Chapter 2 - THE NAME DANIEL BURIED
The ambulance arrived before the SUV reached the drive.
Sirens flooded the street, neighbors opened doors, and the black vehicle rolled past without stopping.
Claire rode with Lily. Daniel followed with Ryan.
At the emergency room, doctors cleaned Lily's cut and ordered a CT scan. Claire didn't relax until the physician said there was no fracture or bleeding in the brain.
Only then did she turn to Daniel.
"Who is Mara?"
Ryan sat six chairs away with a police officer, wrapped in a hospital blanket.
Daniel rubbed both hands over his face. "Someone I dated in college."
"That picture didn't look casual."
"It wasn't."
Claire's eyes hardened.
Daniel lowered his voice. "She got pregnant."
Claire stared.
"I was twenty-two. We were stupid and scared. Then my father told me Mara had been in a crash. He said she lost the baby and died two days later."
Across the room, Ryan was watching him.
Claire whispered, "And you believed him?"
"I went to the hospital. They said she'd been transferred. My father handled the funeral home. There was a closed casket."
Claire gave a short, disbelieving laugh. "Of course he handled it."
Daniel flinched.
A detective named Lena Ortiz approached with the photograph sealed inside an evidence sleeve.
"Ryan says his mother's full name is Mara Cole. He says she disappeared three nights ago."
Daniel nodded toward the boy. "Can we run DNA?"
Ortiz studied him. "You may want to speak to a lawyer before you ask for that."
"I don't need a lawyer to know if he's my son."
Ryan stood abruptly.
"Mom gave me something for you."
He reached under the collar of his sweatshirt and pulled out a small brass key tied to a shoelace.
Daniel recognized the initials stamped into the metal.
D.B.
His initials.
A key he had lost eleven years ago.
Ryan placed it in his palm.
"She said if anything happened to her, you'd know what it opened."
Daniel closed his fingers around it.
May you like
He did know.
The key belonged to a storage box in his father's private bank.
