“I know.”
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“You let me think nobody wanted me.”
“No.”
“Yes!”
Her voice echoed through the empty house.
Garrett’s eyes hardened with pain.
“I never wanted you to think that.”
“Then what was I supposed to think?”
“That you had somewhere safe to stand while the truth was still dangerous.”
Hadley shook her head.
“You don’t get to decide what truth I can survive.”
“No.”
“You did.”
“Yes.”
“Why should I ever forgive you?”
Garrett looked at her.
“You shouldn’t. Not because I ask.”
Hadley wiped her face.
“Where is she?”
Garrett took out a phone.
“She’s close.”
Hadley froze.
“What?”
“She came back three days ago.”
Hadley stared.
Garrett pressed one number.
A floorboard creaked upstairs.
Hadley looked toward the ceiling.
Her blood turned cold.
Footsteps moved along the second floor.
Slowly.
Then down the staircase.
Hadley could not move.
A woman appeared at the bottom.
She was older.
Her brown hair had silver in it.
Lines framed her eyes.
But Hadley knew that face.
Every child knows the face they once searched for in crowds.
Elena Mercer stood in the hallway.
Her hands trembled.
“Hi, baby.”
Hadley made a sound that was not a word.
Then she crossed the room.
For one second, Elena opened her arms.
Hadley stopped.
All the years stood between them.
Every birthday.
Every foster bed.
Every cold night.
Every time she had believed she was unwanted.
Elena slowly lowered her arms.
“You can hate me,” she whispered.
Hadley stared at her.
“I did.”
Elena nodded, tears falling.
“I know.”
“I hated you every day.”
“I know.”
“I thought you chose somebody else.”
“No.”
“I thought I wasn’t enough.”
Elena covered her mouth.
Hadley’s voice shattered.
“I was eleven.”
“I know.”
“You left me with him.”
Elena closed her eyes.
“I thought Daniel would protect you. I didn’t know they had already threatened him. By the time I learned what happened, you were in state custody. My handlers told me contacting you could expose you.”
“So you did nothing?”
“No.”
Elena looked at Garrett.
Then back at Hadley.
“I watched from far away.”
Hadley recoiled.
“What?”
“I had reports. Photos when they could get them. School records.”
“You watched me become homeless?”
Elena broke.
“I didn’t know until Garrett found you.”
“And then?”
“I begged him to take you.”
Hadley looked at Garrett.
He nodded once.
The diner.
The motorcycle.
The immediate question.
When did you eat?
He had not simply found her.
He had arrived because Elena sent him.
Hadley felt fury rising again.
Then Garrett’s phone buzzed.
He looked at the screen.
His face changed.
“What?” Hadley asked.
Garrett did not answer.
“What?”
He showed Elena.
Elena went pale.
“Who knows we’re here?” Hadley demanded.
Garrett moved toward the window.
A black SUV had stopped across the street.
Then another.
Hadley’s heart began pounding.
“NorthBridge?”
Elena whispered, “No.”
Garrett looked at her.
“What do you mean, no?”
Elena’s face became terrified.
“NorthBridge was never the top.”
A car door opened.
Dana Kirkland stepped out.
Older now.
Gray hair.
Dark coat.
Hadley recognized her immediately.
But Dana did not look threatening.
She looked frightened.
She ran toward the house.
Garrett opened the door before Hadley could stop him.
Dana hurried inside.
“They found you.”
Elena backed away.
“How?”
Dana looked at Hadley.
“Because she opened the box.”
Hadley froze.
“What?”
“The documents were tagged.”
Garrett swore.
Dana grabbed his arm.
“We have maybe three minutes.”
Hadley stepped forward.
“Who is coming?”
Dana stared at her.
“The people your mother was trying to expose.”
“I thought that was NorthBridge.”
Dana shook her head.
“NorthBridge was one contractor. There were twelve.”
Hadley felt sick.
“Twelve?”
“Across six states.”
Garrett looked outside.
“Federal?”
Dana laughed bitterly.
“That’s the problem.”
Elena whispered, “Which agency?”
Dana’s eyes filled with fear.
“All of them.”
Hadley stared.
Dana opened her bag and pulled out a flash drive.
“NorthBridge wasn’t stealing foster-care money.”
“What?”
“It was laundering payments.”
“For who?”
“For private placements that never officially existed.”
Hadley’s skin prickled.
“What placements?”
Dana looked at Elena.
Elena slowly sank into a chair.
Dana said, “Children moved under sealed federal programs.”
The room went silent.
Hadley whispered, “Witness protection.”
Dana nodded.
Elena covered her face.
Hadley suddenly understood.
Children whose identities changed.
Children moved between states.
Children whose records disappeared.
Children like—
She looked at herself reflected in the darkened window.
“No.”
Dana’s expression confirmed it.
“Your identity wasn’t stolen.”
Hadley’s voice became thin.
“What?”
“It was created.”
Nobody moved.
Hadley laughed.
A strange, frightened sound.
“My name is Hadley Mercer.”
Dana shook her head.
“That became your name.”
Hadley looked at Elena.
Her mother was crying.
“What was my name?”
Elena whispered, “Hadley was always your first name.”
“What was my last name?”
Elena could not answer.
Garrett said, “Elena.”
Hadley looked at him.
He seemed equally stunned.
“You didn’t know,” she said.
“No.”
For once, she believed him immediately.
Hadley turned back to Dana.
“Who am I?”
Dana looked at the windows as headlights appeared at the end of the street.