Emma stared.
Chapter 3
PART 3 — THE LETTER THAT TURNED EVERYTHING UPSIDE DOWN
559 words
The retired general approached slowly.
Hayes moved instinctively between him and Emma.
“What are you doing here?”
Voss smiled faintly.
“Same thing you are.”
His eyes moved to Emma.
“Watching history repeat itself.”
Emma’s skin went cold.
“You knew my father?”
Voss stared at her.
“Better than anyone.”
Hayes snapped, “You don’t speak to her.”
Voss ignored him.
“Your father was the finest marksman I ever commanded.”
Emma held the photograph tightly.
“You sent him on the mission where he disappeared.”
Voss stopped.
“Is that what Nathan told you?”
Hayes stepped forward.
“Enough.”
Voss looked amused.
“Still protecting yourself?”
Emma turned toward Hayes.
“What does he mean?”
Hayes’s jaw tightened.
“He’s manipulating you.”
Voss reached into his coat.
Reed immediately moved.
“Hands where I can see them.”
Voss slowly produced an envelope.
Old.
Yellowed.
Sealed.
Emma stared.
Hayes’s face drained of color.
Voss held it out.
“Daniel Carter’s letter.”
Emma
whispered, “Colonel Hayes said he destroyed it.”
Voss’s eyes never left Hayes.
“He destroyed a decoy.”
Silence swallowed the range.
Emma took the envelope.
Her name was written across the front.
EMMA.
The handwriting trembled slightly.
Her fingers shook as she opened it.
Inside was one page.
She read.
Emma, if you ever see this, then someone has finally told you I disappeared.
Her vision blurred.
She continued.
Do not trust the man carrying my photograph.
Emma slowly lifted her eyes.
Hayes looked stricken.
“No.”
She read further.
Nathan Hayes knows what happened to me because Nathan Hayes planned it.
The world seemed to stop.
Reed turned toward the Colonel.
Hayes whispered, “Emma, listen to me.”
She stepped backward.
Voss said nothing.
Emma read the final paragraph.
General Voss tried to protect me. Hayes was the officer falsifying readiness reports. I discovered he had altered documents to blame Voss. If
I vanished, Hayes would eventually become powerful enough to rewrite everything.
Emma lowered the paper.
Her eyes filled with fury.
“You lied.”
Hayes shook his head.
“That letter isn’t complete.”
“You lied about my father.”
“Emma—”
“You carried his photograph for twenty years.”
Hayes’s voice broke.
“Because I loved him.”
That silenced everyone.
Voss’s expression shifted.
Even Reed looked stunned.
Hayes stared at Emma.
“Daniel was my brother.”
Emma’s face emptied.
“What?”
“Half-brother.”
Hayes swallowed.
“Different fathers. Same mother.”
Emma looked between them.
“Then you’re my uncle.”
Hayes nodded once.
“And the letter?”
“True.”
The confession seemed to tear something out of him.
“I falsified the reports.”
Reed stared.
“Colonel…”
“I was young. Ambitious. Terrified.”
Hayes looked at Emma.
“Daniel found out.”
“What did you do to him?”
“I sent his team into an operation meant to frighten him into silence.”
Emma whispered, “And he died.”
Hayes’s eyes filled.
“No.”
Voss spoke quietly.
“This is the part he never learned.”
Emma turned.
Voss pointed toward the far end of the range.
A lone maintenance worker stood near the berm.
Gray-haired.
Older.
Wearing plain work clothes.
He had been there all morning.
Emma had seen him hundreds of times.
Sweeping brass.
Repairing target mechanisms.
Avoiding everyone.
The man began walking toward them.
Slowly.
Emma stared.
His face came into focus.
Same gray-blue eyes.
Same jaw.
Her knees nearly gave out.
The maintenance worker stopped ten feet away.
Tears filled his eyes.
“Hi, Em.”
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