Chapter 10 - His Most Dangerous Enemy
I had imagined finding my father a thousand different ways.
Sometimes, he'd knock on our apartment door.
Sometimes, I'd recognize him in a crowded train station.
Sometimes, I'd wake from a dream convinced he'd been trying to tell me where he was.
I had never imagined meeting him in a hospital emergency department.
When we arrived in Queens, Detective Ruiz was already there.
She met us outside a private examination room.
"He's conscious," she told me. "He's dehydrated, exhausted, and appears to have been living under difficult circumstances."
"Can I see him?"
She nodded.
"But Eliza, prepare yourself. Seventeen years is a long time."
I pushed open the door.
The man sitting on the bed turned his head.
Gray hair.
Deep lines around his eyes.
A faded scar across his forehead.
And one crooked little finger resting on the blanket.
My father.
"Little Star?"
I broke.
"Daddy?"
He opened his arms.
I ran into them.
For a moment, I was ten years old again.
I buried my face against his shoulder and cried so hard I couldn't breathe.
"I'm sorry," he whispered.
I shook my head.
"I'm so sorry, baby."
"Why didn't you come home?"
His arms tightened.
"I wanted to."
"Why?"
"I wanted to every single day."
I stepped back, wiping my cheeks.
"Then why didn't you?"
His face crumpled.
"Because I made the mistake of trusting the wrong man."
Daniel Brennan had spent seventeen years moving between temporary identities, short-term jobs, and hidden accommodations.
At first, he'd remained away to protect my mother and me while gathering evidence.
Then his documents had been stolen, his contacts compromised, and his life narrowed into a series of desperate attempts to remain invisible.
"Lorenzo found me three years ago," he explained.
Adriano stood at the foot of the bed.
My father's eyes moved toward him.
"God, you look like Vittorio."
Adriano said nothing.
Daniel lowered his gaze.
"I failed your father."
"What happened?" Adriano asked.
"Lorenzo convinced Conrad to move the Evergreen money through Blackthorn. But the theft was only part of it."
"What else?"
My father looked toward Detective Ruiz.
"Patient records. Medical transfer authorizations. Private procurement contracts."
Ruiz leaned forward.
"Are you saying they falsified medical documentation?"
"Yes."
Daniel swallowed.
"And when Vittorio found out, Lorenzo arranged for an unauthorized medication change during his hospital stay."
Adriano went completely still.
The room seemed to shrink around us.
"Can you prove that?" Ruiz asked.
My father nodded.
"The missing forty-three minutes. I copied the transfer authorization before the records were changed."
"Where is it?"
Daniel looked at me.
"In the box."
I frowned.
"We opened the box. There was a ledger, an envelope, and a photograph."
His expression changed.
"No."
"What?"
"There should have been a fourth item."
Adriano stepped closer.
"What item?"
"A sealed medical file."
My blood ran cold.
"Somebody got there first?"
Daniel stared at me.
"Or somebody inside the bank removed it before the inventory."
Detective Ruiz immediately contacted the bank.
The original access logs and surveillance recordings were preserved.
Reynolds began an independent review of the safe-deposit procedures.
But my father seemed increasingly distressed.
"Listen to me," he said. "The original proof wasn't only financial. Vittorio's hospital transfer records were authenticated by a physician."
"Who?" Adriano demanded.
Daniel closed his eyes.
"Dr. Nathaniel Pierce."
Adriano frowned.
"He's dead."
"No."
My father shook his head.
"That's what Lorenzo wanted everyone to believe."
I felt another terrible possibility opening in front of us.
"Where is he?"
Daniel looked toward the doorway.
"That's why I let myself be found."
He swallowed.
"Pierce contacted me yesterday. He says Isabella is alive."
Adriano's face changed.
"Where?"
My father looked at him with obvious sympathy.
"She wants to see you."
My mother met my father the following afternoon.
I will remember that moment for the rest of my life.
When Daniel entered her hospital room, she stared at him as though she were seeing a ghost.
Then she began crying.
"Daniel?"
He crossed the room.
"Nora."
She reached for his face.
Her fingers trembled as they touched his gray hair.
"You're old," she whispered.
He laughed through his tears.
"So are you, sweetheart."
Then they held each other.
No grand speech.
No explanation that could return seventeen stolen years.
Just two people who had loved one another through an impossible silence.
I stood in the doorway, crying.
Adriano was beside me.
His hand found mine.
This time, I didn't pull away.
But happiness lasted less than twenty-four hours.
The next morning, news outlets began reporting that Daniel Brennan, a former Evergreen accountant, had resurfaced amid allegations of financial misconduct.
Anonymous sources claimed he had stolen charitable funds and disappeared after investigators began questioning his transactions.
My father stared at the television in disbelief.
"They're blaming me."
Adriano switched it off.
"Lorenzo."
"Can we prove it?" I asked.
Reynolds entered carrying a new legal filing.
"Not yet. And there's another problem."
He placed the document on the table.
Blackthorn Medical Logistics had filed a complaint alleging that Daniel possessed confidential business records obtained unlawfully.
"They're trying to discredit him before he can testify," Reynolds explained.
My father lowered his head.
I felt rage rising inside me.
For seventeen years, he'd sacrificed his life to protect us.
Now they were trying to turn him into the criminal.
Adriano's phone vibrated.
He glanced at the screen.
A message.
From Lorenzo Vale.
You should have stayed out of this, son.
A second message followed.
A photograph of Isabella Costello.
Older.
Sitting beside a window.
Alive.
And underneath it:
Choose carefully. You cannot protect both mothers.
Adriano stared at the photograph.
For the first time since I'd met him, I saw genuine fear in his eyes.
May you like
His most dangerous enemy wasn't Conrad Harrington.
It was the man who had raised him.
