“I found the key.”
“Noah—”
Cole stopped.
The boy’s face had become stubborn in exactly the way Michael’s used to.
Sarah almost broke.
Cole crouched.
“Buddy.”
Noah looked at him.
“This might be something scary.”
“I know.”
“You don’t have to see everything to be brave.”
Noah swallowed.
“Is my dad in there?”
Cole closed his eyes.
“I don’t know.”
Noah’s voice cracked.
“Then I’m coming.”
Sarah wanted to refuse.
Every instinct screamed at her to take Noah home.
Lock the doors.
Call police.
Pretend the bell never existed.
Then another three knocks came from inside the steel door.
Not random.
Deliberate.
Someone was there.
Sarah looked toward the front gate.
Daniel was talking rapidly to one of the two men.
Cole saw.
“Phones.”
The bald biker nodded.
Several bikers took out phones.
One called police.
Another began recording.
Cole held up the key.
“Now we have witnesses.”
Daniel shouted from outside:
“Sarah, if you open that door, you put Noah in danger.”
Sarah stared at him across the garage.
“He’s already been in danger for six years.”
Daniel flinched.
She turned toward the locker.
Cole inserted the tiny key.
It fit.
He looked at Sarah.
Ready?
She nodded.
Cole turned it.
Click.
The locking mechanism released.
He grabbed the steel handle.
Pulled.
The door opened three inches.
A chain stopped it.
Cole frowned.
“Inside chain.”
Then a voice came from the darkness.
Rough.
Weak.
“Cole?”
Cole’s entire body stopped.
The voice was older.
Damaged.
But he knew it.
His face collapsed.
“No.”
Sarah could not breathe.
The voice came again.
“Cole.”
Noah stared.
Sarah whispered:
“Michael?”
Silence.
Then:
“Sarah?”
Her knees almost failed.
Cole caught her elbow.
Noah made a sound that was somewhere between a gasp and a sob.
The steel door opened another inch.
A hand appeared through the gap.
Scarred knuckles.
Thin fingers.
On one finger—
a pale indentation where a wedding ring had once been.
Sarah dropped to her knees.
“Michael.”
The hand reached.
“Sarah.”
Noah stepped forward.
“Dad?”
Everything stopped.
Even the men outside.
The hand froze.
Then began shaking.
A broken sob came from behind the door.
“Noah?”
The boy’s face crumpled.
Sarah could not stop him.
He rushed forward.
Cole caught him gently before he reached the chain.
“Wait.”
“We have to open it safely.”
“Dad!”
Behind the door, Michael began crying.
Not loudly.
The helpless sound of a man who had survived too long to imagine hearing his son again.
“Noah.”
“I’m here.”