Chapter 14 - The Man at the Door
At 2:17 in the morning, a county transport car stopped beneath the stone lions.
Ethan stood in the foyer barefoot.
Lily held his hand so tightly his fingers hurt.
Noah sat on the bottom stair wrapped in two blankets, refusing to go back to bed.
The door opened.
Daniel Reed stepped inside.
He looked older than Ethan remembered.
Thinner.
A scar ran from his left temple into his hairline. His prison-issued clothes had been replaced with jeans and a borrowed winter coat.
For one terrible second, no one moved.
Then Noah whispered, "Dad?"
Daniel's face collapsed.
He dropped to his knees.
Noah ran first.
Lily followed.
Ethan did not.
He had imagined this moment a thousand times, and in half of those dreams he punched his father for leaving.
Daniel held Lily and Noah against his chest, sobbing into their hair.
Then he looked at Ethan.
"You got so tall."
Ethan hated that sentence.
"You missed it."
Daniel flinched.
"I know."
"Mom died."
"I know."
"You weren't there."
Daniel nodded, tears running down his face.
"I know."
Ethan's anger broke apart.
He crossed the room in three steps and hit his father's chest with both fists.
"You weren't there!"
Daniel did not stop him.
Ethan hit him again, weaker.
Then Daniel wrapped his arms around him.
Ethan fought for two seconds.
On the third, he buried his face in his father's coat and cried like he had not allowed himself to cry since the hospital.
Margaret turned away, wiping her eyes.
The reunion lasted less than ten minutes before Detective Ruiz arrived with bad news.
"Victor gave prosecutors a signed statement supposedly from Daniel."
Daniel looked at it.
"That's not my signature."
"We believe you. But belief is not evidence."
Daniel read the page again.
Then he laughed softly.
"He made a mistake."
Ruiz leaned closer.
"What?"
"He says I met him at the Caldwell Foundation office on March twelfth at nine in the morning."
"So?"
Daniel looked at Ethan.
"March twelfth was the day of Lily's kindergarten surgery. I was at Children's Hospital from six in the morning until after midnight."
Lily blinked.
"You slept in the chair."
"Every minute."
Ruiz was already calling the hospital.
Then the mansion alarm sounded.
A high electronic scream tore through the foyer.
Thomas ran from the security room.
"Side door open."
Maria counted the children.
Noah.
Sophie.
Ben.
Ethan.
May you like
She stopped.
"Where is Lily?"
