Chapter 4
I left the transmitter where it was.
That surprised Daniel.
“Why aren't you destroying it?”
I looked at him.
“Why would I?”
He said nothing.
If someone was listening, I wanted them comfortable.
Comfort makes people stay close.
Fear makes them disappear.
I brought Claire into the council room.
Leo came with us.
Daniel shouted after her:
“Go cry to Daddy.”
Claire stopped.
Daniel smiled.
“Tell him everything.”
She turned.
He leaned forward between the bodyguards.
“Tell him how many times you begged me not to leave.”
Claire's face went red.
Humiliation.
He loved that too.
I stepped toward him.
Daniel raised his eyebrows.
“What?”
I lowered my voice.
“You're trying very hard to make her ashamed of surviving you.”
For once he had no answer.
I closed the door.
Claire sat at the council table.
Same chair she had used as a teenager while waiting for me to finish late meetings.
Leo climbed onto her lap.
I sat across from them.
“How long?”
She knew what I meant.
“Eleven months.”
My throat tightened.
Almost a year.
“Since when?”
“The first time?”
I nodded.
“After Mom's memorial dinner.”
I remembered that night.
Daniel had carried Claire's coat.
Held her hand.
Called me Dad.
“What happened?”
“I told him I wanted to leave early.”
“That was it?”
Claire laughed once.
Broken.
“It didn't need much.”
She rolled her sleeve higher.
More marks.
Then lifted the edge of her dress enough to show a dark bruise near her knee.
“Sometimes he said I embarrassed him.”
Pause.
“Sometimes I asked where he was going.”
Another.
“Sometimes dinner wasn't ready.”
Leo stared at the table.
Claire lowered her voice.
“He'd punish Leo when he wanted me to obey.”
Everything inside me went cold.
“How?”
“Food.”
She swallowed.
“He'd tell him dessert was only for good boys.”
Daniel's voice echoed in my mind.
Soft.
Weak.
Dramatic.
Claire continued.
“Then meals.”
I stopped breathing.
“He withheld meals?”
“Not often.”
She said it like that helped.
“He'd say if Leo cried, breakfast disappeared.”
My hands flattened against the table.
“And you?”
“He'd lock the pantry.”
I closed my eyes.
“One night I hadn't eaten since morning.”
“Why didn't you call me?”
Her face changed.
Not accusing.
That would have been easier.
“He said you were tired of me.”
I opened my eyes.
“What?”
“He said every time I called you, you complained afterward.”
“He lied.”
“I know that now.”
Leo whispered:
“Daddy says Grandpa likes meetings more than us.”
I looked at my grandson.
There are insults you can answer.
That one you carry.
Claire continued.
“Whenever I reached for my phone, Daniel would laugh.”
Her voice imitated him.
“Go ahead. Call your father. See if he leaves his important men for you.”
Daniel had weaponized my absence.
Used my work to make my daughter feel abandoned.
I wanted him dead.
That was simple.
The harder part was not giving him the easy ending.
“What did he want?”
Claire looked toward the wall.
“The council room.”
Finally.
“He kept asking when you met here.”
“Why?”
“I didn't know.”
“When did Leo start crawling through the tunnel?”
“Two months ago.”
“Who discovered it?”
“Preston.”
Of course.
“What did they tell Leo?”
“That it was a dinosaur game.”
She hugged him.
“He thought he was helping Grandpa.”
Leo nodded.
“I put bugs so bad guys can't get you.”
My chest tightened.
Daniel had turned betrayal into a game.
“Was today about the transmitter?”
Claire shook her head.
“No.”
“What then?”
She hesitated.
I waited.
“Daniel wanted Leo here until eight.”
“Why eight?”
“I don't know.”
“Why did he hit you with the cake?”
“I told him I was taking Leo home.”
There it was.
“You tried to leave before eight.”
“Yes.”
“What did Daniel say?”
Claire looked toward the closed door.
Then whispered:
“He said I was ruining everything again.”
Mauro, standing near the wall, frowned.
“Again?”
Claire looked at him.
“Yes.”
She swallowed.
“Then Daniel said something he shouldn't have.”
I leaned forward.
“What?”
Her eyes returned to me.
“He said, ‘By tonight your father won't have a council left to hide behind.’”
Nobody spoke.
The transmitter.
The child-sized tunnel.
Eight o'clock.
This wasn't only surveillance.
May you like
Someone was preparing to move against the men inside this room.
And Daniel had just admitted he knew when.
