Chapter 11 - The Reunion With Uncle Daniel
Before I could answer, my phone vibrated.
An unknown number.
The message contained six words.
Your grandfather was right. Check outside.
Through Grandma’s kitchen window, I saw a car idling across the street.
A man stood beside it beneath the streetlight.
His face was older than the one in the photograph.
But I knew him.
Uncle Daniel raised one hand.
Then my phone rang.
I answered without taking my eyes off him.
“Maya,” he said.
“Keep Toby away from the window.”
Across the street, the car’s rear door opened.
“And whatever happens next,” my uncle whispered, “do not let your mother into that house.”
The man we had buried twelve years earlier was standing outside my grandmother’s house, telling me my brother was still in danger.
“Maya,” Daniel whispered through the phone.
“Tell me you locked the door.”
I turned the deadbolt.
Behind me, Toby held the photograph of his father with both hands.
Across the street, someone climbed from the waiting car.
My mother.
She wore the same gray coat she had worn to supervised visits.
Her hair was windblown, and she carried a small leather handbag.
“Why shouldn’t I let her in?”
I asked.
“Because Bradley Vance knows she’s here.”
The attorney’s name brought back the courtroom: his finger against my chest rig, Toby’s bruise, my father smiling.
“Is he in the car?”
“No. But Caroline called him before leaving her apartment. I heard her.”
“How?”
“I was outside her building. I’ve been trying to find a way to approach you without being followed.”
“You chose tonight?”
“I saw her leave. Then I followed her here.”
My mother reached the porch.
“Maya? Please open up.”
Toby stepped toward her voice.
I moved between him and the door.
“Stay with Grandma.”
He stopped immediately.
The obedience hurt more than an argument would have.
I called the police, gave our address, and explained that a man involved in an ongoing fraud investigation might be following a witness.
Then I spoke through the door.
“What do you need, Mom?”
Her answer came in a rush.
“Bradley contacted me. He says your grandmother has documents that could damage Toby’s trust. He told me to collect them before you misunderstood.”
Grandma sank into a chair.
“Caroline,” she said, loud enough to carry through the wood.
“Did you believe him?”
A long silence followed.
“I don’t know what to believe anymore.”
Across the street, Daniel moved into the light.
My mother turned.
Her handbag slipped from her fingers.
“No,” she breathed.
He stopped at the bottom of the porch steps.
“Hello, Caroline.”
She backed against the railing, staring at him.
“You were dead.”
“That’s what Richard told you.”
“I saw the report.”
“He paid for the report.”
Daniel looked through the window at Grandma.
His expression changed, becoming suddenly young and wounded.
“Mom.”
She covered her mouth.
I opened the door only when the first patrol car turned onto the street.
Daniel came inside slowly, favoring one leg.
Toby stood beside the kitchen table.
For a moment, neither moved.
Then Daniel looked at the photograph in my brother’s hands.
“I remember that morning,” he said.
“You tried to eat the corner of my life jacket.”
Toby’s lower lip trembled.
“Are you really my dad?”
Daniel nodded.
He did not reach for him.
“I am. But you don’t have to come near me until you want to.”
That was when I noticed the pale scars around his wrists.
Outside, my mother was speaking to an officer.
Inside, Grandma touched Daniel’s face as if she expected her fingers to pass through him.
“What happened to you?” she whispered.
May you like
He closed his eyes.
“My brother made sure I couldn’t come home.”
