“She did.”

“And you brought her back to him.”

“I told her Thomas wanted to talk.”

“Did he?”

“Yes.”

“What happened?”

“They argued.”

“About me?”

“About everything.”

Arthur’s composure finally cracked.

For the first time, I saw what nearly three decades of guilt looked like on a man’s face.

“He promised her she could leave the following morning,” Arthur said. “He promised nobody would interfere. I believed him.”

“But she never left.”

“No.”

“Because she became sick.”

Arthur looked directly at me.

“She was already sick, Daniel.”

The room became silent.

I frowned.

“What?”

“Your mother had been unwell for months.”

“Then why was she planning to run?”

“Because the doctors told her the treatment might not succeed.”

Something shifted inside me.

I had always believed my mother died because life had simply taken her away from me.

Now, suddenly, I could see her making plans.

Trying to gain time.

Trying to protect me before she ran out of her own.

“She knew?” I asked.

“She understood how serious it might become.”

Maria placed her hand over mine.

I didn’t move away.

Arthur continued.

“That was why she became desperate to remove you from the organization. She feared that once she was gone, your father would shape you into his successor.”

A humorless smile crossed my face.

“He did.”

“Yes.”

I looked back down at the letter.

There was more.

If I fail, there may come a day when you believe your father was the only person who ever truly loved you.

He loves you.

But love without freedom can become a cage.

Please remember that.

I swallowed hard.

Then I saw a name.

Gabriel Torres has risked more for us than he ever should have. If I cannot leave, I have asked him to watch over you from a distance.

Maria made a sound beside me.

Small.

Broken.

I continued reading.

He is young, and I do not know what his life will become. But he has a good heart. Trust people with good hearts, Danny. They are rarer than powerful men.

My vision blurred.

I lowered the page.

Maria was silently crying.

“She knew him,” she whispered.

“Yes.”

“She trusted him.”

Arthur nodded.

“Completely.”

Maria glanced toward the adjoining room, where Sofia remained asleep.

“My husband spent fourteen years refusing to explain why he sometimes vanished for hours. Why he kept old documents. Why he hated hearing Daniel’s name on television.”

She wiped her cheek.

“I thought he had become involved in something terrible.”

Arthur’s voice softened.

“He was trying to keep a promise.”