Chapter 4: The Son of a Monster
“Bring me the boy. The deputy director wants his son home.””
For three seconds, nobody moved.
The black vehicle idled at the mouth of the alley. Its rear door stood open, revealing a man in a charcoal suit with a silver tie and a pistol resting casually on his knee.
Thomas raised his weapon.
Peter Miller pulled me behind her.
“Get back inside the vehicle, Frank,” she shouted.
The man in the suit smiled.
“Still giving orders, Peter? You never learned when to stop.””
He stepped out.
I recognized him from television too. Not his name, but his face. He stood behind politicians at press conferences and appeared in interviews about national security. He was the kind of man adults described as trustworthy because he wore expensive suits and never seemed to sweat.
“I'm Special Agent Frank Lawson,” he announced.
“This is a federal operation. Stand down, Reed.””
Thomas didn't lower his weapon.
“Show me your warrant.””
Lawson chuckled.
“Your shoulder is bleeding, Thomas. You're outnumbered, your communications are compromised, and the boy you're protecting has just become the most valuable witness in the country.””
He glanced at me.
“Come here, son.””
I didn't move.
Lawson's smile faded.
“Alex, your mother has confused you. She's always been very good at that. But I'm going to explain something to you that she should have explained years ago.””
He held up the photograph Miller had shown me.
It was the picture of Mom standing beside Deputy Director Robert Hayes.
“Your biological father is Robert Hayes.””
The words sounded ridiculous.
My father was Daniel Carter. He taught me to throw a football. He helped me build a tree house. He'd sat beside my hospital bed when I had pneumonia and cried when I scored my first goal.
I'd spent twelve years looking exactly like him.
“How?”” I whispered.
Lawson slipped the photograph into his pocket.
“Hayes and your mother were involved before she went undercover. Their relationship ended badly. When she discovered she was pregnant, she disappeared with you. Daniel Carter raised you because he believed you were his child.””
Thomas barked, “That's a lie!””
Lawson turned toward him.
“Is it? Then why did Claire spend twelve years hiding the boy's birth certificate?””
My stomach lurched.
Birth certificate.
I remembered the envelope in Mom's bedside drawer, the one she always said contained boring paperwork. Once, when I was eight, I'd opened it looking for money to buy a video game. She had caught me and snatched it from my hands so quickly that I'd started crying.
She'd hugged me afterward.
She'd said she was sorry.
She hadn't told me why.
Lawson took another step.
“Alex, Robert Hayes has been searching for you for years. He wants to bring you somewhere safe. You can have a normal life again.””
“Then why are you carrying a gun?”” I asked.
His expression hardened.
“Because your mother has stolen classified evidence and endangered everyone around her.””
“Did you shoot Thomas?””
“Thomas is an unfortunate casualty of his own stubbornness.””
Thomas shifted his weight, grimacing as blood seeped between his fingers.
Peter Miller raised her weapon.
“Take another step, Frank, and I'll put you on the ground.””
Lawson sighed.
“You always did mistake loyalty for courage.””
He snapped his fingers.
Two men emerged from the vehicle behind him.
Both wore dark tactical clothing. Neither displayed a badge.
Thomas fired once into the pavement in front of them.
“Stay where you are!””
The men stopped.
Lawson didn't even blink.
“Now, Peter. Let's not make this unpleasant.””
“You brought armed men to abduct a twelve-year-old,” she replied.
“You made it unpleasant when you turned into a criminal.””
Lawson smiled coldly.
“Careful. You know what happened to the last person who called me that.””
Miller's jaw tightened.
I saw something in her eyes that I'd never seen before.
Fear.
Not fear for herself.
Fear of what Lawson might do next.
Then she made a decision.
“Alex, run to the blue pickup.””
I stared at her.
“What about you?””
“RUN!””
Thomas grabbed my jacket and shoved me toward the street.
I ran.
A gunshot cracked behind me. Glass shattered. Someone shouted my name.
I reached the corner and threw myself into the blue pickup parked beside a closed convenience store.
The driver was an older Black woman with short gray hair and a small scar across her chin. She wore a plain denim jacket and held a thermos between her knees.
She looked at me once.
“Alex Carter?””
I nodded, panting.
She unlocked the doors.
“Get in.””
I climbed into the passenger seat.
She pulled away before I had buckled my seat belt.
“Who are you?”” I demanded.
“Evelyn Brooks.””
