Chapter 5 - THE MAN WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD
The next morning, Detective Bennett called.
“I need you to come to the station.”
Hannah arrived with Damen.
Bennett looked exhausted.
She placed a file on the table.
“We found something.”
Hannah opened it.
Inside was an old death certificate.
The name belonged to:
Daniel Brooks.
Her father.
She stared.
“My father.”
“Yes.”
“But he's dead.”
Bennett nodded.
“He was declared dead sixteen years ago.”
Damen studied the document.
“What's wrong with it?”
“The signature.”
Hannah looked closer.
Her father's death certificate had been signed by a doctor.
Dr. Samuel Reed.
Bennett placed another document beside it.
A hospital record.
The same doctor had signed a patient admission eleven years later.
Hannah's blood ran cold.
“What does that mean?”
Bennett said:
“Your father may not have died when you were told.”
Silence.
Hannah stared at the papers.
“That isn't possible.”
“We checked the cemetery.”
“What?”
“The grave is real.”
“But?”
“The body was never positively identified.”
Damen's eyes narrowed.
“Where is Dr. Reed?”
Bennett shook her head.
“Dead.”
“Convenient.”
“Very.”
Hannah felt dizzy.
Her father might have been alive.
For years, she had believed he had died after a heart attack.
Her mother had never allowed her to attend the funeral.
She had been told it was too painful.
Now—
nothing made sense.
“Why would my mother lie?”
Bennett looked at her.
“To protect you.”
“From my father?”
“No.”
“Then from whom?”
Bennett placed one final photograph on the table.
It showed a man entering a private hospital.
His face was older.
His hair was gray.
But Hannah recognized him.
Her father.
Her hand flew to her mouth.
Damen stared at the photograph.
“When was this taken?”
“Three years ago.”
Hannah's voice broke.
“Where is he now?”
“We don't know.”
Damen stood.
“We'll find him.”
Hannah looked at him.
“Why?”
“Because he may know what happened to Emma.”
“And Sophia.”
“Yes.”
“And the ledger.”
“Yes.”
She stared at him.
“You keep saying 'we.'”
Damen paused.
“You're right.”
He sat back down.
“You don't have to do this with me.”
Hannah looked at him.
“Do you want me to?”
Damen didn't answer.
That silence was enough.
Hannah smiled faintly.
“Then we're doing it together.”
That evening, they followed a lead to an old rehabilitation center outside Chicago.
The records showed a patient named Daniel Brooks had once been admitted.
But when they arrived, the director denied everything.
“Patient confidentiality.”
Damen placed a photograph on the desk.
“You have five seconds.”
Hannah touched his arm.
“Damen.”
He stopped.
She looked at the director.
“We're not here to threaten you.”
The director relaxed.
“We just need to know whether Daniel Brooks was here.”
The director looked at Hannah.
Then slowly nodded.
“Yes.”
Hannah's heart stopped.
“When?”
“Two years ago.”
“Where is he now?”
“He left.”
“Alone?”
“No.”
“With whom?”
The director looked frightened.
“A woman.”
“What woman?”
He whispered:
“Sophia Moretti.”
Damen froze.
“That is impossible.”
“I know what I saw.”
“My sister died nine years ago.”
The director shook his head.
“Then someone used her name.”
Hannah looked at Damen.
Suddenly the entire case shifted.
Maybe Sophia hadn't been alone when she died.
Maybe she had been investigating something much bigger.
The director opened an old cabinet.
Inside was a sealed envelope.
“This was left for Hannah Brooks.”
She took it.
Her name was written across the front.
She opened it.
Inside was a photograph of Emma.
Alive.
Older.
Standing beside a man.
Hannah screamed.
Because the man beside Emma was her father.
And on the back of the photograph was a date.
October 6, 2026.
Today's date.
Damen stared at it.
“He's alive.”
May you like
Hannah's hands shook.
“And so is Emma.”