Chapter 7 - THE FATHER WHO CAME BACK TOO LATE
Emma did not run to Luke.
That was the first thing everyone noticed.
Luke Holloway stood in the doorway with tears on his face, staring at the daughter he had not seen since she was an infant.
Emma stayed behind Nathan.
One hand held Nathan’s shirt.
The other clutched Elena’s locket.
Luke looked thinner than the brother Nathan remembered. A scar crossed his jaw. Another disappeared beneath his collar. His left hand trembled slightly.
Nathan raised his gun.
Luke stared at it.
“I deserve that.”
Rachel whispered, “Luke?”
His eyes moved toward her.
The shock on his face looked genuine.
“Rachel.”
“You knew I was alive.”
“Yes.”
“Then where the hell were you?”
Luke looked down.
“Trying to stay alive long enough to get you out.”
Nathan's gun remained raised.
“You had three years.”
“Nathan—”
“Three years.”
“I was Whitmore's prisoner for fourteen months.”
“And after?”
“Running.”
“You couldn't make one call?”
Luke laughed bitterly.
“To the brother whose office account had just leaked my meeting location?”
Nathan flinched.
Luke immediately regretted it.
“That's not fair.”
“No. Say it.”
“Nate—”
“Say what you've been thinking for three years.”
Luke looked at him.
“I thought someone close to you betrayed me.”
“Me?”
“Not intentionally.”
Nathan lowered the gun slightly.
Luke continued.
“After I escaped, I had no idea who was compromised. Whitmore had cops. judges. people in federal agencies.”
“And Vivian?”
“I contacted her eleven months ago.”
Nathan’s expression hardened.
“You told her to protect Emma?”
“Yes.”
“Did you tell her to starve her?”
Luke’s face changed.
“What?”
“To put her outside barefoot?”
“What are you talking about?”
Nathan moved so quickly Rachel gasped.
He shoved Luke against the wall.
“You trusted Vivian with your daughter, and she terrorized her.”
Luke looked past Nathan toward Emma.
“I didn't know.”
Emma lowered her eyes.
Luke’s face collapsed.
“I swear to you.”
Nathan wanted to hit him.
Instead Emma said, “Daddy.”
Nathan stopped.
Not because she had spoken.
Because she was looking at him.
Not Luke.
Nathan released his brother.
Luke noticed the same thing.
Pain crossed his face.
He deserved some of it.
Maybe not all.
They moved inside.
Nathan demanded everything.
Luke began with the boat.
Whitmore’s men had planted an explosive beneath the fuel compartment. Luke noticed the device minutes before it detonated and jumped into the water.
Men waiting nearby pulled him out.
Not rescuers.
Kidnappers.
“They wanted Elena’s files.”
Luke sat at the table.
“I told them they were destroyed.”
“They kept you fourteen months for files?”
“For the encryption key.”
Edward’s watch.
Luke nodded.
“Dad made two keys. One stayed with him. One went to Elena.”
Nathan frowned.
“Elena's locket?”
“No. She hid hers somewhere else.”
“Where?”
Luke looked at Emma.
“I never knew.”
Rachel asked, “How did you escape?”
“One guard decided Whitmore was going to kill him anyway. He unlocked my room.”
“Where were you held?”
“Georgia. Then North Carolina.”
“And you never came home.”
Luke's eyes hardened.
“I came close twice.”
He looked at Emma.
“Once when she was five.”
Emma stared.
“I watched you leave school.”
Nathan’s anger surged again.
“You watched her?”
“I needed to know she was safe.”
“She thought you were dead.”
“So did you.”
“You could have changed that.”
Luke slammed his palm onto the table.
“And if I had been wrong about your people, she would have been dead by dinner!”
Emma flinched.
Both men stopped.
Luke closed his eyes.
“I'm sorry.”
Nathan hated himself for making her hear it.
Emma looked at Luke.
“Did you love my mom?”
Luke opened his eyes.
Everything in him softened.
“Yes.”
“Did you kill her?”
“No.”
The answer came instantly.
“I loved Elena more than I knew how to handle. I made mistakes. I lied to her. I asked her to wait because I thought I could protect everyone.”
His eyes filled.
“My father had her killed.”
Emma looked at Nathan.
Nathan nodded.
“As far as we know.”
Luke swallowed hard.
“I spent eight years trying to prove it.”
Emma touched the locket.
“Why didn't you want me?”
Luke looked as though someone had cut him open.
“I wanted you every day.”
“Then why did Daddy raise me?”
Silence.
Luke looked at Nathan.
“Because he was better for you.”
Nathan had not expected that.
Luke continued.
“I was twenty-nine, working inside Dad's organization, lying to everybody I loved. Elena had just been murdered. Whitmore wanted me dead.”
He looked back at Emma.
“And Nathan didn't know any of it. Rachel told him you were his daughter.”
“Did you agree?”
Luke nodded slowly.
“At first.”
Nathan’s jaw tightened.
“Then you let me believe it for eight years.”
“I watched you with her.”
Luke’s voice cracked.
“You were the father I couldn't be.”
Emma started crying.
Nathan moved immediately.
