Chapter 21
Bear ran first.
We reached the waiting room as Daniel locked the opposite door.
Sophie stood behind him.
He had one hand on her shoulder.
“You people never learn,” he said.
Real deputies surrounded both exits.
Daniel held up a detonator.
“Back away.”
Bear studied his hand.
“There’s no signal light.”
Daniel glanced down instinctively.
Bear moved.
He crossed the room before Daniel could react and knocked the device away.
It was fake.
Sophie bit Daniel’s hand and ran to Emily.
Deputies arrested him.
As they dragged him past me, he whispered, “Richard lied about the father.”
At the hospital, a DNA test confirmed Daniel was not Sophie’s biological parent.
Emily finally told us the truth.
Before meeting Daniel, she had dated a young paramedic named Michael Reeves.
She ended the relationship after Richard claimed Michael stole money.
Emily discovered she was pregnant weeks later.
Daniel appeared, comforted her, and later produced a test saying he was Sophie’s father.
Richard had orchestrated the entire relationship.
Bear knew Michael.
They had served together in a disaster-response unit.
Michael disappeared ten years earlier after being accused of theft.
Bear had believed the accusation.
Now he understood why Richard mentioned him.
Michael had discovered Richard’s financial crimes.
The theft charge drove him out of Tennessee.
Jo located him in Montana.
We called.
A man answered.
When Emily spoke his name, he went silent.
Then Sophie said hello.
Michael began crying.
“I knew there was something Richard never told me.”
He promised to come immediately.
Before the call ended, a crash sounded on his side.
May you like
A stranger picked up the phone.
“Michael won’t be coming home.”
