Chapter Eleven – The Confrontation
Claire sensed him before she saw him.
The air in the apartment felt disturbed, as if someone had been breathing in it too long. The silence was wrong—not empty, but waiting.
She stood just inside the doorway, keys still in her hand, her heartbeat loud enough to drown out thought. The lights were on. She never left them on.
"Daniel?" she whispered.
The name barely survived her throat.
A shape shifted near the window.
He stepped forward slowly, emerging from shadow into the dull glow of the lamp. Taller than she remembered. Thinner. His hair hung loose around his face, eyes too bright, too sharp.
Alive.
Claire's knees nearly buckled.
"You came back," he said calmly. "You always do. Eventually."
Tears blurred her vision. "I thought you were dead."
"I was," he replied. "Just not the way you think."
She moved toward him without realizing it, stopping only when he raised a hand.
"Don't."
The command was gentle—but absolute.
"I screamed for you," Daniel said. His voice didn't rise. That was worse. "You ran out. You didn't look back."
"I was a child," she sobbed. "I thought you were behind me. I thought—"
"You thought," he repeated. "I burned."
The word landed like a blade.
She shook her head violently. "I tried to go back. They held me down. They told me you were gone."
"They lied," Daniel said. "Father lied. Everyone lied."
"And you believed them?"
"I had no one else."
Silence stretched between them, thick with years of pain.
"I didn't want to hurt you," he said quietly. "I wanted you to remember me. To stop hiding."
"I never stopped loving you," Claire said. "Not for one day."
Something flickered across his face—grief, rage, longing.
Sirens wailed in the distance.
"They're coming," he said. "Mark called them."
Daniel stepped back. For the first time, fear crept into his eyes—not of capture, but of abandonment.
"I waited my whole life for you," he said.
She reached for him again—and this time, he let her touch his hand.
"I'm here now," she whispered.
When the police arrived, Daniel didn't resist.
As they led him away, he turned once more.
"Remember," he said. "That's all I ever wanted."