Chapter 6 - Anna Bennett’s Past
They moved us to a cabin outside Boston before sunrise.
It was small, hidden among pine trees, and had no internet, no cell service, and no visible neighbors.
Mara called it secure.
I called it a kidnapping cabin with nicer furniture.
Daniel arrived just after dawn.
His shoulder was bandaged. His knuckles were bruised. He looked exhausted enough to collapse, but the moment he saw Eli and Noah sleeping in a makeshift crib, his face softened.
“They’re okay?”
“They’re okay,” I said.
He nodded once, then looked at me.
“Are you?”
I laughed bitterly. “I have no idea.”
Mara handed him a folded piece of paper.
“The attacker had this too.”
Daniel opened it.
His expression changed.
“What is it?” I asked.
He gave it to me.
It was a photograph.
Of me.
Taken outside Ali’s Diner two weeks earlier.
In the photograph, I was taking trash to the alley.
Below it was a typed note:
ANNA BENNETT. FORMER FOSTER CHILD. NO FAMILY. NO PROTECTION.
My hands began shaking.
Daniel took the paper from me.
“They researched you,” I whispered.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because they want leverage.”
“I don’t have anything.”
“You have something now.”
I looked at the twins.
Daniel’s eyes met mine.
“They think you matter to me.”
The air shifted.
I hated that my heart reacted before my brain could stop it.
“We barely know each other,” I said.
“They don’t care.”
“Do you?”
Daniel looked away.
That answer hurt more than it should have.
Mara cleared her throat. “There’s something else. We ran background checks on Anna after the attack.”
I turned toward her. “You what?”
“Necessary precaution.”
“I’m not one of your employees.”
“No,” Mara said. “You’re a target.”
Daniel’s face darkened. “Mara.”
“She deserves to know.”
Mara placed a file on the table.
Inside were records from my childhood.
Foster placements.
School reports.
Medical notes.
A caseworker’s handwritten comment: Subject demonstrates resilience despite repeated displacement.
I wanted to throw the file into the fireplace.
Instead, I stared at the last page.
A name I had not seen in years.
Margaret Voss.
The woman who had been my foster mother from age thirteen to sixteen.
The woman who had hit me when no one was watching.
The woman who told social workers I was “troubled.”
The woman who had once said, Nobody will believe a girl like you.
Daniel saw my face change.
“You know that name?”
“She was my foster mother.”
Mara nodded grimly. “She now works for a private nonprofit that received funding through one of Hawthorne Holdings’ redevelopment programs.”
I stared at her.
“What does that have to do with Daniel?”
Daniel’s voice was low. “The nonprofit is connected to the money I found missing.”
My past.
His investigation.
The men hunting us.
They were connected.
And suddenly, I realized Daniel had not just brought danger into my life.
May you like
The danger had been waiting for me long before I met him.
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