PART 2 Three days before I was supposed to return to Boston, I walked into my family estate 3009 - Puretale

A gray coat.

A scar across his right hand.

The smell of peppermint on his breath.

And a voice that always became gentle whenever he spoke to her.

"He used to visit me at the clinic," she told Isaac the following morning. "I thought he was a doctor. He brought books and little toys. He told me stories about a girl who lived by the sea."

"His daughter?"

"I think so. He never said her name."

They were gathered in the upstairs apartment above Harbor Light Books. Outside, Salem was waking beneath a pale autumn sky. Inside, the four of them sat around a kitchen table crowded with coffee cups, old photographs, and documents.

Catherine Mercer had traveled from Boston early that morning, against her doctor's advice and Isaac's repeated protests. She insisted she had spent enough of her life waiting for other people to tell her when she was allowed to see her own daughter.

Evelyn had not yet called her Mom.

But she had made tea for her.

For Catherine, that seemed to be enough for now.

Isaac studied the notebook from Evelyn's grandmother.

"Why would Thomas have a daughter? Charles told me he died in prison."

"He did," Evelyn replied. "At least, that's what I was told. But I remember him talking about a little girl. He said she was brave, and that one day she'd understand why he had to leave."

Megan leaned forward.

"Could she have been connected to the foundation?"

"Possibly."

Isaac turned to the documents Daniel Cross had provided. A name appeared several times beside payments made by the Northstar Children's Trust.

Claire Vale.

"Here," he said. "There's a payment to a Claire Vale every month for almost six years. It stops the year Thomas died."

Evelyn looked at the page.

"That must be her."

"There's an address."

Isaac read it aloud. It belonged to a residential neighborhood outside Boston, but the records were old. They couldn't know whether Claire still lived there.

Catherine looked at the photograph of Robert and Thomas.

"Your father once told me that Thomas had a daughter," she said. "He said she was the reason Thomas refused to cooperate with Charles."

"Why would Charles threaten a child?" Megan asked.

"Because Charles believed every person had a price," Catherine answered. "And if the person himself couldn't be bought, he would find someone the person loved."

Isaac felt the familiar anger return.

It was easy to hate Charles.

What frightened him was how easily he could recognize the habits he'd inherited from the man: the instinct to command, the urge to solve every problem by controlling the people around him.

He had spent years believing that being feared was the same as being respected.

Now he was beginning to understand how much damage that belief had caused.

"I want to find Claire," he said.

Evelyn nodded.

"So do I."

Before they could leave, Catherine's phone rang. Her physician's name appeared on the screen.

She answered, listened for a few seconds, and turned away from the table.

When she finished, Isaac noticed the change in her expression.

"What is it?"

"Nothing we need to discuss right now."

"Mother."

She sighed.

"The latest tests weren't what we hoped."

The room became still.

"How bad?" Isaac asked.

Catherine folded her hands.

"The treatment isn't working as well as it did. My doctor wants to try another approach, but he can't promise it will help."

Isaac felt the walls closing in.

He had found his sister after decades of lies. He had begun to imagine a future in which the Mercer family might finally become something other than a collection of wounds.

And now he was being reminded that he could not bargain with time.

"We'll get another opinion," he said immediately. "I'll find the best specialists in the country."

Catherine looked at him with weary affection.

"You may help me find a doctor, Isaac. You may drive me to appointments and sit beside me when I'm frightened. But you cannot purchase a guarantee that I will live forever."

"I know that."

"Do you?"

He looked away.

Megan moved closer to him, but she didn't try to soothe him with promises she couldn't keep.

Catherine reached for his hand.

"I want to meet my daughter properly. I want to hear about her life. I want to know what books she loves, what makes her laugh, whether she takes her coffee with too much sugar."

Evelyn's mouth trembled.

"I do take my coffee with too much sugar."

Catherine laughed through her tears.

"Then we have something to discuss."

It was a small moment.

But Isaac recognized its importance.

His mother wasn't asking him to save her.

She was asking him to let her live.

That afternoon, Isaac and Megan drove to the address listed beside Claire Vale's name.

The house was modest, with a blue front door and a garden that had gone wild around the edges. A brass number hung crookedly beside the entrance.

No one answered their first knock.

On the second, a woman opened the door.

She was in her early thirties, with short dark hair and a guarded expression. When Isaac introduced himself, she immediately tried to close the door.

"I don't know you."

"We're looking for Claire Vale."

"She's not here."

"Are you Claire?"

"No."

Megan stepped forward gently.

"We found documents connected to your father, Thomas Vale. We believe he was involved in protecting a little girl named Evelyn Mercer."

The woman's face changed.

She looked over her shoulder toward the hallway.

Then she opened the door wider.

"My name is Claire Bennett," she said. "Vale was my father's name."

Isaac felt his pulse quicken.

"Did you know Evelyn?"

"I knew there was a girl he was trying to save. I was nine when he disappeared. After that, my mother told me never to speak about him."

"Why?"

"Because the people who destroyed him were still alive."

Claire led them into a small living room. On a shelf stood a photograph of a man with kind eyes and a scar across his right hand.

Thomas.

Claire stared at the picture for a moment before speaking.

"My father was a lawyer. He worked for Robert Mercer, and for a while he believed he could help change the company from the inside. Then he discovered what Charles was doing with the charitable accounts."

"Did he know Evelyn was alive?" Isaac asked.

"He found out when she was about seven. He tried to take her to her mother, but Charles had people watching the house. My father was arrested before he could reach them."

"Was he convicted?"

"On charges of fraud and embezzlement. The evidence was fabricated. He died in prison three years later."

Megan lowered her eyes.

"I'm sorry."

Claire gave a bitter smile.

"Sorry doesn't restore a father."

"No," Megan said. "It doesn't. But it can be the beginning of telling the truth."

Claire studied her, then nodded faintly.

She disappeared into a bedroom and returned with a sealed envelope.

"My father left this with a family friend. I received it when I turned twenty-one. I never opened it."

"Why not?" Isaac asked.

"Because the letter said that opening it would mean choosing between protecting his memory and risking the people who had destroyed him."

She placed it on the table.

"I thought keeping it sealed would keep me safe."

Isaac looked at the envelope.

"Maybe it kept you safe for a while."

Claire broke the seal.

Inside was a letter and a small photograph.

The letter was addressed to his father.

Robert,

If anything happens to me, do not let Charles convince the world that I abandoned my daughter. I did everything I could to protect her. The records I gathered prove where the money went, but the original ledger is only one part of the evidence.

There is another copy.

It is hidden where Evelyn first learned to read.

If you cannot find me, find her.

And if you cannot find her, find the person who has kept her safe.

The letter ended with a sentence written in a different hand, as though Thomas had added it later.

Trust the woman who sings.

Isaac looked at Evelyn's name in the letter.

"Where did you learn to read?" he asked her when they returned to the bookstore that evening.

Evelyn thought for a moment.

"At a small children's library in Boston. I don't remember the name. My adoptive mother used to take me there."

Catherine looked up.

"Was it the library attached to Harbor House?"

Evelyn went pale.

"I think it was."

The room fell silent.

Harbor House had been the place where Isaac's father and Thomas had tried to expose Charles. It had been the place where the box was hidden, where old records had survived beneath the floor.

And now they had another reason to return.

Isaac turned to Megan.

"We need to search the library."

She nodded.

Then Claire's phone rang.

She answered, listened, and slowly sat down.

"What happened?" Megan asked.

Claire looked at Isaac.

"My mother just called. Someone broke into her house."

"Was she hurt?"

"No. She wasn't there."

Claire swallowed.