"You let me believe you were dead."
"I know."
"Do you know what that did to me?"
"No."
His voice cracked.
"But I know what it did to your mother."
Silence filled the room.
Caleb remained outside.
Daniel eventually sat down.
He told Lily everything.
Victor Sloan had ordered the murder of three witnesses.
Daniel had obtained the evidence.
But the evidence disappeared.
Before he could publish it, someone betrayed him.
Daniel escaped an assassination attempt and vanished.
He spent decades moving from town to town.
But he never stopped investigating.
Finally, he discovered where the missing evidence was hidden.
A bank vault.
And there was one problem.
The vault required two keys.
One belonged to Daniel.
The other had been left with Lily's mother.
Lily stared at him.
"My mother has it?"
"Yes."
"Does she know?"
"She knows what it is."
Lily stood.
"Then we're going home."
Daniel looked at Caleb.
Caleb nodded.
"She's ready."
THE SECOND KEY
Lily's mother was waiting when they returned.
Her name was Margaret.
She opened the door and saw Daniel standing behind Lily.
Her knees almost gave way.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then Margaret whispered:
"You promised me you would never come back."
Daniel looked broken.
"I had to."
"No."
Margaret's eyes filled with tears.
"You wanted to."
Daniel nodded.
"Yes."
Lily stood between them.
"You both lied to me."
Margaret looked at her daughter.
"We thought we were protecting you."
"Everybody keeps saying that."
Lily turned away.
"I needed parents. Not protection."
The words hurt more than shouting would have.
That night, Margaret gave Lily the second key.
It was tiny.
Made of brass.
The vault was located beneath an old courthouse.
Daniel had hidden the first key inside a hollow book.
The second was the one Margaret had kept for twenty-three years.
They entered the courthouse at dawn.
But someone was waiting.
Victor Sloan.
He was older now.
His hair was silver.
His expensive suit was perfectly pressed.
He smiled.
"Daniel."