Chapter 3 - The Secret in the Floorboards
The words hung in the sterile hospital air like ice.
My father.
I had never had a father. There were no men in our photographs. There were no male clothes in our closets. There was only Mom, working late at night on her laptop, constantly checking the locks on our doors, moving us from one small town to another every two years.
"Why was Mom afraid of him?" I asked, my chest tightening.
"Because when she left him eight years ago, she took something with her," Agent Vance explained, leaning forward. "Not just you, Maya. She took proof of his entire illegal operation—encrypted hard drives that could put Sterling and his associates in prison for the rest of their lives."
"Did she hide them?"
"That's what we need to find out," Detective Miller interjected. "Your mother wrote in her letter that if anything happened to her, the key to protecting you and the twins was hidden inside your house. But Sterling’s men are likely on their way there right now."
"I know where it is," I said suddenly.
Both officers froze.
"Maya, what did you say?" Agent Vance asked carefully.
"Under my bed," I said, remembering the quiet nights when Mom thought I was asleep. "Mom used to pull up the rug when she thought I was sleeping. She used a butter knife to lift the floorboard near the wall. She called it her 'safety box'."
Agent Vance looked at Miller, nodding sharply. "We need to secure that house immediately."
"I'm going with you," I declared, pulling myself off the bed.
"No, Maya, it's too dangerous," Miller argued.
"I know which board it is!" I cried out, my small hands clenching into tight fists. "She carved three little hearts into the wood so I would know it was for us! You won't find it without me!"
May you like
Agent Vance looked at my bandaged feet, then at the fierce, unyielding determination in my seven-year-old eyes. She saw the same look she had seen in my mother’s mugshots eight years ago.
"Get her a pair of shoes," Agent Vance ordered Miller. "We move now."
