Samuel stepped forward.
“What did she give you?”
Lila backed away.
“Nothing.”
Samuel's voice hardened.
“Don't lie to me.”
Colton moved between them.
“She doesn't answer to you.”
Samuel looked at him with cold amusement.
“You think you can protect her?”
“Yes.”
“You couldn't protect Mara.”
The words struck exactly where Samuel intended.
Colton lunged.
Darren caught his arm.
“Not here.”
Colton forced himself to stop.
Samuel smiled.
“Still easy to provoke.”
“Why did Mara disappear?” Colton asked.
“Because she thought she could beat me.”
“And the fire?”
Samuel's eyes narrowed.
“What about it?”
“Did you start it?”
For the first time, his father looked genuinely angry.
“You know nothing about that night.”
“Then tell me.”
Samuel stepped closer.
“The people in that safe house were supposed to be moved before sunrise. Someone changed the schedule. Someone gave the wrong address. Your sister was there.”
“But she didn't start the fire.”
Samuel said nothing.
Colton understood.
“You did.”
His father looked away.
“That fire was necessary.”
“Necessary?”
“To protect the operation.”
“Two officers died.”
“They knew the risks.”
“And the civilian witness?”
Samuel's face became unreadable.
“Collateral damage.”
Colton stared at the man who had raised him.
He remembered being twelve years old, sitting on the kitchen floor while Samuel repaired a broken toaster. He remembered his father teaching him how to change a tire. He remembered the first time Samuel took him to a motorcycle race and bought him a soda afterward.
He remembered those moments because he had spent years trying to prove that there had been something good in the man.
Now he wondered whether he had mistaken occasional kindness for love.
Lila's voice interrupted his thoughts.
“I know where Mommy put the key.”
Samuel turned sharply.
“What key?”
“The one you wanted.”
Colton moved in front of her, but she continued.
“It's inside Bunny.”
Samuel's expression changed.
For a moment, the old man looked almost triumphant.
Then Darren moved.
Everything happened at once.
One of Samuel's men reached for Lila. Darren intercepted him, knocking his arm aside. Colton grabbed the child and turned toward the back door as a chair crashed against the wall.
A gunshot cracked through the trailer.
The sound was deafening.
Colton felt Lila bury her face against his shoulder.
“Don't look,” he told her.
He carried her through the back door and ran across the yard.
Darren followed moments later.
They reached the truck.
Colton shoved Lila into the passenger seat, climbed behind the wheel, and started the engine before Darren had fully closed his door.
The truck tore away from the trailer.
A second vehicle appeared behind them.
Then a third.
“Where are we going?” Darren demanded.
“The orchard.”
“That's where Samuel is going!”
“Exactly.”
Colton accelerated onto the dirt road.
The old Hayes property had belonged to their grandmother. After her death, ownership passed to Colton and Mara. He had never sold it, even when money became tight, because it was the last place that still felt like home.
The house had partially collapsed.
The orchard was mostly dead.
But one apple tree remained.
The tree where they had buried the time capsule.
Colton drove through a gap in the eastern fence and parked behind the ruined barn.
“Stay here,” he told Lila.
She immediately opened her door.
“No.”
“Sweetheart—”
“Mommy said I have to help.”
Darren sighed.
“She really is Mara's kid.”
Colton looked at him.
“Apparently stubbornness runs in the family.”
They crossed the field together.
Beneath the apple tree, Colton found the stone marker he remembered. He dropped to his knees and began digging with his hands.
The soil was dry and hard.
His fingers scraped against roots and small stones.
Then he struck metal.
The coffee tin emerged from the dirt, rusted and dented.
Colton opened it.
Inside were ruined photographs, a baseball card, a plastic necklace covered in silver stars, and several drawings made in Mara's childhood handwriting.
There was no ledger.
No flash drive.
Nothing that could explain why his father had risked everything to find it.
Colton stared into the empty tin.
“This can't be it.”
Lila picked up the necklace.
“Mommy has one like this.”
Colton looked at it.
Then memory returned.
Mara had always believed buried treasure needed two hiding places so pirates could not steal everything at once.
They had buried the time capsule beneath the apple tree.
But Mara had hidden something else beneath the porch.
Her music box key.
Colton stood.
“Under Grandma's porch.”
They ran toward the ruined house.
The porch had collapsed years earlier, leaving a tangle of rotted boards and broken stone.
Colton moved the debris aside, searching for the third support pillar.
Beneath it, he found a glass jar.
Inside lay a small black flash drive.
A label had been attached to it.
C.H.
His initials.
Colton removed it and stared at the tiny object.
They had found the insurance.
A voice spoke behind them.
“Thank you.”