CHAPTER 2 – The Man Who Was Supposed to Be Dead
The next morning...
Emma drove three hours through heavy rain toward the abandoned lighthouse.
The road ended at rusted iron gates covered in vines.
No cars.
No lights.
No sign of life.
She almost turned back.
Then she noticed fresh footprints in the mud.
Someone had been here recently.
Inside the lighthouse everything was silent except the crashing waves.
Dust covered the stairs.
Old furniture lay broken across the floor.
Then...
She heard a voice.
"I wondered how long it would take you."
Emma spun around.
An elderly man slowly stepped from the shadows.
Gray beard.
Weathered face.
A noticeable limp.
But his blue eyes...
They looked hauntingly familiar.
The man smiled sadly.
"You look exactly like your mother."
Emma's stomach dropped.
"You knew my mother?"
"I loved her."
Silence.
Her heartbeat thundered in her ears.
"My father told me she died before I was born."
The old man nodded.
"That was the first lie."
Emma took a cautious step backward.
"Who are you?"
He reached into his coat.
For one terrifying second she thought he was pulling out a weapon.
Instead...
He held out half of a torn photograph.
The missing half.
It matched the piece her father had destroyed.
When Emma placed the fragments together...
A hidden sentence appeared across the fold.
"Daniel, Rose... protect Emma until I come home."
Emma looked up, unable to breathe.
The old man's eyes filled with tears.
"My name is Michael Hayes."
"I was declared dead in 1996."
"But I never died."
"I spent thirty years trying to come home."
Emma whispered,
"That's impossible..."
Michael slowly removed an old military dog tag from around his neck.
On the back was engraved one date.
Emma's birthday.
Then he said the words that shattered her reality forever.
"Richard Carter isn't your father."
A cold silence swallowed the room.
Emma felt the ground disappear beneath her feet.
Before she could speak...
The lighthouse windows exploded inward.
Armed men stormed inside.
One of them shouted,
"Take the old man alive!"
Another pointed directly at Emma.
May you like
"And don't let the girl escape this time."
To be continued...
