Chapter 14
I t was only when New York was falling into darkness that I emerged from my room.
At night, I felt more like myself, perhaps because I was no longer as pure and pristine as I once was and the darkness hid the scars on my body and soul better than the day; I could only sleep in the early hours anyway.
I had showered and was wearing two layers of simple, classy clothes but I felt like I was wearing a disguise.
As I descended the curved staircase, I noticed that all of the expensive porcelain vases were filled with colorful flower bouquets.
The entire penthouse was saturated with the scent of velvety-sweet roses and salt-white lilies, surely a welcome home from Dad.
He wanted me to feel at home and perhaps he also wanted to take away the fear he saw in my eyes.
However, the flowers no longer calmed me like they used to.
I was afraid to face Dad and ask him the questions I had come to ask, yet I didn’t want to waste any more time. I also had a promise to keep.
When I entered the dining room, Dad was waiting. Amidst the baroque, red and gold furniture, he looked almost like a king. He was still wearing his suit, nothing comfortable like his Armani jogging suit, which he sometimes wore in the evenings to work from home. Or to watch TV.
“I’ve ordered a little something for us,” he said with an open smile, and for the first time, I noticed his ring of good-natured laugh lines.
“Anything you like…sit down.” He spoke as if I was a rare guest and this was a highly official occasion, and although I felt uncomfortable, I did as he asked.
I had to eat something, I knew that intellectually.
With a sinking feeling in my stomach, I looked at the artfully arranged food on the silver chafing dishes.
“Caramelized Kalamata olives, char, beef kidney caps, beets, braised potatoes, mushrooms and sour cream, and over there are lamb stew, sweetbreads, and a green tomato broth with toasted pine nuts. My dear friend Jacques was kind enough to deliver a selection from his menu.”
His dear friend Jacques ran a ridiculously expensive gourmet restaurant in Tribeca, New York, but all I could wonder at that moment was how many servings of potato casserole you could get for that price and how many people in Coldville it would feed. And for how long?
Dad sat next to me, which was odd since he usually sat at the head of the table, but it was even odder to see him filling the two plates, which was usually the job of the waitstaff.
He placed a truckload of lamb stew with braised potatoes and sour cream in front of me.
I had ordered that frequently from Jacques in the past whether it was on the menu or not.
“Eat, love. You look like you need it.” He put the napkin on his lap, picked up a knife and fork, and started to eat, I, however, could only stare at my steaming plate. The spiced meat smelled wonderful, but I was unable to touch anything.
“Dad,” I whispered, my insides clenching so painfully that I was afraid I would spit bile onto the table.
Tears involuntarily welled up in my eyes.
“Didn’t you search for me?” That was the most important, the most important question that had been weighing on my soul like a millstone for weeks and months.
Shocked, Dad stared at me for a few seconds before setting the cutlery aside. “Excuse me?”
“They said you refused to meet their conditions.” The lump in my throat was as hard as granite.
“And you believed that?” He sounded appalled. I remained silent, staring at the lamb stew on my plate.
“Of course I had them searching for you. We searched halfway around the world for you, child.”
“Who is we?” I asked, a hint of anger in my words. “Who was looking for me? You obviously didn’t tell the police…not even Franklin…or your security staff…”
“I was afraid for your life.” Now Dad’s voice was growing louder too, not out of indignation, but because he seemed terribly upset now.
“They threatened to kill you in a cruel way if I didn’t do what they asked.
I didn’t want to put you in danger. For heaven’s sake, Willa Rae!
Do you think I wouldn’t have them search for my only child if she was in danger? ”
Your only child? I thought bitterly, but asked, “So, who was searching for me?”
“The men from the Arrow Corporation, naturally. They’re the best.”
Now I was almost speechless. “One of your private military units?” As far as I knew, Arrow Corp was stationed in a buffer zone between Turkey and northern Syria to ensure peace there.
It was Dad’s pride and joy, support for the state-stationed troops and a showcase for his patriotism, which earned him many brownie points in the White House.
And naturally, with all the important government leaders, men who made decisions and signed papers.
With judges, prison directors, and company bosses.
But also with heads of committees and laboratories because secretly, according to Dad, the US military was dependent on such private armies.
