Chapter 15 - What Poppy RememberedPoppy did not know what Charles Hawthorne wanted.
At least, that was what everyone believed.
Then she drew the lighthouse.
Sadie found the picture during breakfast.
A tall black tower.
Ocean.
Three birds.
And beneath them, a white crown.
“Where did you see this?”
Poppy shrugged.
“In Daddy's stuff.”
Sadie froze.
“What stuff?”
“The box from our old apartment.”
Sadie had kept three boxes belonging to Elias.
Clothes.
Photographs.
A military patch.
Nothing important.
Or so she thought.
They retrieved the boxes from storage.
Poppy dug through the second.
Then held up an old children's book.
The Little Prince.
Sadie remembered Elias reading it during her pregnancy.
Poppy opened the back cover.
A lighthouse had been drawn there.
Beside it were coordinates.
Dr. Bell identified the location.
Greyhaven Island.
An abandoned Coast Guard station twenty miles offshore.
Ronan stared at Sadie.
“Your daughter has apparently been carrying state secrets in children's literature.”
“Our daughter.”
He looked at her.
Sadie smiled.
“You heard me.”
Something softened in his eyes.
Poppy looked between them.
“Are you going to kiss?”
“No,” Sadie said.
“Yes,” Ronan said.
Poppy groaned.
“Gross.”
Ronan kissed Sadie anyway.
Then Greyhaven changed everything.
They reached the island with Bell and six trusted security officers.
Inside the lighthouse, beneath a rusted stair, they found a waterproof case.
No money.
No weapons.
No ledger.
Birth certificates.
Dozens.
Children.
Each document had been altered.
New names.
New parents.
New countries.
Sadie felt sick.
“This is what Elias found.”
Bell nodded.
The Crown had not merely transported victims.
It had erased identities.
Some children had been trafficked.
Others had been stolen from families connected to witnesses, debts or political leverage.
Ronan turned a page.
Then stopped.
One certificate bore the name:
POPPY ELEANOR COLE.
Sadie snatched it.
The birth date was correct.
Mother: Sadie Cole.
Father:
CHARLES HAWTHORNE.
Sadie nearly dropped the paper.
“What the hell is this?”
Bell stared.
Ronan understood first.
“A replacement identity.”
Elias had prepared a false trail.
If Sadie were killed, records could be used to make Poppy appear legally connected to Hawthorne.
Why?
Then Sadie saw the handwritten note clipped behind it.
IF THEY FIND HER, MAKE THEM THINK SHE BELONGS TO THEM.
Elias.
Sadie closed her eyes.
He had created one final layer of protection.
Charles Hawthorne wasn't hunting Poppy because she possessed evidence.
He was hunting her because his own organization had records identifying her as his daughter.
Ronan's expression became terrifyingly calm.
“They think she belongs to Charles.”
“No,” Sadie whispered.
“They think she can prove he participated.”
The forged certificate contained Charles's real signature.
Dated seven years earlier.
If authenticated, it placed Charles directly inside the identity-laundering operation.
That was what he wanted destroyed.
A shot cracked outside.
One security officer fell.
Ronan pulled Sadie behind the lighthouse wall.
More shots.
Charles's men had followed them.
Bell grabbed the case.
They escaped through an old maintenance tunnel leading to the rocks.
A boat waited offshore.
Ronan pushed Sadie aboard.
“Where's Bell?”
She turned.
The tunnel entrance exploded.
“BELL!”
Smoke swallowed the rocks.
Ronan held her back.
Then someone emerged.
Bell.
Bleeding.
Still carrying the case.
Sadie laughed and cried simultaneously.
“You stubborn old man.”
Bell collapsed into the boat.
“I learned from Elias.”
They returned to Raven Hill.
Federal agents took possession of the documents.
Charles Hawthorne disappeared before they could arrest him.
That evening, Poppy climbed into Ronan and Sadie's bed.
She rarely did that anymore.
“Mommy?”
“Yes?”
“Was Daddy scared when I was born?”
Sadie smiled sadly.
“He wasn't there.”
Poppy's face fell.
“He died before you were born.”
“I know.”
“But he was scared before that.”
“Why?”
“Because he loved you.”
Poppy considered this.
Then she looked at Ronan.
“Are you scared?”
Ronan answered without hesitation.
“Every day.”
“Because you love me?”
“Yes.”
She crawled between them.
“That's okay.”
Within minutes she was asleep.
Sadie rested her head on Ronan's shoulder.
“We're going to win this.”
Ronan looked at Poppy.
“No.”
Sadie raised her head.
“We're going to end it.”
Across Ashport, Charles Hawthorne watched Raven Hill through a live satellite feed.
Beside him stood a woman nobody in the Cain family had seen in twenty years.
She looked at Sadie's photograph.
Then at Poppy's.
Charles asked:
“Does Ronan know you're alive?”
The woman smiled.
“No.”
“And Elias?”
May you like
Her smile disappeared.
“Elias died believing I was dead.”
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