Chapter 4 - The Husband I Mourned Was Alive in Europe, and Someone Had Kept Him Hidden for Two YearsWe flew to Prague.
Alessandro came.
Sofia came.
I carried David's ring.
The clinic was private.
Heavily guarded.
We entered through a service corridor.
A doctor met us.
“Mrs. Winters.”
“How do you know me?”
“David told us.”
I stopped.
“He was here?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Three weeks ago.”
My heart broke.
“You missed him.”
“No.”
The doctor opened a door.
David was inside.
Alive.
I forgot how to breathe.
He looked thinner.
Scarred.
Tired.
But alive.
His eyes opened.
“Catherine.”
I ran to him.
He stood.
We collided.
I held him so tightly he groaned.
“Sorry.”
“I don't care.”
“You're alive.”
“Yes.”
“I thought you were dead.”
“I know.”
I slapped his chest.
“You lied to me.”
“I know.”
“I buried you.”
“I know.”
“You left me alone.”
“I know.”
Then Logan ran toward him.
“Daddy!”
David dropped to his knees.
Logan jumped into his arms.
I cried.
David cried.
Sofia turned away.
Even Alessandro looked emotional.
David held his son.
“I'm sorry.”
Logan touched his face.
“Daddy was hiding.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because bad people were looking.”
Logan nodded.
“I knew.”
David laughed through tears.
“You did?”
“Yes.”
We sat together.
David explained.
He had been captured.
Thomas had staged his death.
A criminal associate had died in the accident.
David was kept in captivity.
He escaped.
Then spent years hiding.
“Why didn't you come home?”
“Because they were watching you.”
“You could have told me.”
“I tried.”
“How?”
“Letters.”
“I never got them.”
“Thomas intercepted them.”
I looked at him.
“You knew about the archive.”
“Yes.”
“What is it?”
David looked at Alessandro.
Then at me.
“Proof.”
“Of everything.”
“Names.”
“Accounts.”
“Orders.”
“Witnesses.”
“Deaths.”
“All of it.”
“Why is Logan involved?”
“Because the encryption is biological.”
“How?”
David explained.
His father had developed a security system using a genetic sequence.
Only someone carrying specific markers could unlock the archive.
David's son inherited the sequence.
Logan.
I looked at my three-year-old.
“He's a key.”
“He's a child.”
David nodded.
“Exactly.”
Thomas wanted to control him.
We needed to destroy the archive.
Or release it.
David looked at Alessandro.
“You promised.”
Alessandro nodded.
“I kept the promise.”
“What promise?”
David looked at me.
“To protect them.”
I felt something shift.
Alessandro wasn't helping for money.
He was honoring my husband's last request.
Then the clinic alarms sounded.
Someone had found us.
David grabbed my hand.
“We have to go.”
Men stormed the hallway.
Gunfire.
Doctors screamed.
We ran.
Alessandro fought.
Sofia led us through an underground passage.
We escaped into the street.
A black van waited.
We climbed inside.
David held Logan.
He looked at me.
“I am so sorry.”
“I know.”
“I wanted to come home.”
“I know.”
“Can you forgive me?”
I looked at him.
“I don't know.”
He nodded.
“I understand.”
“But I want to try.”
His eyes filled.
We drove into the night.
Behind us, the clinic burned.
May you like
Thomas had found us.
And he wasn't going to stop.
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