Gabriel looked older than the photographs.
His hair was mostly gray, his face lined around the eyes, and a faint scar crossed his left cheek.
But when he looked at me through the interview-room glass, I recognized something familiar.
He had my mother's eyes.
The detective led me inside.
Gabriel stood.
“Ethan.”
I stopped.
“Don't call me that like you know me.”
“I know who you are.”
“Everyone seems to.”
He gave a tired smile.
“Your mother always wondered what you'd become.”
My throat tightened.
“You know where she is.”
“Yes.”
“Is she alive?”
“Yes.”
I closed my eyes.
Hearing it from him made the truth feel heavier.
“Where?”
“I can't tell you yet.”
I almost turned around.
“You asked for me.”
“I did.”
“Then talk.”
Gabriel sat.
“Mercer will kill her if he thinks you know where she is.”
“He already knows she's alive.”
“He knows she escaped.”
“That's not the same thing.”
Gabriel nodded.
“No.”
I sat across from him.
“Why were you with her after the fire?”
“Because I helped her escape.”
“Why was Mercer there?”
“He was supposed to kill her.”
I stared at him.
“But he didn't.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because your mother made him an offer.”
“What offer?”
“She gave him information.”
“What information?”
“Names.”
“Whose names?”
Gabriel looked toward the observation window.
“People connected to the Keeper.”
I felt the same chill I'd felt reading the letter.
“Who is the Keeper?”
Gabriel leaned forward.
“Your father.”
I stood.
“No.”
“Sit down.”
“You're lying.”
“I wish I were.”
“My father protected my mother.”
“He did.”
“You just said he's the Keeper.”
“I said he was.”
The distinction stopped me.
“Was?”
Gabriel nodded.
“Your father worked for the Keeper before he met Elena.”
My mind rejected it.
Arthur had been a construction worker.
He had raised me.
He had spent decades protecting me.
“You're saying he was part of this organization?”
“Not an organization.”
“Then what?”
“A network.”
Gabriel explained that the Morales family had been involved in financial dealings that stretched across generations.
Some were legal.
Others were not.
The Keeper wasn't always one person.
It was a title passed from one person to another.
The Keeper's job was to protect the family's secrets.
Arthur had inherited the title after Elena's father died.
“He refused,” Gabriel said.
“Then why did he have the ledger?”
“Because your father took it.”
“To expose them?”
“To destroy it.”
I thought of the fire.
“The ledger survived.”
“Yes.”
“Because my mother hid it.”
“Yes.”
“Then why did she trust Arthur?”
“Because he chose you over the network.”
I sat down again.
The story was beginning to make a terrible kind of sense.
Arthur had not been hiding the ledger because he wanted the money.
He had been hiding it because he wanted the entire system to disappear.
“Why didn't he tell me?”
“Because the Keeper's enemies would have used you.”
“Who are they?”
Gabriel's expression hardened.
“Mercer.”
“Who does Mercer work for?”
“The current Keeper.”
I stared at him.
“Who?”
Gabriel looked directly at me.
“Your wife.”
The room went silent.
I felt something inside me collapse.
“No.”
“Victoria inherited the title.”
Jessica had never been merely searching for the trust.
She had been searching for the ledger because the ledger could expose her.
But why would she want to control it?
“She's not the Keeper.”
“She was chosen.”
“By whom?”
“Your mother.”
I stood.
“You're contradicting yourself.”
“No.”
“You said my mother warned you about Jessica.”
“She did.”
“Then why would she choose her?”
“Because she wanted the network to end.”
I stared at him.
“Explain.”
Gabriel leaned back.
“Your mother knew the only way to dismantle the network was to place someone inside it who could expose everyone.”
“Jessica.”
“Yes.”
I thought about our marriage.
The manipulation.
The secrecy.
The trust.
Maybe Jessica had been playing a role.
Maybe she'd lost control of it.
Or maybe I was simply desperate to believe my wife hadn't spent eight years deceiving me.
“Where is my mother?”
Gabriel looked toward the clock.
“She has been moving every few days.”
“Why?”
“Because Mercer is close.”
“Take me to her.”
“I can't.”
“Why?”
“Because you're being watched.”
I looked at the observation window.
The detective stood behind it.
Gabriel lowered his voice.
“Not by the police.”
My pulse quickened.
“Then who?”
“The Keeper's people.”
I laughed bitterly.
“Your story is getting convenient.”
Gabriel reached into his pocket.
He was wearing a hospital-style identification bracelet.
He removed a tiny folded paper from beneath it.
He pushed it toward me.
“Read it later.”
The detective opened the door.
“Time.”
I stood.
“Gabriel.”
He looked at me.
“Does my mother love me?”
His face softened.
“She never stopped.”
I walked out.
Maya was waiting.
“What did he say?”
I told her.
She listened without interrupting.
When I finished, she asked one question.
“Did he say Jessica is the Keeper?”
“He said she inherited the title.”
Maya shook her head.
“That doesn't make sense.”
“Why?”
“Because the Keeper isn't hereditary.”
I stared at her.
“What?”
“It isn't a family position. It's selected by a council.”
“Who?”
“Three people.”
“Names?”
She looked at me.
“Your father was one.”
My stomach tightened.
“Who were the other two?”
“Elena.”
I swallowed.
“And the third?”
Maya hesitated.
“Victor.”
I sat down.
All three were connected.
The Keeper wasn't one person.
It was a role controlled by three people.
Arthur.
Elena.
Victor.
When Victor died, the structure collapsed.
Unless someone replaced him.
“Jessica.”
Maya nodded.
“Possibly.”
We returned to the hotel.
Jessica was gone.
Her phone was on the table.
So was her wedding ring.
I stared at it.
There was a note beneath it.
I didn't know how to explain this without hurting you.
Maya read over my shoulder.
“Ethan.”
I picked up the note.
The handwriting continued.
If Gabriel found you, then the truth has reached you sooner than I expected.
I knew about the ledger.
I knew about Mercer.
I knew about the trust.
But I never knew whether your father had told you about the Keeper.
I wasn't trying to take your inheritance.
I was trying to end the system that created it.
Then came the line that made my hands shake.
I loved you before I knew I was supposed to.
I loved you after I learned who you were.
And that is why I left.
A second note was attached.
One address.
No explanation.
Beneath it, one sentence.
If you still want the truth, come alone.
I looked at Maya.
“She wants me to go.”
“It's a trap.”
“Maybe.”
“You can't go alone.”
“I won't.”
Maya shook her head.
“You don't understand. If Jessica is telling the truth, she may be trying to protect you.”
“And if she's lying?”
“Then you're walking into the most dangerous situation you've faced.”
I looked at the address.
It was a church outside Vancouver.
The same city where my mother had disappeared.
I picked up the ring.
For eight years, it had meant commitment.
Now it felt like a question.
“I’m going.”
Maya sighed.
“Then I'm coming.”
“No.”
She stared at me.
“I'm not letting you go alone.”
I thought about my father's warning.
Then Gabriel's.
Then my mother's.
Every person around me had told me not to trust someone.
And somehow, the only person I still wanted to trust was the woman who had lied to me for eight years.
We drove north before sunrise.
Halfway across the border, Maya's phone rang.
She answered.
Her face changed.
“What?”
She listened.
Then looked at me.
“Arthur is missing.”
Click here to continue reading: PART 11: My Father Vanished From the Hospital Before Dawn, and the Note He Left Behind Sent Us Straight Toward the Place My Mother Had Once Escaped
My Father Asked Me for a Thousand Dollars, Then Looked Past My Shoulder as Though He Was Afraid Someone Had Followed Him Home
Part 10 of 20
