut his cord. He is my son."
Lenora's mouth tightened.
"Not by blood."
"You taught me blood mattered more than love. That's your failure, not mine."
For a second, something flickered in Lenora's eyes.
Then Grant stepped from behind the visitor center.
He had been waiting there.
He grabbed Lenora's shoulder and hissed, "Stop talking."
Daniel froze.
Grant reached for Owen.
Lenora pulled away.
"No."
It was the first time she had resisted him.
Grant's face hardened. "You know what happens if that audit opens."
Police shouted from behind us.
Grant panicked and ran toward the trees.
Lenora did not.
She stood in the rain holding Owen, suddenly looking old.
Then she handed the baby to Daniel.
"I never meant for him to get hurt," she whispered.
Daniel took Owen and stepped back.
Salazar cuffed Lenora.
As officers led her away, she turned once.
"Daniel, there is something in your father's safe. Grant never found it."
Daniel stared at her.
May you like
"What?"
"Proof that this started before your chemotherapy."
