Chapter 9: The First Sunrise
Sebastian did not want money.
He did not want territory.
He wanted the evidence Aaron had hidden in the nursery.
Claire had told him about Aaron’s letter before escaping the Meridian.
Daniel believed she had done it to save herself.
Hannah’s former apartment stood inside a condemned building scheduled for demolition in forty-eight hours.
Sebastian controlled the property company.
The nursery might already have been searched, but Aaron’s phrase suggested a hiding place only Hannah would recognize.
“The first sunrise,” she said. “He painted the room pale yellow.”
Daniel did not want her inside the building.
They argued for ten minutes before Martin ended it.
“Aaron designed the clue for Hannah. Without her, you may destroy the evidence while searching.”
Daniel accepted the logic.
They entered the apartment after midnight.
Dust covered the furniture.
The property company had removed most belongings, but the nursery walls remained pale yellow.
Hannah stood in the doorway.
Memories struck with physical force.
Aaron kneeling over paint cans.
Aaron laughing when she complained that yellow was too bright.
Aaron placing his hand against the wall and promising their child would believe the sun lived there.
Daniel waited behind her.
“I should have protected him,” Hannah whispered.
“You did not know what he was doing.”
“I knew he was afraid.”
“Fear does not always allow people to explain.”
She looked at Daniel.
“Is that what you tell yourself?”
He did not answer.
The eastern wall contained a painted sunrise Aaron had created by hand.
The first ray touched a wooden baseboard.
Daniel removed it.
Behind the wall was a steel tube.
Inside were a memory drive and a miniature voice recorder.
They played the recording in the empty nursery.
Sebastian’s voice emerged clearly.
“Brooks knows too much.”
Captain Voss replied, “We can make it look like an accident.”
“What about the wife?”
“She knows nothing.”
“And the brother?”
“Monroe will disappear.”
Sebastian spoke again.
“Do not touch the pregnant woman unless the child belongs to Carver.”
The recording ended.
Hannah pressed both hands over her stomach.
Aaron had died before anyone confirmed paternity.
Sebastian had spent months trying to discover the truth.
Daniel placed the recorder inside a protective case.
A floorboard creaked in the hallway.
He drew his gun.
Claire appeared in the doorway.
Her face was bruised. Dried blood covered one sleeve.
She held a pistol, but the barrel pointed toward the floor.
“Hannah.”
Daniel moved in front of her.
Claire gave a broken laugh.
“You still protect her first.”
“Put down the weapon.”
“My father has Caleb.”
Hannah’s breath stopped.
“He was at the convent.”
“Not anymore.”
Claire threw a phone onto the floor.
A video showed Caleb tied to a chair inside an industrial building.
Sebastian stood behind him.
“You will bring the original evidence to Whitlock Terminal at sunrise,” Sebastian said. “Hannah will bring it personally.”
The video ended.
Daniel looked at Claire.
“How did you escape?”
“I didn’t. He released me to deliver the message.”
“Why should we believe you?”
“Because he killed my mother.”
Claire lowered herself against the wall.
For the first time, the arrogance had vanished completely.
She explained that her mother, Margaret Whitlock, had discovered Sebastian’s criminal accounts fifteen years earlier.
Sebastian told Claire she died from an accidental overdose.
On the night of the Meridian explosion, he admitted he had ordered her death.
“He said weakness spreads through families,” Claire whispered.
Hannah felt no sympathy for the woman who had poisoned her.
But she recognized the shape of a daughter realizing her entire life had been built by a murderer.
“Why did you help him?” Hannah asked.
“Because he taught me that love was ownership. He said Daniel would never respect me unless I made everyone else afraid of me.”
“You chose to believe him.”
“Yes.”
Claire did not ask forgiveness.
That made her confession more believable.
Daniel searched her for tracking devices and found one sewn inside her coat.
He destroyed it.
“We are not bringing Hannah to the terminal.”
Claire looked toward the nursery wall.
“Then Caleb dies.”
Hannah stepped forward.
“I’m going.”
Daniel’s refusal came instantly.
“No.”
“My brother risked his life for me.”
“And you are carrying a child.”
“A child who will one day ask what we allowed to happen to her uncle.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
Claire watched them.
“My father expects you to attack.”
“He is correct,” Daniel said.
“He has explosives beneath the terminal. If your men enter, he destroys the building.”
“Then we enter before he knows.”
“He has cameras everywhere.”
Hannah looked at the painted sunrise.
Aaron had left more than evidence.
He had left a map of Sebastian’s thinking.
“He expects Daniel to behave like Daniel,” she said.
Claire frowned.
Hannah turned to her.
“But he does not understand what you will do.”
Claire’s expression hardened.
“What do you want from me?”
“You will return to your father.”
Daniel stared at Hannah.
“No.”
“She is the only person he may allow close.”
Claire slowly stood.
“And then?”
“You will help us free Caleb.”
“Why would you trust me?”
“I don’t.”
Hannah moved closer.
“But your father believes you are weak. Prove him wrong by choosing something other than cruelty.”
Claire looked at the severed ends of Hannah’s hair.
Shame crossed her face.
At dawn, Claire entered Whitlock Terminal alone.
A transmitter was hidden beneath her bandage.
Daniel listened from a maintenance tunnel beneath the loading yard.
Hannah remained beside him despite his objections.
Claire found Caleb inside the central warehouse.
Sebastian waited with Captain Voss, who had escaped custody with help from a corrupted marshal.
Sebastian embraced his daughter.
Then he whispered, “You are wearing a wire.”
A gunshot sounded through Daniel’s receiver.
May you like
Claire screamed.
And the transmission went dead.