“I assigned some of them, several mercenaries, including a former member of the Navy SEALs, two snipers, and a former fighter pilot.”
My jaw dropped. “And they couldn’t find me?”
“They were obviously looking in the wrong part of the world… Where were they keeping you? Where have you been for the past few weeks? The letter from that woman telling me you were alive came from El Paso, but it said you weren’t there.”
Should I tell him? I didn’t know what he would do then. I certainly didn’t want battle-hardened, ruthless mercenaries roaming the swamp looking for Raphael, Jack, Mrs. Durand, and one of the twins.
“I can’t…I don’t know for sure.” I thought of the two-story house. “I…I can’t talk about it.”
Dad turned pale. “What did they do to you, Willa?”
Didn’t he receive any photos? For a moment, I saw the flashes of the camera, felt the hard table beneath me, and the men’s burning gazes. My helplessness from back then rose up inside me, tightening my chest.
I stared at my lamb stew again. “What about Delilah?” I heard myself asking. “She was the only one who knew, right?”
“Yes.” Dad took a deep breath. “I begged her not to go to the police, but it was hard to convince her after those criminals threatened her niece.”
So they had only faked it. For a brief moment, I wondered if the shooter who supposedly had Dad in his sights had also been a complete fabrication, but it didn’t really matter anymore. “And how did you convince Delilah?”
“I bought her niece a new kidney.”
“You bypassed the donor list.”
“I gave a little girl a new life.”
My dad was a good rhetorician, just like Isaac had been. Obviously, there were two sides to everything, but another child might have lost their life because of it. Bitterness rose in me.
“Willa, honey, what’s wrong…are you mad at me? Should I have called the police? Could they have found you?” Dad sounded confused, downright helpless, I even felt sorry for him.
“I don’t know.” I picked up my fork and played with it. “Where was Arrow Corp searching for me?”
Dad looked genuinely surprised. “In Canada, of course.”
Canada! That was a shock. He knew a lot more than he had revealed so far.
I set the fork down again. “They told me your oil sands industry poisoned an entire village, all of its lakes, tributaries, and groundwater. They said it had cost countless lives and that the Hampton Oil Company had tampered with the reports. You had the reports tampered with…” I paused for a moment.
“Why didn’t you admit it was you? They would have released me after three weeks!
As soon as you had revealed everything, I would have been free.
Why didn’t you do it?” I said, leaving out the blindfold.
I sounded much harsher than intended because the real question burned with a completely different intensity: Why don’t you love me enough?
Dad suddenly sat in his seat as still as he had stood when he saw me in the hall. “Because I didn’t know anything about it,” he stated calmly after a few seconds. “I had no idea.”
My pulse twitched in my carotid artery. “You’re lying!” I snapped.
He didn’t even reprimand me even though I had never spoken to him like that before.
“Do you seriously believe that, Willa? Do you think I’m capable of that?
Child, look inside yourself and listen to your heart.
” He looked at me intently before frowning.
“What did they tell you? That’s just crazy!
Completely crazy! Why would I allow assessments to be manipulated when, as you say, it would cause catastrophic levels of destruction?
Don’t you think I have enough money? I could close the doors of the oil sands industry and still have billions.
Give me one reason why I would support something like that? ”
His words threw me completely off-balance.
“It…it…it’s your company. Someone must have done it.
And people are dying up there. Far too many people…
and you said you would turn yourself in…
that was what you told the kidnappers after they sent you the photos of me…
or…they sent photos…” He must have received the ones from the Agamemnon shortly after Isaac boarded it.
Dad closed his eyes for a moment. “Yes. And yes, I told them I would plead guilty,” he whispered, suddenly sounding terribly exhausted, as exhausted as I’d felt for months. “What would you have done if you’d received those pictures of me? Wouldn’t you confess to something you didn’t do?”
Irritated, I blinked. “Then why did you deny it at first?”
“Because it wasn’t me. I had no idea about the huge mess that happened up north near Coldville. I thought that if I was honest and found the real culprit, they would let you go. I even offered them money.”
I felt myself turning pale. He had offered Isaac money at the beginning, but Isaac hadn’t passed anything like that on to the others.