She climbed into his lap even though she was eight and usually insisted she was too old.
Luke watched.
That answered something for him.
It hurt.
But it answered it.
Rachel quietly asked Luke about the watch.
“I sent Vivian instructions to recover it.”
“Did she?”
“Yes.”
“Where is it?”
Luke looked toward Emma again.
“With the only person Whitmore would never search.”
Emma frowned.
“Me?”
Luke smiled faintly.
“Elena hid the second key inside something she gave you. I finally figured that out last year.”
“The locket?”
“No.”
Luke pointed toward Emma's stuffed rabbit sitting inside Nathan’s bag.
Nathan had brought it from the estate when they evacuated.
Emma picked it up.
“The envelope was inside.”
“Not the envelope.”
Luke turned the rabbit over.
One plastic eye was blue.
The other brown.
Nathan had never noticed.
Luke unscrewed the brown eye.
Inside sat a tiny metal cylinder.
Rachel stared.
“Key.”
Luke nodded.
“Dad’s watch gives the numeric sequence. Elena's key confirms it.”
Nathan frowned.
“So Whitmore needs both.”
“Yes.”
“Does Vivian have the watch?”
Luke's face changed.
“She was supposed to send it to Samuel.”
Nathan stood.
“Samuel is working with Whitmore.”
Luke shook his head.
“No.”
“We heard Caleb. Samuel was at Pier 19.”
“I know.”
“And?”
“He's been inside Whitmore's circle for years.”
Nathan stared.
“Working for who?”
Luke answered, “Me.”
For once Nathan had no response.
Luke continued.
“Samuel found Rachel’s location six months ago. We were preparing to pull her out.”
Rachel's expression sharpened.
“Six months?”
“I couldn't risk a failed attempt.”
“You left me there.”
“I know.”
Rachel crossed the room and slapped him.
Hard.
Luke accepted it.
“You don't get to tell me you were protecting me.”
“I know.”
“You all keep turning other people's lives into strategic decisions.”
Luke looked at Nathan.
Nathan had heard almost the same accusation earlier.
Rachel continued.
“Seven years. Seven years while men decided what amount of risk my life was worth.”
Luke's eyes filled.
“I am sorry.”
Rachel stepped away.
Nathan understood something then.
They were all damaged by the same family habit.
Edward Holloway had taught his sons that protection meant control.
That love meant withholding truth if truth created danger.
Nathan had done it too.
Even tonight.
Especially with Emma.
He looked at his daughter.
No more.
Nathan said, “From now on, nobody lies to her.”
Luke glanced at him.
Nathan continued.
“If it concerns Emma, she hears an age-appropriate truth.”
Emma frowned.
“What does age-appropriate mean?”
“It means I don't tell you every ugly detail.”
“So still kind of lying?”
Luke laughed unexpectedly.
Nathan looked annoyed.
Rachel smiled.
For one precious second, tension broke.
Then Luke's expression changed.
“Wait.”
He looked at Emma's rabbit.
“What?”
“The other eye.”
Luke unscrewed the blue one.
Inside was folded paper.
Very small.
Elena's handwriting.
Luke unfolded it.
Three words.
ST. MATTHEW 214.
Rachel frowned.
“A Bible verse?”
Luke shook his head.
“Elena wasn't religious.”
Nathan knew St. Matthew.
An old private hospital outside Charleston.
Room 214?
Luke stood.
“Elena worked there briefly.”
Nathan looked at him.
“When?”
“Before Emma was born.”
Rachel suddenly understood.
“The original files.”
They drove to St. Matthew before dawn.
The hospital had closed four years earlier.
Samuel had purchased the building through a holding company.
That confirmed they were close.
Inside Room 214 they found nothing.
Until Emma noticed one wall outlet was newer than the others.
Nathan removed it.
Behind the plate was a safe.
Luke used Elena's metal key.
Nathan entered the sequence from Edward’s watch, which Samuel had texted minutes earlier.
The safe opened.
Inside sat a flash drive.
And a handwritten letter.
FOR EMMA.
Luke's hands shook.
Emma opened it.
The letter was from Elena.
She read slowly.
My beautiful girl, if you are old enough to understand this, then I may not have been there to watch you grow.
Emma's eyes filled.
Nathan knelt beside her.
She continued.
There are two men who may someday tell you they are your father.
Everyone went still.
Luke stared at Nathan.
Emma continued reading.
One gave you life.
Luke lowered his head.
The other may be asked to give you a life.
Nathan stopped breathing.
Then came the final lines.
Do not let blood make that decision for you.
Choose the man who stayed.
Emma looked up.
Directly at Nathan.
Before anyone could speak, headlights flooded the abandoned hospital windows.
Dozens of them.
Luke moved to the glass.
His face changed.
“Whitmore.”
Nathan grabbed Emma.
Then a loudspeaker activated outside.
Charles Whitmore’s voice filled the building.
“Nathan Holloway.”
A pause.
“We have Rachel.”
Nathan turned.
The hallway behind him was empty.
Rachel was gone.
May you like
Whitmore continued.
“And if you want your wife to live long enough to see sunrise, bring me both keys.”
