Chapter 7 - THE FATHER WHO REFUSED TO FIGHT
“Lena, lock the doors.”
Eveina's voice shook as the call connected.
“What happened?”
“Someone may be coming for Theo. Keep him away from the windows.”
Lena didn't ask for an explanation.
“I'm taking him upstairs.”
“Is anyone outside?”
“A white van stopped across the street about ten minutes ago.”
Alistair looked at Alvarez.
She was already calling nearby officers.
Eveina gripped the phone.
“Lena, listen to me. The police are coming. Do not let anyone inside.”
“I won't.”
A pause.
Then Theo's small voice came through.
“Mommy?”
Eveina pressed the phone closer.
“Baby, are you okay?”
“Miss Lena says we're playing a quiet game.”
“That's right.”
“Did I win?”
Her eyes filled.
“You're doing great, sweetheart.”
“Are you coming home?”
“Yes.”
She looked toward Alistair.
“We're both coming.”
There was a pause.
Then Theo asked, “Daddy too?”
Alistair closed his eyes.
“Yes, baby,” Eveina whispered. “Daddy too.”
They reached the townhouse eleven minutes later.
Two police cars stood outside.
The white van was gone.
An officer explained that its occupants had driven away when patrol cars arrived. A nearby traffic camera had recorded the license plate.
Nobody had entered the house.
Nobody had been hurt.
Eveina didn't wait to hear anything else.
She ran upstairs.
Theo was sitting on the bedroom carpet with Mr. Buttons tucked beneath his arm.
Lena sat beside him.
The moment he saw Eveina, he ran.
She lifted him and held him so tightly he protested.
“Mommy, squishing.”
She laughed through her tears.
“Sorry, baby.”
Alistair remained in the doorway.
He wanted to gather both of them into his arms.
Instead, he waited.
Theo looked over his mother's shoulder.
“Daddy?”
Alistair knelt.
“Hey, buddy.”
“Did the bad man come?”
“He tried.”
“Did you make him go away?”
Alistair considered the question.
He could have told his son that he'd sent men to protect him.
That he'd built an empire powerful enough to terrify half the city.
But those things hadn't kept Theo safe.
A nurse had kept him calm.
A detective had sent officers.
And a frightened mother had known exactly whom to call.
“The police helped,” Alistair said. “And Miss Lena was very brave.”
Theo nodded.
“She's good at quiet games.”
“She sure is.”
Then Theo stepped forward and put one small hand against Alistair's chest.
“Your heart's going fast.”
Alistair swallowed.
“Yeah.”
“Mine does that when I'm scared.”
“Mine too.”
Theo studied him.
“Big people get scared?”
“All the time.”
That seemed to satisfy him.
Then, without warning, Theo wrapped his arms around Alistair's neck.
It wasn't a long hug.
Only a few seconds.
But Alistair held completely still.
Afterward, Theo returned to his mother.
As though nothing remarkable had happened.
Alistair remained kneeling beside the bed.
Eveina saw the tears before he could hide them.
She didn't say anything.
Some moments deserved privacy.
Downstairs, Alvarez arrived with news.
The van was registered to a private transportation contractor previously used by Gideon's security company.
The driver claimed he'd been assigned to a welfare transfer.
When officers challenged the paperwork, he had left.
“What welfare transfer?” Eveina demanded.
Alvarez showed her a copy obtained from the driver.
It described Theo as a child requiring protective relocation because of an imminent family threat.
It included Helena's signature.
And Alistair's supposed authorization.
Alistair examined the signature.
It looked exactly like his.
But the date was wrong.
On the day shown, he'd been in New York meeting auditors.
He'd signed no such document.
“He's using my own security system against me,” he said.
Alvarez nodded.
“And whoever prepared this knew the family schedule.”
Eveina looked toward the stairs.
“Is Gideon going to keep trying?”
“Not if we can establish enough evidence to stop him,” Alvarez answered. “But we're treating this seriously. I've asked for additional protection.”
Alistair turned toward Samuel, who had remained in the kitchen.
“You knew Gideon was monitoring my son.”
Samuel lowered his eyes.
“Yes.”
“And you helped him.”
“Yes.”
“Then why should I believe you want to help now?”
