Chapter 5 - The Last Promise Daniel MadeWalter didn't speak for several minutes.
He sat at the kitchen table with both hands wrapped around an untouched cup of coffee.
Hannah stood opposite him.
Vincent remained near the doorway, refusing to move closer.
Finally, Walter began.
"Daniel came to me three days before the fire. He said he had copied the shipping records and hidden them somewhere nobody would think to look."
"Where?" Hannah asked.
"Inside the old cider house."
Hannah frowned.
The cider house was a small stone building behind the orchard. It had been abandoned since she was a child.
"Why didn't you tell the police?"
"Because the police officer who took my statement was receiving money from Arthur Calder."
Vincent looked up sharply.
"Which officer?"
"Detective Frank Dwyer."
Vincent's expression hardened.
He knew the name.
Dwyer had retired years earlier.
Walter continued.
"Daniel told me that if anything happened to him, I was to keep you away from the Calders. He believed your relationship with Vincent would eventually put you in danger."
Hannah stared at her husband.
"Did Daniel know about us?"
"He knew you were seeing Vincent."
"He liked him."
Walter looked down.
"He wanted to like him."
Vincent accepted the words without protest.
"After the fire," Walter continued, "Arthur sent people to the orchard. They searched the house and the barns. They threatened your mother. They told me that if I went to the authorities, you would be next."
Hannah's eyes filled.
"So you said nothing."
"I was afraid."
"All these years?"
"Every day."
She turned away.
Walter rose.
"Hannah, sweetheart—"
"Did you ever consider that I deserved to know?"
"Yes."
"When?"
"Every morning."
"Then why?"
"Because I had already lost one child."
The room fell silent.
Hannah's anger didn't disappear.
But she understood something about fear that she had never wanted to understand.
Her father had made a terrible choice.
He had also spent eleven years living inside it.
Vincent approached the table.
"We need to get to that cider house before Sabrina does."
Walter looked at him.
"Why?"
"Because Sabrina knows about the second copy."
Hannah remembered the message.
"How does she know?"
Vincent hesitated.
"Because I gave her access to the company's archives."
"Why?"
"I thought she was helping me identify the people who had worked with my father."
"And you trusted her?"
"I did."
"More than you trusted me?"
He had no answer.
Walter stood.
"You're not going anywhere with my daughter."
Vincent nodded.
"I understand."
But Hannah was already reaching for her coat.
"I'm going."
Both men looked at her.
"Hannah," Walter said.
"I spent eleven years believing Daniel died because of an accident. I spent nine years believing my husband was protecting me. I'm finished being the last person in the room to know what's happening."
Vincent didn't argue.
They drove to the cider house in separate vehicles.
Inside, the air smelled of old wood and dried apples.
Hannah remembered playing there as a little girl.
Daniel used to hide notes inside the cracks in the walls and make her search for them.
She ran her fingers along the wooden shelves.
"Daniel always said the best hiding place was where everybody could see."
Walter examined the old pressing machine.
Vincent searched the storage cabinets.
Then Hannah noticed a small metal apple attached to a wooden beam.
She pulled it.
A narrow compartment opened.
Inside lay a plastic-wrapped envelope.
Her hands shook as she removed it.
The envelope contained a flash drive, several handwritten pages, and a photograph.
Daniel was standing beside a woman Hannah recognized.
Her mother.
But Margaret was much younger.
And she was holding a newborn baby.
Hannah stared at the photograph.
"Mom?"
Walter went completely still.
Vincent took the photograph carefully.
There was a date written on the back.
March 14.
The year Hannah was born.
Below it were four words.
She deserves the truth.
Hannah turned toward her father.
"Why is Mom holding a baby?"
Walter's lips parted.
Then a voice came from the doorway.
"Because that baby wasn't you."
Margaret Whitaker stood in the entrance.
May you like
Her eyes were filled with tears.
And behind her stood Sabrina Vale.
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