Chapter 8 - Four Years Stolen

Mara cried without sound at first.

Her hands gripped the back of Daniel’s coat as if she expected someone to take him away.

Daniel held her carefully, terrified of hurting her, terrified that if he loosened his arms she would disappear again.

Finally she whispered, “Lily?”

He pulled back.

“She’s safe.”

Mara covered her mouth.

“She’s alive?”

“Yes.”

“How old?”

“Six.”

The number destroyed her.

Mara sat down abruptly and bent forward, sobbing.

Daniel knelt in front of her.

“She’s beautiful,” he said. “She’s loud. She asks impossible questions. She reads everything she can reach. She hates carrots and loves strawberries. She still sleeps with the rabbit your mother gave her.”

Mara looked at him through tears.

“Does she remember me?”

“Yes.”

It was not the entire truth. Lily remembered pieces and inherited stories. But she remembered enough.

“She found your key.”

Mara stared.

“What?”

“The brass key. In the dollhouse.”

Mara’s eyes widened.

“The bunker.”

“Yes.”

“Did you find the ledger?”

“Yes.”

“Then Aaron knows.”

“He knows we found it.”

Fear transformed her face.

“Daniel, you have to get Lily away from the house.”

“She’s with people I trust. Police are with her.”

“Do you trust them?”

The question was immediate.

Daniel understood why.

“I trust Detective Ortiz.”

Mara’s expression shifted.

“Lena Ortiz?”

“You remember her?”

“She came to the hospital.”

Daniel went still.

“What hospital?”

“After the crash.”

“You remember that?”

“Not all of it.”

Ortiz entered the room quietly with Mara’s permission. The physician and social worker remained outside.

Mara looked at the detective for a long time.

“You were younger.”

“So were you,” Ortiz said.

Mara almost smiled.

Then she touched the scar near her temple.

“My memories come like broken glass. Some are clear. Some cut me when I pick them up.”

Ortiz sat across from her.

“Tell us only what you are ready to tell.”

Mara looked at Daniel.

“I thought you were dead.”

He frowned.

“Why?”

“Aaron told me.”

Daniel felt rage move through him like heat.

“When?”

“At St. Agnes. I don’t know how long after the crash. Days? Weeks?”

She closed her eyes.

“I couldn’t speak well. I knew Lily’s name. I knew yours. I knew something bad had happened.”

“What did Aaron say?” Ortiz asked.

“He sat beside my bed and told me there had been another accident. He said Daniel and Lily were gone.”

Daniel’s hands curled into fists.

Mara continued.

“I remember screaming, but I don’t know if I actually made a sound. After that, everything blurred for a long time.”

“Medication?”

“I think so. They said I became agitated.”

Daniel stood and paced to the window.

Mara watched him.

“I’m sorry.”

He turned.

“For what?”

“For not coming back.”

“No.”

“I should have—”

“No.”

His voice cracked.

“You were injured. You were lied to. You were hidden. None of this belongs to you.”

Mara looked down.

For years she had apparently carried guilt for surviving captivity he had not known existed.

Ortiz asked, “When did you begin to remember your identity?”

“Pieces at St. Agnes. A house. A bluebird. Lily’s face. Daniel’s hands.”

She looked at him.

“You have a scar on your right thumb from building that terrible treehouse.”

Daniel glanced at the scar.

Mara smiled through tears.

“When I remembered that, I knew Daniel was real. Not something my brain invented.”

“What happened when you told staff?”

“They called Aaron.”

“And then?”

“He came with papers. He said I had confused my life with a family I had seen on television.”

Daniel whispered, “You were on television.”

Mara nodded.

“There were news reports about my death. He showed them to the doctors as proof that Mara Hartwell was dead.”

Ortiz’s jaw tightened.

“A circular lie.”

Mara looked at her.

“Yes.”

“If I said I was Mara, they showed me articles saying Mara was dead. If I remembered Daniel, they said grief fantasies were common after brain injury. Aaron brought a psychiatrist once.”

“Name?” Ortiz asked.

“Dr. Klein. Or Kline.”

“We’ll find him.”

Mara clasped her hands.

“Not everyone was cruel. Most staff believed the paperwork. Some tried to help me.”

“How did you get to Grayhaven?”

“St. Agnes was closing. Aaron wanted me moved to another private facility, but a nurse named Cynthia questioned the guardianship order. She contacted a state advocate. Suddenly Aaron stopped visiting.”

“So you were transferred here through normal channels.”

“Yes. My file still carried the false name.”

“Why couldn’t Grayhaven identify you?”

“They tried. My fingerprints weren’t in any database. Dental records required knowing who to compare me to. I had no identification. And every official document said Mary Rowan.”

Daniel sat beside her.

“Did you try to contact me?”

Mara laughed softly, painfully.

“Twenty-three letters.”

He stared.

“What?”

“I wrote you twenty-three letters.”

“I never got one.”

“I know.”

“How?”

“The first few were returned. ‘No such resident.’ Then one came back with a note saying Daniel Hartwell declined correspondence.”

Daniel stood again.

“I never—”

“I know now.”

