Chapter 14 - The Lie David Never Escaped.
Claire looked at David and saw two men at once.
One was the father who taught her to ride a bicycle and waited beside her hospital bed when she had pneumonia.
The other was the accountant standing inside Charles Vale's chapel while a ledger of stolen children lay open between them.
"Tell me he's lying."
David's eyes lowered.
Claire's voice broke.
"Tell me."
"I can't."
Ethan cursed under his breath.
Margaret stared at David with open disgust.
"You said you ran from him."
"I did."
"Then why are your fingerprints still on his money?"
David looked at Claire.
"Because after Miriam gave you to me, Charles found us within six months."
Claire felt physically sick.
David explained that Charles allowed him and Linda to keep Claire under one condition.
David would continue laundering money through the Vale charities and never reveal Claire's identity.
If he refused, Charles would take Claire back and kill Linda.
"So you worked for him."
"I worked under threat."
Claire's laugh was broken.
"For twenty-three years?"
David began crying.
"At first."
That answer was worse than anything Charles could have said.
"At first?"
David admitted that over time he began moving small amounts of money into hidden accounts to build evidence and compensate victims.
But he also accepted a salary.
He bought their home with it.
He paid Claire's tuition with it.
Pieces of her safe childhood had been financed by the machine that stole her.
Claire turned away because she could not bear to look at him.
Charles watched with satisfaction.
"Families are so much easier to destroy when they believe they are good."
Ethan looked at the chapel clock.
Ten hours had passed since he scheduled the evidence release.
They needed two more.
Charles ordered the ledger returned to the compartment.
"No," David said.
It was the first time his voice sounded strong.
Charles looked amused.
David stepped toward the altar.
"I spent half my life being afraid of you."
"And it kept your daughter alive."
"She stayed alive because better people than me kept choosing her over themselves."
David looked at Miriam's daughter Rebecca.
Then at Margaret.
Then at Ethan.
Finally, he looked at Claire.
"I should have chosen the truth sooner."
Charles nodded to the guard behind him.
The guard struck David across the back and forced him to his knees.
Claire screamed.
"Stop!"
Charles leaned toward David.
"Where are the copies?"
David smiled through blood on his lip.
"Everywhere."
Charles's expression finally cracked.
He ordered the guards to search David.
They found nothing.
Then Ethan heard a distant siren.
Charles heard it too.
Everyone froze.
Another siren joined it.
Then a third.
Ethan almost smiled.
"Your schedule was wrong," Claire whispered to him.
"No," Ethan said.
"I set a second release if anyone accessed my phone after confiscating it."
Charles turned toward the windows.
Blue lights flickered faintly beyond the trees.
His face twisted with rage.
"You think police can touch me?"
He grabbed Claire by the arm and dragged her toward a narrow side door.
Ethan lunged after them.
Margaret shifted closer to Ethan while the guards focused on David.
Without looking at him, she whispered that Charles always became careless when he believed someone had finally surrendered.
Ethan understood that David's confession, however ugly, had created the first opening they had seen.
A guard tackled him.
Margaret screamed Claire's name.
The side door slammed shut.
Behind it, stone steps descended toward the cliff.
Charles pressed a small pistol against Claire's ribs.
"Your father died because he underestimated me."
May you like
Claire stared at the black ocean below.
"Then it's a good thing I'm not my father."
