“I'll stay here and clean up the logs,” she said. “If someone is watching the hospital, I'll know.”
“Rachel.”
“I'll be careful.”
The doors closed.
Marcus started the engine.
As they pulled onto the road, Elise stared at the photograph again.
Her mother looked pale.
Thomas looked terrified.
But something else caught her attention.
On the bedside table sat a glass of water.
Beside it was a small white envelope.
And written across it in black ink were three words.
FOR ELISE ONLY.
She enlarged the photograph.
The handwriting made her heart stop.
She knew it.
She had seen it a thousand times.
Her father's handwriting.
“Thomas wanted me to see that,” she whispered.
Marcus glanced at her.
“How do you know?”
“Because he used that exact phrase when I was a child.”
Emma looked over.
“What phrase?”
“Only Elise.”
Silence filled the car.
Then Emma said quietly, “Why only you?”
Elise didn't have an answer.
When they reached Harbor Medical, the private wing was strangely quiet.
No visitors.
No nurses in the lobby.
No security officers.
Marcus showed his badge.
They were waved through after one phone call.
That was almost worse.
They reached the private elevator.
The doors opened.
The lights above flickered.
Elise stepped out first.
Room 214 was open.
The bed was empty.
The blanket was still warm.
An IV hung beside it.
The monitor was running.
But her mother was gone.
Emma froze.
“No.”
Elise rushed inside.
“Mom?”
Nothing.
She checked the bathroom.
Empty.
Marcus searched the adjoining room.
Daniel stared at the floor.
“There's blood.”
Elise turned.
A tiny drop had landed beside the bed.
Then another.
Emma covered her mouth.
A nurse suddenly appeared at the end of the corridor.
She saw them.
Went white.
And ran.
Marcus was faster.
He caught her before she reached the stairwell.
“Where is the patient?”
“I don't know.”
“You were assigned to this wing.”
“I don't know!”
Elise stepped forward.
“My mother was in that room.”
The nurse began shaking.
“They took her.”
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
“Who took her?”
The nurse looked toward the security camera.
Then whispered,
“The man with your father's face.”
Elise felt every muscle in her body lock.
“My father's face?”
The nurse nodded.
“He came in fifteen minutes ago.”
Emma stepped closer.
“Was he alone?”
“No.”
“With who?”
The nurse's eyes filled with tears.
“A man from your company.”
Elise's blood chilled.
“Which man?”
The nurse looked directly at her.
“Walter Graves.”
A sound came from the elevator.
The doors opened.
A man stepped out.
Older.
Thinner.
Gray hair at his temples.
A scar cutting across his left cheek.
Elise knew the face from photographs.
From memories.
From nightmares.
He looked at Emma first.
Then at Elise.
His eyes filled with something neither daughter was prepared to see.
Grief.
“Girls,” he whispered.
Emma stepped backward.
Elise couldn't move.
Thomas Morgan stood in the hallway.
Alive.
Emma slapped him.
The sound cracked through the corridor.
No one moved.
Thomas turned his face slowly back toward her.
He didn't defend himself.
He didn't raise a hand.
He simply looked at his daughter.
Emma's breathing became ragged.
“You let me believe you were dead.”
Thomas swallowed.
“I know.”
“You let me wait for you.”
“I know.”
“You watched me grow up.”
His voice broke.
“Yes.”
Emma struck his chest with both fists.
“You don't get to say you know!”
Thomas caught her wrists gently.
Emma struggled.
“Let go of me!”
He immediately did.
She stepped back, furious and shaking.
Elise watched him.
Her father looked nothing like the man in her childhood photographs.
Those pictures showed a confident executive.
A smiling man in expensive suits.
This man looked like someone who had lived ten years in hiding.
His hands were scarred.
His face was thinner.
His eyes were older.
But it was him.
There was no mistaking it.
Elise finally spoke.
“Where is my mother?”
Thomas's expression changed.
“She was moved.”
“By Walter?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because he was trying to keep her alive.”
Elise stared.
“That doesn't sound like the Walter we just met.”
“It isn't the Walter you thought you knew.”
Marcus stepped between them slightly.
“Start explaining.”
Thomas looked at him.
