Chapter 8 - WHAT MAKES A FATHER
Ryan locked himself in the hospital family room.
"I knew she lied."
Claire sat outside the door.
"Your mother didn't lie."
"She said Daniel was my dad."
"She believed what she was told."
Inside, silence.
Daniel stood ten feet away, destroyed in a different way.
For eleven years he had mourned a woman who was alive, a child who was not his, and a brother he had believed dead.
Claire looked at him.
"You need to apologize to Ryan."
"I did."
"No. You said you were sorry you hit him. You haven't apologized for deciding who he was before you knew anything."
Daniel nodded slowly.
He sat on the floor beside the door.
"Ryan?"
No answer.
"I'm not your biological father."
A sniff came from inside.
"But I was the man your mother told you to find. You crossed a city with people chasing you because you believed I'd help."
Daniel's voice cracked.
"And the first thing I did was hurt you."
The lock clicked.
Ryan opened the door just enough to look at him.
Daniel did not reach for him.
"I'm sorry."
Ryan stared for a long time.
Then he asked, "Is Noah alive?"
Graham had claimed Noah was smuggled out of the country after the boating accident, but he didn't know where.
Ortiz entered with a new piece of evidence.
"We traced the private clinic that treated Mara after the crash. It closed eight years ago, but its medical director is still practicing."
"Name?" Claire asked.
"Dr. Stephen Vale."
Ryan went pale.
"That's Mom's doctor."
Ortiz nodded. "Currently."
Daniel stood.
"So he knows where she is."
"Maybe."
Claire's phone rang.
Lily's nurse.
Claire answered.
Her expression changed instantly.
"What do you mean she's gone?"
Daniel grabbed the phone.
The nurse was crying.
A fire alarm had emptied part of the pediatric floor for seven minutes.
When staff returned, Lily's bed was empty.
On the pillow lay a folded note.
Daniel opened the photograph the nurse sent.
May you like
Three words were written in black marker.
TRADE THE BOY.
