Chapter 4 - The Transfer
The signature looked perfect. Every curl, every tilted letter. My mother could barely hold a pen without trembling, yet somebody had copied her name onto an order stamped URGENT.
“Where were they taking her?” I asked.
“An address outside county lines,” Mara said. “It belongs to a company called Voss Recovery Services.”
Elise jerked upright. Her oxygen monitor began to beep.
“Voss,” she whispered. “That's him.”
“Who?”
“Our father.”
Mara pulled the curtain closed. She told us sixteen years ago Daniel Hale had supposedly died in the Riverton mill fire. His remains were identified by his sister, Vivian, and released through Owen Pike's funeral home. There had been no independent DNA test.
“Why are you telling me this now?” Mom demanded.
“Because the name Martin Voss appears on the purchase records for that burned mill. And he's spent fifteen years hiding his birth records.”
Mom gripped the edge of a chair. “Daniel wouldn't—”
“He put me in a box,” Elise said. “You don't have to finish that sentence for him.”
For the first time in my life, Mom had no answer.
A nurse hurried inside. Two men wearing patient-transport badges had arrived with a gurney. They said Elise was scheduled for immediate transfer.
Mara took the order from one of them. “Whose office authorized this?”
The taller man glanced at his partner.
Mara moved her coat aside, showing her badge and holstered weapon. “Answer me.”
Both men bolted.
One made it down the stairwell. The other dropped a phone as he ran. A new message lit its screen:
**IF THE GIRL IS AWAKE, TAKE THE MOTHER.**
May you like
Mom's chair stood empty.
On the floor beneath it lay her wedding ring.
