Chapter 9 - The Last Ghost
The wedding preparations were nearly finished when a letter arrived.
From Victor.
Adrian did not want to read it.
Harper insisted.
Inside was one final confession.
Victor had never been the architect.
There had been someone above him.
A man called Samuel Cross.
The name meant nothing.
Until Harper saw the attached photograph.
Her father.
Alive.
Her heart stopped.
“My father?”
Adrian stared.
The man in the photograph was unmistakable.
Harper's father had disappeared when she was four.
She had been told he abandoned the family.
He hadn't.
He had been undercover.
Working with Rose.
Trying to expose Blue Lantern.
Arthur knew.
Adrian's father had helped him.
Harper's father had been hiding in witness protection.
Alive.
And now he wanted to come home.
Harper cried.
“Why now?”
Adrian answered:
“Because the danger is gone.”
They found him living under another name in Virginia.
When Harper saw him, she was thirty-two years old.
He looked older.
Tired.
But when he saw her, he cried.
“Harper.”
She ran into his arms.
All the anger.
All the questions.
All the years.
They came out at once.
“Why did you leave me?”
“I didn't.”
“Why didn't you come back?”
“I wanted to.”
“Why?”
“Because I thought you'd be safer.”
She cried against him.
“I needed you.”
“I know.”
Adrian stood at a distance.
Harper's father looked toward him.
“You're Arthur's son.”
“Yes.”
He nodded.
“Your father kept his promise.”
“What promise?”
“To protect my family.”
Harper looked at Adrian.
May you like
Her father smiled.
“You chose well.”
