Chapter 5 - The Man Who Was Supposed to Be Dead
A three-year-old could misunderstand time.
Nathaniel repeated that to himself.
Yesterday might mean last week.
Last month.
A dream.
But Ivy was certain.
“The man from Mommy’s picture came to the window.”
Simone crouched beside her.
“What window, sweetheart?”
“Our window.”
“What did he say?”
Ivy hugged her rabbit.
“He said not to tell.”
Every adult in the room went still.
Nathaniel’s voice softened.
“You're not in trouble, Ivy.”
“He gave me candy.”
Simone looked horrified.
“When?”
“When Mommy was sleeping.”
That narrowed it.
Three nights earlier, Simone had fallen asleep on the sofa after a double shift.
She remembered finding Ivy’s bedroom window slightly open the next morning.
She had blamed herself.
Owen immediately sent security to inspect the apartment.
An hour later, they found a partial fingerprint.
It belonged to Michael Hail.
Nathaniel stared at the report.
“Run it again.”
“We did.”
“Michael is dead.”
Owen said nothing.
The official report claimed Michael died when a convoy was struck by an explosive device.
His remains were identified through personal effects and partial DNA.
Nathaniel had buried a sealed coffin.
He suddenly realized he had never seen his brother’s body.
By afternoon, a second discovery arrived.
Michael’s military DNA record had been amended six days after his reported death.
Authorized by a civilian medical contractor.
Cross Meridian Defense.
Nathaniel sat alone for almost an hour.
Then Simone found him.
He was in the west study holding Michael’s old watch.
“You should eat.”
He almost smiled.
“My staff usually waits until I ask.”
“I’m currently not sure whether I’m your staff, a trespasser, or the woman whose child destroyed your engagement.”
“The engagement managed that by itself.”
Simone sat opposite him.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For bringing this into your life.”
Nathaniel looked at her.
“This was already in my life. You just opened the door.”
Their eyes held.
Something quiet moved between them.
Not romance yet.
Recognition.
Two people who had spent years surviving things alone.
Ivy interrupted by racing into the room.
Nathaniel caught her instinctively.
She laughed.
The sound startled him.
Then she touched the gray streak in his hair.
“You look like Daddy.”
Nathaniel’s smile vanished.
“Ivy, who told you to call the man in the photograph Daddy?”
“Mommy Sarah.”
Simone’s eyes widened.
Ivy had been barely two when Sarah died.
“You remember Sarah?”
“She sang.”
Simone began crying before she could stop herself.
Ivy climbed down and hugged her.
Nathaniel looked away to give them privacy.
His phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
Silence.
Then a man spoke.
“Nate.”
Nathaniel stopped breathing.
Ten years disappeared.
No recording could reproduce that voice.
No impersonator could reproduce the slight upward inflection Michael had always put into his brother’s name.
Nathaniel gripped the phone.
“Michael?”
Simone looked up.
The voice said:
“Don't trust Vanessa.”
Nathaniel stood.
“Where are you?”
“Listen to me. Richard knows you opened the vault.”
“Michael, where are you?”
“You need to get Simone and Ivy out of the estate.”
Nathaniel’s eyes went to Simone.
“Why?”
“Because Ivy is the reason they kept me alive.”
The line went dead.
Nathaniel called back.
Nothing.
Owen traced the call.
A pay phone outside a closed gas station twenty miles away.
Security footage showed a hooded man leaving seconds earlier.
Nathaniel stared at the grainy image.
Same height.
Same gait.
His brother.
Alive.
That night, Nathaniel moved Simone and Ivy into a secure Hail property outside Annapolis.
He went with them.
So did Owen.
Vanessa disappeared before they left.
She left only a note.
I can fix one thing before you hate me forever.
Nathaniel read it twice.
Then burned it.
At midnight, Ivy could not sleep.
Nathaniel found her sitting on the stairs.
“Bad dream?”
She nodded.
He sat beside her.
After a moment, Ivy climbed into his lap.
Nathaniel stiffened.
Then slowly wrapped an arm around her.
“Daddy got hurt,” she whispered.
Nathaniel swallowed.
“Michael?”
Ivy nodded.
“Mommy Sarah said Daddy had to hide.”
Nathaniel’s heart pounded.
“Did Sarah say where?”
Ivy thought carefully.
Then she whispered one word.
“Lighthouse.”
Nathaniel looked toward Simone.
She had heard it too.
The brass lighthouse in his father’s study had hidden the key.
But Nathaniel suddenly remembered something else.
His father had owned a real lighthouse.
An abandoned keeper’s house on a private stretch of Chesapeake shoreline.
The property had been empty for fifteen years.
Or so Nathaniel believed.
At 2:37 in the morning, they arrived.
Nathaniel opened the keeper’s cottage.
A lamp was burning.
Someone had been waiting.
A man stepped from the shadows.
Older.
Thinner.
A scar crossed his face.
But Nathaniel knew him immediately.
Michael Hail looked at his brother for the first time in ten years.
Then Ivy slipped past Nathaniel.
She ran across the room.
But this time she did not shout Daddy.
She stopped several feet from Michael.
Confused.
Michael’s face collapsed.
He looked at Simone.
Then at Ivy.
May you like
And whispered:
“She doesn't remember me.”