“You're Marcus.”
“You know me?”
“I've known about you for years.”
Elise's eyes narrowed.
“Stop.”
Thomas looked back at her.
“I deserved that.”
“No.”
She stepped closer.
“You don't get to walk out of a grave and expect us to listen.”
“I don't.”
“Then tell me the truth.”
Thomas drew a long breath.
“The crash was a disappearance.”
Elise's stomach tightened.
“You staged it.”
“Yes.”
Daniel lowered his eyes.
Elise turned toward him.
“You knew.”
Daniel nodded.
“Yes.”
Emma stared at him.
“You all knew.”
“No,” Thomas said. “Not all of them knew everything.”
Elise laughed bitterly.
“That's supposed to make me feel better?”
“No.”
Thomas walked toward the empty room.
“The aircraft was prepared as a decoy. I was never supposed to survive publicly. I needed the world to believe Thomas Morgan was dead.”
“You told Daniel differently,” Elise said.
Daniel looked at her.
“I told you what I knew.”
“That your father arranged the crash.”
Thomas nodded.
“I did arrange the disappearance.”
“But you weren't on the plane.”
“No.”
Emma's face twisted.
“So all those years…”
Thomas looked at her.
“I watched.”
“From where?”
“Everywhere I could.”
She laughed through tears.
“You watched from a distance?”
“I sent money.”
“I don't care about money.”
“I know.”
“I wanted my father.”
Thomas closed his eyes.
“I wanted to be your father.”
Emma's voice dropped.
“Then why weren't you?”
He had no answer.
That silence hurt more than anything.
Elise looked away.
“Where is Mom?”
Thomas became serious.
“She woke up three days ago.”
Elise's head snapped toward him.
“What?”
“She has been sedated for safety.”
“Safety from whom?”
“From the people who were looking for her.”
Marcus crossed his arms.
“And Walter?”
“He helped me move her.”
“So Walter is working with you.”
“Sometimes.”
Elise nearly laughed.
“Sometimes?”
Thomas looked tired.
“Walter has spent ten years balancing between loyalty, survival, and greed.”
“That sounds convenient.”
“It isn't.”
Thomas reached inside his jacket.
Elise stiffened.
He pulled out a small brass key.
He held it toward her.
“This belonged to your grandfather.”
Elise didn't take it.
“What does it open?”
“The trust room.”
Rachel's voice came through Marcus's phone.
“I heard that.”
Marcus put the phone on speaker.
Rachel continued.
“And before anyone gets excited, we have a problem.”
Thomas looked at the phone.
“Rachel.”
“So you really are alive.”
“I am.”
“You're a terrible man.”
Thomas nodded.
“I've been told.”
Rachel ignored that.
“Bellwether's emergency board vote was moved up.”
“To when?”
“Tomorrow morning.”
Elise frowned.
“What does the vote concern?”
Rachel's voice hardened.
“The four hundred and eighty million.”
Thomas closed his eyes.
“It's already started.”
“What has?”
“The conversion.”
Elise looked at Emma's phone.
“Her account.”
Thomas nodded.
“Emma's account wasn't supposed to receive money.”
“Then why did it?”
“Because she was activated.”
Elise felt cold.
“Activated for what?”
Thomas looked at both daughters.
“For control.”
Emma stepped closer.
“Control of what?”
Thomas stared at the two women.
“Everything your grandfather built.”
Before anyone could respond, a machine inside Room 214 beeped.
Elise entered.
A second phone sat on the bedside table.
The screen lit up.
Unknown caller.
Thomas reached for it.
Elise stopped him.
“No.”
She answered.
Silence.
Then her mother's voice came through.
“Elise?”
Her knees nearly gave out.
“Mom?”
A weak breath.
“Do not trust your father.”
The line went dead.
Emma stared at Thomas.
He didn't move.
Elise slowly turned toward him.
“What did she mean?”
Thomas looked at her.
“She means she still doesn't know everything.”
“That wasn't what she said.”
“No.”
“Then what aren't you telling me?”
Thomas looked at Emma.
And for the first time, fear appeared in his eyes.
“Your mother believes I caused the crash.”
Emma whispered,
“Did you?”
Thomas didn't answer.