My father's name had never appeared in any of the stories my mother told me.<\/p>\n
Not once.<\/p>\n
She had spoken about Daniel.<\/p>\n
Thomas.<\/p>\n
Evelyn.<\/p>\n
Harvest.<\/p>\n
But my father had always been separate from that world.<\/p>\n
Or so I believed.<\/p>\n
Thomas lowered his weapon slightly.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour father was the one who found the ledger.\u201d<\/p>\n
I couldn't breathe.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy father is dead.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomas shook his head.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ruiz stepped between us.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho is he?\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomas looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cAsk Celia.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stared at him.<\/p>\n
Then the memory came.<\/p>\n
My father had died when I was young.<\/p>\n
A heart attack, according to the family.<\/p>\n
No suspicious circumstances.<\/p>\n
No insurance dispute.<\/p>\n
No investigation.<\/p>\n
Just a death that had always felt too ordinary.<\/p>\n
But my mother had changed after it.<\/p>\n
She became careful.<\/p>\n
Quiet.<\/p>\n
Afraid.<\/p>\n
I remembered one sentence she had said when I was twelve.<\/p>\n
Your father died before he could tell you what he knew.<\/p>\n
I had thought she meant grief.<\/p>\n
She had meant information.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat was my father's name in Harvest?\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomas answered.<\/p>\n
\u201cRichard Mercer.\u201d<\/p>\n
My heart stopped.<\/p>\n
Richard Sloan.<\/p>\n
R.S.<\/p>\n
The man who had been arrested after entering my home.<\/p>\n
The disposable operative.<\/p>\n
The man who claimed he didn't know who ran Harvest.<\/p>\n
I looked at Thomas.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou're saying Richard Sloan was my father?\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomas shook his head.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot Richard Sloan.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen who?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRichard Mercer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ruiz's face changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe man who died?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
I felt the room tilt.<\/p>\n
Thomas continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cDaniel Mercer was an identity. Richard Mercer used it after Daniel died.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stared at Vaughn.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen my father was Daniel?\u201d<\/p>\n
Vaughn shook his head.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomas said quietly, \u201cYour father was the man who became Daniel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Everything inside me seemed to collapse.<\/p>\n
My father had been part of Harvest.<\/p>\n
My mother had known.<\/p>\n
And she had spent the rest of her life protecting me from the truth.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy did he die?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe didn't.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at Thomas.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe disappeared.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen who did my mother bury?\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomas hesitated.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomeone Daniel had prepared.\u201d<\/p>\n
The same method.<\/p>\n
The same substitution.<\/p>\n
The same fake death.<\/p>\n
Harvest had perfected disappearing people by replacing them with bodies no one would question.<\/p>\n
Ruiz suddenly looked at the ledger.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are dates here.\u201d<\/p>\n
He turned several pages.<\/p>\n
\u201cCelia, look.\u201d<\/p>\n
A sequence of deaths appeared.<\/p>\n
Each one was followed by a transfer.<\/p>\n
Money moved from insurance companies to shell corporations.<\/p>\n
Then to Northgate.<\/p>\n
Then into private trusts.<\/p>\n
But one final transfer was different.<\/p>\n
It had been made into an account belonging to Celia Mercer.<\/p>\n
My account.<\/p>\n
I recoiled.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never received that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou did,\u201d Thomas said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou just didn't know it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The money had been hidden inside the trust my mother established for my children.<\/p>\n
The orchard.<\/p>\n
The same money Vaughn had described as being \u201cfor our future.\u201d<\/p>\n
My stomach turned.<\/p>\n
\u201cWas that what you were trying to take?\u201d<\/p>\n
Vaughn looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause Daniel believed the money proved you had the ledger.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomas laughed.<\/p>\n
\u201cDaniel believed too many things.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere is he?\u201d Ruiz demanded.<\/p>\n
Thomas looked toward the trees.<\/p>\n
\u201cCloser.\u201d<\/p>\n
A gunshot cracked through the morning.<\/p>\n
Thomas jerked backward.<\/p>\n
Vaughn shoved me down.<\/p>\n
Ruiz fired toward the trees.<\/p>\n
The officers scattered.<\/p>\n
Another shot struck the stone well.<\/p>\n
Then silence.<\/p>\n
When we looked up, Thomas was gone.<\/p>\n
Only blood remained on the ground.<\/p>\n
\u201cWas he hit?\u201d Denise asked.<\/p>\n
Ruiz checked the blood.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut he's gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
We searched the property.<\/p>\n
Nothing.<\/p>\n
Then Emmett's voice came through my phone.<\/p>\n
\u201cMom?\u201d<\/p>\n
I answered immediately.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere are you?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWith Mrs. Weaver.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cStay there.\u201d<\/p>\n
He began crying.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomeone called the house.\u201d<\/p>\n
My stomach tightened.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said he was Grandpa.\u201d<\/p>\n
I froze.<\/p>\n
My father had been dead.<\/p>\n
At least according to everything I had ever known.<\/p>\n
Ruiz heard the call.<\/p>\n
\u201cCelia, hang up.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Emmett spoke again.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said his name was Richard.\u201d<\/p>\n
The call ended.<\/p>\n
I couldn't move.<\/p>\n
Mrs. Weaver called seconds later.<\/p>\n
I answered.<\/p>\n
\u201cCelia,\u201d she whispered. \u201cHe's here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWho?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYour father.\u201d<\/p>\n
The line went dead.<\/p>\n
We drove back to the house.<\/p>\n
The front door was open.<\/p>\n
No sign of forced entry.<\/p>\n
No broken glass.<\/p>\n
Nothing disturbed.<\/p>\n
That was worse.<\/p>\n
Mrs. Weaver was sitting in the living room.<\/p>\n
June was beside her.<\/p>\n
Emmett stood near the window.<\/p>\n
Everyone was alive.<\/p>\n
But the wall behind them had changed.<\/p>\n
Someone had written a message in black marker.<\/p>\n
You were supposed to die before you learned my name.<\/p>\n
Underneath was another sentence.<\/p>\n
Now I need the seventh page.<\/p>\n
I looked at the children.<\/p>\n
Then at Mrs. Weaver.<\/p>\n
Then at the ledger.<\/p>\n
There was no question anymore.<\/p>\n
Someone had been inside our lives for years.<\/p>\n
Someone who knew every secret.<\/p>\n
Someone who knew my mother.<\/p>\n
Someone who knew Vaughn.<\/p>\n
Someone who knew where the ledger was.<\/p>\n
And someone who had just proven he could reach my children whenever he wanted.<\/p>\n
Ruiz took the ledger.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe move everyone now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
He looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we run, we lose the advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat advantage?\u201d<\/p>\n
I held up the seventh page.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that he thinks this is the only copy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Denise understood immediately.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou want to make a fake ledger.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI want him to believe we have given him what he wants.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vaughn looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou're going to use yourself as bait.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked toward the children.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the first time, I'm going to make him think I'm exactly where he expects me to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vaughn's expression hardened.<\/p>\n
\u201cCelia, don't.\u201d<\/p>\n
I met his eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou taught me how Harvest thinks.\u201d<\/p>\n
He looked away.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen help me destroy it.\u201d<\/p>\n
My father's name had never appeared in any of the stories my mother told me. Not once. She had spoken about Daniel. Thomas. Evelyn. Harvest. But my father had always … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8047,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insightdrama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8066"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8086,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8066\/revisions\/8086"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}