Chapter 8 - Vincent Offered Me My Father’s Life in Exchange for the Only Password I Remembered
Vincent stepped from the shadows.
His pistol was gone.
Two officers immediately raised theirs.
He lifted empty hands.
“I came to negotiate.”
Reyes ordered him to the ground.
Vincent smiled.
“Arrest me, and you'll never find her father.”
My mother began to cry.
I felt nothing at first.
Only a terrible quiet.
“My father is alive?”
Vincent looked straight at me.
“For now.”
Reyes cuffed him anyway.
At the station, Vincent demanded a lawyer.
He refused to answer questions.
Then he sent me a message through counsel.
One password.
One location.
One living father.
Gabriel listened from his hospital bed.
His voice was stronger.
“Don't give him the password.”
“That's easy for you to say.”
“No,” he replied.
“My father died because I trusted him.”
I sat beside the bed.
Gabriel took my hand.
He didn't tell me what to do.
That mattered more than I expected.
“I need to find him,” I whispered.
“Then we find him lawfully,” Gabriel said.
Mara entered with an envelope.
Inside was a letter from my father.
It had been delivered to her years earlier.
The final sentence was underlined.
THE PASSWORD IS NOT THE MEMORY.
IT IS THE PROMISE.
I read it three times.
May you like
Then I remembered the words my father had whispered.
“Always bring them home.”
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