Chapter 11 - THE OFFER
The caller gave us twelve hours.
Not to surrender Grace.
Not yet.
They wanted the black M-17 folder.
Evelyn’s blood sample.
My blood sample.
And the three missing sequences.
We only had one of those things.
The folder.
Nobody knew where the sequences were.
The voice told us to stop pretending.
“Michael Carter left them to his daughter.”
Then the call ended.
Luka immediately took my phone.
“They tracked it.”
“I don’t care.”
“You will if they send six men through that gate.”
“They have Samuel.”
“And they want Grace.”
I looked at him.
“I’m not letting him die.”
“Neither am I.”
His voice softened.
“But we don’t trade the only leverage we have.”
Ryan stood near the window.
“They think Elena knows where the sequences are.”
I looked at my father’s letter again.
Nothing.
Then I remembered something.
Questions are more important than answers.
My father used to say it constantly.
Whenever I got stuck on homework.
Whenever I couldn’t find something.
Whenever I asked him why the sky changed color at sunset.
Questions are more important than answers.
I looked at my mother.
“Did Dad leave me anything else?”
“Everything went through probate.”
“No.”
“Something personal.”
She thought.
“His journals.”
“Where?”
“Storage.”
Ryan immediately shook his head.
“Helix searched the storage unit years ago.”
I stared at him.
“You knew about that too?”
He looked ashamed.
“Yes.”
My mother whispered.
“The blue notebook.”
“What?”
“Michael had a notebook you used to draw in when you were little.”
“You called it the question book.”
Memory hit me.
A blue hardcover notebook.
I would draw pictures.
My father would write questions beneath them.
WHERE DO BIRDS GO AT NIGHT?
WHY DOES THE MOON FOLLOW THE CAR?
WHAT MAKES A FAMILY?
I looked at my mother.
“Where is it?”
Her eyes widened.
“I gave it to you.”
“When?”
“After his funeral.”
I thought of the boxes in my childhood bedroom.
Then another memory surfaced.
I had taken one box to college.
Then to my first apartment.
Then to the house Ryan and I bought.
My heart stopped.
“It’s in my house.”
Ryan stared.
“Which box?”
“I don’t know.”
Luka grabbed his coat.
“We go now.”
Ryan blocked him.
“Helix may already be there.”
“That’s why you stay.”
Ryan laughed.
“You think I’m letting her walk into that house without me?”
I looked at him.
“You already let me walk into six years of marriage without telling me why you were there.”
He flinched.
“You don’t get to be protective now.”
Silence.
We drove to my house just after midnight.
Luka came with two guards.
Evelyn stayed with Grace and my mother at the estate.
I hated leaving Grace.
But I hated the idea of bringing her into danger more.
My house looked ordinary from the street.
Two-story colonial.
White trim.
Porch light still on.
The home where I had decorated a nursery.
The home where Ryan had kissed my stomach and promised to be a good father.
Now every memory felt contaminated.
Luka checked the back entrance.
No forced entry.
Inside, nothing looked disturbed.
Ryan walked toward the stairs.
“Boxes are in the basement.”
We went down.
I found the old cardboard containers near the furnace.
COLLEGE.
CHILDHOOD.
DAD.
My hands trembled opening the last one.
Photographs.
A baseball glove.
A broken music box.
Then the blue notebook.
I sat on the concrete floor.
The first pages were mine.
Crayon suns.
Stick figures.
Dogs with six legs.
Then I reached the final page.
A question written in my father’s handwriting.
WHAT IS THE SAFEST PLACE TO HIDE SOMETHING?
Underneath, seven-year-old me had written:
SOMEWHERE EVERYONE CAN SEE IT.
I stared at the sentence.
Luka crouched beside me.
“Turn the page.”
There was no page.
Just the back cover.
He ran his fingers along the spine.
Then carefully pulled the lining apart.
Three transparent strips fell into my lap.
Each contained tiny printed sequences.
My father had hidden them in a children’s notebook for twelve years.
Ryan whispered.
“Jesus.”
Then a floorboard creaked upstairs.
Luka stood instantly.
His gun appeared in his hand.
The basement light went out.
May you like
A man’s voice came from the top of the stairs.
“Thank you for finding them for us.”