Samuel looked older than he had the night before.
“Because when I saw that little boy standing beside you, I realized I was watching the same thing happen all over again.”
He reached into his coat.
Alvarez immediately raised a hand.
“Slowly.”
Samuel removed a small paper receipt.
Its edges were yellow.
Its writing had faded.
Alistair recognized it.
It was a copy of a vehicle assignment.
Dated six years earlier.
The same night he'd been wounded.
Samuel set it on the table.
“Gideon ordered me to drive to the river district. When I arrived, he told me the job had been canceled.”
“Why keep this?” Alvarez asked.
“Because it didn't make sense.”
Samuel pointed to the departure time.
4:17 a.m.
Then to the destination.
The same street where Alistair had been shot.
“I was supposed to collect Gideon and another man. He told me afterward that the other man hadn't arrived.”
Alistair stared.
“Who was the other man?”
Samuel hesitated.
“His name was never on my paperwork.”
Alvarez studied the receipt.
“Can you identify Gideon as the person who issued this assignment?”
“Yes.”
“Will you say that formally?”
Samuel swallowed.
Then nodded.
“I'll testify. About this, and about what I helped do to Mrs. Hart.”
Eveina stared at him.
For six years, she'd imagined confronting the people who destroyed her life.
She'd imagined shouting.
Demanding explanations.
Perhaps even making them hurt.
But now she was looking at a frightened old man who'd chosen loyalty to the wrong person again and again.
“You don't get forgiveness because you finally tell the truth,” she said.
Samuel nodded.
“I know.”
“You'll have to live with what you did.”
“I know that too.”
Alistair looked at Eveina.
He understood her better in that moment than he had six years ago.
She didn't want revenge.
She wanted accountability.
And she wanted her son to grow up somewhere people didn't disappear simply because powerful men ordered it.
Alistair took out his phone.
He called his company's outside auditors.
“Release everything you have on Gideon Vale to Detective Alvarez and the appropriate authorities. No exceptions.”
His chief financial officer objected.
“There may be exposure for other parts of the organization.”
“I understand.”
“Mr. Blackthorn, this could cost you everything.”
Alistair looked toward the stairs.
“I've already lost the things that mattered most.”
He ended the call.
Eveina watched him quietly.
“You understand what you're doing?”
“Yes.”
“You may not be able to keep your company the way it is.”
“I know.”
“And people may find out things about you that aren't flattering.”
He looked at her.
“I've done things I'm not proud of, Eve. I'm not going to ask you to pretend otherwise.”
She nodded slowly.
It wasn't a promise that everything would be different.
It was the first time he'd accepted that changing might cost him something.
That mattered.
A few minutes later, Lena brought Theo downstairs for breakfast.
Alistair helped him open a small carton of milk.
Theo watched him struggle with the folded spout.
“You have to push the sides.”
Alistair obeyed.
The carton opened.
Theo smiled.
“See? Easy.”
Alistair laughed.
For one brief moment, the townhouse felt almost ordinary.
Then Helena arrived.
She had been meeting with Alvarez's investigators to provide the financial records from the original fifty-thousand-dollar payment.
Her face was pale.
“Gideon has been contacting the Blackthorn foundation trustees,” she said.
Alistair looked up.
“About what?”
“He's accusing Eveina of taking money to hide your child. He says she returned to demand more.”
Eveina slowly set down her coffee.
“He's calling me a liar?”
Helena nodded.
“The trustees are meeting this afternoon. He's demanding they suspend the clinic grant and release his accusations publicly.”
Eveina looked toward her son.
The grant was supposed to buy pediatric equipment.
Equipment children in her neighborhood desperately needed.
Gideon wasn't satisfied with destroying her past.
He intended to destroy the work she'd built afterward.
Alistair stood.
“I'll stop him.”
“No,” Eveina said.
Everyone turned.
She placed her cup on the table.
“For six years, men in your family have made decisions about my life while I wasn't in the room.”
She looked directly at him.
“Not this time.”
Alistair waited.
May you like
Eveina drew a steady breath.
“If Gideon wants to tell the world I sold my son, then I'm going to stand in front of that board and tell them exactly who paid me—and what they threatened to do if I refused.”
