Chapter 14 - WHY HE STAYED DEAD

Dad’s letter was twelve pages, and I hated every one.

He wrote that Celeste pulled him from the factory minutes before a second explosion.

The body identified as his belonged to another worker whose records were altered.

Celeste believed Edward and Salvatore would kill Mom and me if Dad surfaced.

So she created a dead man.

Dad went south under another identity.

He planned to return after turning evidence over to federal authorities.

He never did.

The last page explained why.

Someone inside the investigation leaked his location.

Two men found him in Mexico.

He escaped.

After that, Dad decided distance was the only protection he trusted.

I threw the letter across the room.

Mom cried.

“He abandoned us.”

“He thought he was saving us.”

“He was wrong.”

“Yes.”

That mattered.

Dominic sat quietly.

Then Luca entered.

“We found Daniel.”

I stood so fast the chair fell.

“Where?”

“New Mexico.”

Alive, sixty-three, living as David Crane.

I felt nothing for three seconds.

Then everything.

We flew the next morning with federal agents.

Dad opened the door of a small desert house.

He looked older and thinner, but unmistakably himself.

“Avery.”

I punched him once, then hugged him.

He broke.

“I’m sorry.”

Mom stood behind me.

Dad saw her and sank onto the porch step.

“Linda.”

She slapped him.

Harder than I had.

Then she hugged him too.

Finally Dad told us the missing piece.

Edward Whitmore ordered the factory sabotage to destroy financial evidence.

He did not expect workers to be inside.

Salvatore helped cover it up.

Celeste saved Dad, then spent her last years collecting evidence.

“Where is it?” I asked.

Dad looked toward Dominic.

“Inside the Moretti Foundation.”

Dominic frowned.

“My foundation?”

“Celeste hid it where Edward would never look.”

“Where?”

Dad smiled sadly.

“In the birthday fund.”

Dominic stared.

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“What birthday fund?”

“The account paying for Vanessa’s parties.”