Chapter 14 - Harper’s Father
Harper knew almost nothing about her father.
His name was Benjamin Queen.
He died when Harper was six.
At least that was what her mother told her.
A car accident.
No photographs beyond a few family pictures.
No relatives.
No stories.
Whenever Harper asked, her mother changed the subject.
Agent Price searched the name.
Nothing significant appeared.
Then Gabriel asked a different question.
“What was his full legal name?”
Harper thought.
“Benjamin Elias Queen.”
Marcus searched old corporate records.
Twenty minutes later, he found something.
Benjamin Queen had worked as an accountant.
Not for a bank.
Not for an ordinary company.
For Ashford Shipping.
Gabriel stared at the screen.
“My father’s company.”
Harper felt the room tilt.
“My dad worked for your family?”
“For less than a year.”
Marcus opened archived payroll files.
“He left in nineteen ninety-nine.”
Harper calculated.
“Three months before he died.”
Gabriel’s expression hardened.
Rebecca asked the obvious question.
“Accident?”
Harper suddenly knew the answer.
“No.”
Everyone looked at her.
“My mother always said accident.”
Her voice shook.
“But I remember the funeral.”
She had not thought about it in years.
“There was no body.”
Agent Price leaned forward.
“What?”
“My mother said the car burned.”
Harper covered her mouth.
“I was six.”
She looked at Gabriel.
“I never questioned it.”
Federal investigators reopened old records.
Benjamin Queen’s death certificate existed.
But there was no police collision report.
No hospital record.
No coroner’s file.
The certificate had been signed by a physician who died fifteen years earlier.
His office records were gone.
Gabriel searched his father’s private archives.
At midnight, Marcus found a handwritten ledger.
One line included Benjamin Queen’s initials.
BQ - AUDIT.
Next to it were three words.
FOUND HALE PAYMENTS.
Harper stared.
“My father knew.”
Gabriel nodded slowly.
“He found police payments thirty years ago.”
The room became silent.
This network had existed longer than any of them realized.
Harper’s father discovered it.
He disappeared.
Isabella discovered it.
She died.
Emily discovered it.
She disappeared.
Now Harper had accidentally uncovered the same secret.
No wonder Derek had watched her before they met.
No wonder he chose her.
His relationship with Harper had never begun with love.
It had begun as surveillance.
She stood too quickly.
The chair fell backward.
Gabriel moved toward her.
Then stopped before touching her.
Harper appreciated that even now.
“He married me because of my father.”
Rebecca did not answer.
Nobody could.
“All those years.”
Harper’s voice broke.
“All those apologies.”
“All those promises.”
“He never loved me.”
Gabriel finally spoke.
“His reasons do not erase what you felt.”
Harper looked at him.
“They make me stupid.”
“No.”
“I married a man sent to watch me.”
“You married someone who lied to you.”
Gabriel’s voice hardened.
“The shame belongs to the liar.”
Harper turned away.
Noah appeared at the doorway.
He had been listening.
“Does this mean Dad didn’t die?”
Harper froze.
Noah called Benjamin Dad sometimes because their mother had raised Noah on stories of the father he never met.
Harper crouched.
“I don’t know.”
“Could he be alive?”
She looked at Agent Price.
He did not lie.
“It’s possible.”
Noah’s eyes widened.
Hope appeared.
Harper hated it.
Hope could hurt worse than truth.
Then Agent Price’s phone rang.
He answered.
His expression changed immediately.
“Where?”
Everyone watched.
Price ended the call.
“We found Thomas Nolan.”
Gabriel stood.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
Price looked at Harper.
“At a private hospital outside Worcester.”
“What happened to him?”
“He was admitted under a false name two days ago.”
May you like
Price paused.
“And before federal agents arrived, he asked to speak to Harper Queen.”