“Are you another federal agent?””
“No.””
“Are you a criminal?””
She glanced at me.
“Depends who you ask.””
“That isn't funny!””
“No,” she agreed.
“It isn't.””
We turned onto a main road. Behind us, sirens multiplied. I twisted around to look through the rear window, but the alley had disappeared behind a row of buildings.
“Are Thomas and Peter okay?””
“Thomas is harder to kill than he looks. Peter is harder to frighten than she should be.””
“Did you know my mom?””
Evelyn's hands tightened around the steering wheel.
“I knew her before she became Claire Carter.””
Everyone kept saying that.
Before she became Claire Carter.
As though my mother had once been a different person entirely.
“What was her real name?””
Evelyn looked at me.
“Anna Hayes.””
I stopped breathing.
“Hayes? Like Robert Hayes?””
“Yes.””
“Then he's really my father?””
Evelyn didn't answer immediately.
Instead, she pulled into an underground parking garage and switched off the engine.
She turned toward me.
“Alex, I need you to understand something. A biological connection doesn't make someone a father. The man who raises you, loves you, protects you, and stays when things get hard—that man earns the title.””
“Then Daniel is my father.””
Evelyn looked down at her hands.
“I think Daniel believed he was.””
“What does that mean?””
“It means your mother never told him the entire truth.””
I felt sick.
“Why is everyone hiding things from me?””
“Because your mother was trying to keep you alive.””
“By lying to everybody?””
“Sometimes a lie buys you another day.””
I stared at her.
“Did you help her fake her death?””
“Yes.””
“Did you help her marry Daniel?””
Evelyn closed her eyes briefly.
“Yes.””
I leaned back against the seat.
Every adult in my life seemed to have participated in some secret plan that nobody had bothered to explain to the only person whose life it had shaped.
I was tired of being protected.
I was tired of being the last person to know.
“Take me to my mother,” I said.
Evelyn nodded.
“I will.””
Then she reached beneath the dashboard and pressed a hidden button.
A compartment opened.
Inside lay a small black case, a passport, several bundles of cash, and a photograph of a newborn baby.
My newborn baby photograph.
Evelyn picked up the passport and placed it in my hands.
The name printed beneath my picture wasn't Alex Carter.
It was Alexander Hayes.
My date of birth was correct.
My birthplace was correct.
But the father listed on the document was Robert Hayes.
The mother listed was Anna Hayes.
I looked up at Evelyn.
“Why do you have my passport?””
“Because your mother prepared for this day.””
She reached into the case again and removed a folded document.
“There's something else you need to know. Robert Hayes didn't discover you were alive yesterday. He knew you were alive twelve years ago.””
“Then why didn't he come for me?””
“Because he wasn't allowed to.””
“By whom?””
Evelyn unfolded the document.
It was a court order stamped with a federal seal.
At the bottom, beneath a series of signatures, was a name I recognized.
Daniel Carter.
My father had signed away his rights to me before I was even born.
I stared at the signature until the letters blurred.
“He gave me away?””
Evelyn shook her head.
“Not exactly.””
“Then what does it mean?””
She looked at me with an expression so sad that I almost wished she'd lie.
“Daniel discovered the truth about your parentage before you were born. He agreed to raise you as his own, provided that Robert Hayes never came near you.””
I couldn't speak.
The man who had told me my mother should have stayed dead had once signed a document promising to protect me.
And the man who claimed to be my biological father had stayed away for twelve years.
Neither of them had told me the truth.
Evelyn started the engine.
“We need to reach Union Station before Lawson does.””
I looked down at the silver key in my hand.
“Why does everyone want this key?””
“Because it opens a locker containing evidence that can destroy Robert Hayes's career, expose Daniel's crimes, and prove who ordered your mother's assassination.””
“Then why doesn't my mom just give it to the police?””
“Because the evidence doesn't just implicate your father and Hayes.””
She pulled out of the garage.
“It implicates the person who has been protecting your mother for twelve years.””
I turned toward her.
“Who?””
Evelyn looked at me through the rearview mirror.
“Me.””
Before I could ask another question, my phone vibrated.
A message appeared from an unknown number.
It contained a photograph of my mother sitting in a metal chair, her hands tied behind her back.
Her face was bruised.
Her eyes were open.
May you like
Beneath the picture were seven words.
*BRING THE KEY, OR YOUR MOTHER DIES TONIGHT.*
