Chapter 5
“Do you have family nearby?” Daniels asked the twins.
Owen said nothing.
Lily shook her head.
“Grandparents? Aunts? Uncles?”
“Our daddy had a brother,” Lily said slowly. “But Claire said he didn’t want us.”
Something shifted inside me.
“What was your father’s name?” I asked.
“Evan,” she said. “Evan Bennett.”
I knew that name.
Not immediately.
It came like a voice from another room—faint, familiar, almost impossible to place.
Evan Bennett.
A thin man in a navy suit, rain on his shoulders. A hospital hallway. A handshake that trembled not from fear, but exhaustion.
I looked at the children again.
Curly blond hair. Blue eyes.
Evan’s eyes had been blue.
My throat tightened before I understood why.
“Did your father work in finance?” I asked.
Owen lifted his head. “He fixed numbers.”
Lily nodded. “He said numbers tell stories if people stop lying to them.”
Marco returned then with two apple juices, a water bottle, a small carton of milk, crackers, bananas, and a paper bag that looked like he had bought half the nearest kiosk. He handed everything to me instead of the officers.
I opened the juice and passed it to Lily.
She did not take it.
I frowned slightly. “It’s okay.”
She looked at Owen.
He whispered, “We’re supposed to ask.”
Something in me went colder than anger.
“You can ask,” I said.
Lily looked at me with solemn little eyes. “May I please have juice?”
“Yes, Lily. You may.”
Only then did she accept it with both hands.
Owen asked too, though his voice barely rose above the noise of the terminal.
My men looked away.
May you like
Officer Daniels took a slow breath.
I had spent my life surrounded by powerful people who mistook fear for respect. I had used silence as a weapon, reputation as armor, wealth as leverage.
