“I never left because of her.”
“You left.”
“I was taken.”
The garage went silent.
Jack stared.
“What?”
Elena’s chest rose and fell.
“I was taken into emergency federal protection.”
He laughed again.
This time from disbelief.
“You expect me to believe—”
“I have documents.”
“I don’t care.”
“You should.”
“I care about seven years.”
“So do I!”
It was the first time she shouted.
Jack stopped.
Elena wiped tears angrily.
“You think I don’t count them?”
She stepped toward him.
“Seven birthdays.”
Another step.
“Seven Christmas mornings.”
“I wrote to her every year.”
Jack’s anger faltered.
“What?”
“I wrote every birthday.”
“No.”
“I did.”
“She never got anything.”
“I know.”
“How?”
Elena looked toward the interior door.
Then back.
“Because the man assigned to protect me was working for the people I was testifying against.”
Jack stared.
The story sounded impossible.
Then again, Elena stood in his garage after seven impossible years.
She took a breath.
“Before Sophie was born, I worked at Halcyon Financial.”
Jack remembered.
A regional investment company downtown.
Elena had been a junior forensic accountant.
She handled compliance reviews.
He had teased her because she could make dinner conversation about payment ledgers somehow sound interesting.
“I found transfers.”
Jack said nothing.
“Shell companies. Political payments. Money going through construction firms that didn’t exist.”
Her voice steadied as she spoke.
“The federal investigation had already begun. I agreed to cooperate.”
“You never told me.”
“I was legally restricted.”
“You were my wife.”
“We weren’t married yet.”
“Partner. Whatever.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
Jack laughed bitterly.
“That phrase keeps doing damage tonight.”
Elena nodded.
“I know.”
She continued.
“One of the executives found out.”
“Who?”
“Vincent Rourke.”
Jack remembered the name.
Halcyon’s founder.
He had been convicted four years earlier in a federal racketeering case.
National news for two weeks.
Jack had watched it while making Sophie cereal.
He had never connected it to Elena.
“Rourke threatened Sophie.”
Jack’s body stiffened.
“What?”
“He knew her daycare.”
The garage became very quiet.
“He sent me a photograph of her playground.”
Jack’s stomach turned.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I tried.”
She started crying again.
“The night I disappeared, I was supposed to meet you at the diner.”
Jack remembered.
He had waited forty minutes.
Called seventeen times.
Then the police contacted him the next morning.
Her car had been found abandoned near the interstate.
No blood.
No body.
No Elena.
“I never made it.”
“What happened?”
“A truck hit my car two blocks from work.”
Jack stared.
“It wasn’t an accident.”
She shook her head.
“Federal agents pulled me out before Rourke’s people reached the wreck.”
Her fingers moved toward the side of her jaw.
Jack suddenly noticed the faint line near her ear.
A scar hidden beneath makeup.
“I spent eleven days in a hospital under another name.”
He looked at her face.