Chapter 2 - Shadows in the Hallway|
The dial tone hummed in my ear like a angry hornet. I stared at the phone, my mind racing through a labyrinth of memories, pulling at threads that were suddenly unraveling everything I thought I knew about my life.
A shadow crossed the doorframe of my study.
I slammed the folder shut, shoving it under a pile of old tax forms, and snapped my head up.
My father stood in the doorway. He had dropped his usual relaxed posture. His shoulders were set, his jaw rigid, and those deep-set blue eyes—eyes I had always associated with safety—were scanning the room with a cold, tactical precision that made my blood run cold.
"Who was on the phone, Audrey?" he asked quietly.
His voice didn't sound like the gentle dad who brought me soup when I had the flu. It sounded like the officer who had backed Julian out of my hospital room with three calm words.
"Just... an insurance adjuster," I lied, hating how my voice wavered. "About the car payout."
My father didn't move. He looked at my hands, which were still resting nervously over the hidden folder on my desk.
"You were always a terrible liar, sweetheart," he said softly, taking a single step into the room. "Your mother was the same way. Whenever she held a secret, she'd press her thumb against her index finger, just like you're doing right now."
I looked down at my hand. He was right. I was pressing my thumb raw.
"Dad..." I began, my chest tightening. "Why is Aegis Global paying my rehab bills?"
The silence that settled between us was suffocating. My father didn't flinch. He walked over to the window, pulled the blinds down slightly, and looked out into the quiet suburban street before turning back to face me.
"Because the man who ran your car off the road wasn't a drunk driver, Audrey," he said evenly. "He was a contractor. And he was looking for me."
My heart slammed against my ribs. "And Julian? Was Julian part of it?"
My father's expression darkened, a flicker of pure, unadulterated coldness passing over his features.
"Julian is just a pathetic, greedy coward," my father spat. "He didn't know about the contract. He just saw an opportunity to cut his losses and clear his debts. But the people behind him... they used his greed to track your movements."
"Who is Elena?" I pressed, rising unsteadily from my chair, leaning heavily on my cane. "She just called me, Dad. She said Mom didn't die of cancer."
My father closed his eyes for a long, agonizing second. When he opened them, the officer mask had completely fallen away, revealing a man utterly shattered by decades of regret.
May you like
"Elena was your mother's handler," he whispered. "And she's the reason I spent twenty years pretending to be nobody."
|