“Who sent the note?” Ortiz asked.

Mara shook her head.

“No signature.”

Aaron, Daniel thought.

Of course Aaron.

Ortiz asked, “Do you remember the night of the crash?”

Mara’s face tightened.

“Some.”

“Anything that could help us?”

“I remember meeting someone before I drove to Route Nine.”

“Who?”

“Paul Renner.”

Ortiz leaned forward.

“Detective Renner?”

Mara nodded.

“I had called the department anonymously two days before. He returned the call. He said he believed me and wanted copies.”

Daniel’s anger sharpened.

“He was already working for Aaron.”

“I didn’t know.”

“What happened at the meeting?”

“We met at a diner. I gave him photocopies of some bank records. He asked where the originals were. That frightened me.”

“Why?” Ortiz asked.

“Because I had never told him there were originals.”

Ortiz wrote that down.

“So you left.”

“Yes. I called Aaron.”

Daniel looked at her sharply.

“You called Aaron?”

“I still wanted to believe he was on our side.”

Her eyes filled.

“He had been in our wedding. He was Lily’s godfather. He was your best friend.”

Daniel sat beside her again.

“You don’t have to explain why you trusted him. I trusted him too.”

Mara continued.

“I told Aaron I thought Renner was compromised. Aaron said to come to his office. I went.”

“Is that when you took something?” Ortiz asked.

“Yes.”

Mara’s expression changed.

“He left me alone in his conference room while he took a call. His briefcase was open. I saw a Northstar statement inside.”

“What did it show?”

“A payment to Calder Strategic. I took a photograph with my phone and grabbed a folder that had copies of my handwritten notes.”

“Your notes?” Daniel asked.

“He had copies of pages from my blue ledger.”

Daniel’s skin prickled.

“How?”

“I still don’t know.”

“Vanessa,” he said.

Mara considered it.

“Maybe. She had been in the house. She could have photographed pages before I moved the ledger.”

Ortiz asked, “Did Aaron realize you took the folder?”

“Yes. He called while I was driving.”

“What did he say?”

“He told me to pull over. I refused. Then he said, ‘Mara, don’t make me choose between you and Daniel.’”

Daniel looked at Ortiz.

That was not a direct threat, but it was close.

“What happened next?”

“I noticed Vanessa’s car behind me.”

“Marcus was driving,” Daniel said.

Mara closed her eyes.

“I remember the overlook. Marcus grabbing my bag. I remember driving away.”

Her fingers tightened.

“Then headlights. Rain. The guardrail.”

Daniel took her hand.

“You don’t have to keep going.”

“I want to.”

She breathed slowly.

“I remember waking upside down. Someone was outside the car. Marcus. He tried the door.”

That matched his statement.

“Then I remember voices after that. An ambulance. A man saying I had to be moved.”

“Renner?” Ortiz asked.

“I think so.”

“Do you remember Aaron at the crash scene?”

“No.”

“St. Agnes?”

“Yes.”

Mara opened her eyes.

“And I remember one thing he said before he told me you were dead.”

Daniel waited.

“He said, ‘This is the only way I can keep you alive.’”

Ortiz stopped writing.

Daniel stared at Mara.

“That sounds like he was claiming someone else wanted you dead.”

“Maybe.”

“Did he say who?”

“No.”

This was the first piece that complicated the story they had built around Aaron.

Ortiz noticed too.

“Could Aaron have been protecting you from someone?” she asked.

Mara’s expression hardened.

“He kept me from my husband and child for four years.”

“I’m not excusing it. I’m asking whether there may be another person above him.”

Mara looked at Daniel.

“Victor.”

Daniel shook his head slowly.

“Vanessa says Victor wasn’t part of the later theft.”

“Vanessa lied for years.”

“So did Victor.”

Mara nodded.

“Then prove it. Don’t guess.”

Daniel almost laughed.

Even after everything, she sounded exactly like herself.

Do not trust a confession without proof.

Ortiz’s phone rang.

She answered, listened, and looked at Daniel.

“We found Renner.”

“Where?”

“At Logan Airport trying to board a flight to Lisbon.”

Mara leaned forward.

“Did he talk?”

“Not yet.”

Ortiz listened again.

Then her expression changed.

“What do you mean, he asked for me?”

She stood.

“Put him on.”

A detective transferred the call.

Ortiz switched to speaker.

Renner’s voice sounded older, rougher.

“Lena?”

“Paul.”

“I want a deal.”

“You don’t get to start there.”

“I can give you Aaron Blake.”

Daniel looked at Mara.

Ortiz said, “We already have a great deal on Aaron Blake.”

“No,” Renner replied. “You have the theft. Maybe the crash. You don’t know why he hid Mara.”

Mara went pale.

Ortiz’s voice sharpened.

“Then tell me.”

Renner breathed into the phone.

“Because Aaron wasn’t the one who ordered her killed.”

Daniel’s blood went cold.

“Who did?” Ortiz asked.

Renner answered with two words.

“Robert Blake.”

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Aaron’s father.

The man who had been dead three months before Mara’s crash.