"I looked into him after Ethan warned about Rupert Maxwell," Daniel said quietly. "The stalker had used a fake identity and an address that led nowhere. Nothing matched. Then your mother was attacked, and we discovered the person behind it was a woman."
He did not skip a single detail. Daniel told her everything Shawn had already disclosed, holding nothing back this ti.
There was no reason to shield her anymore. Collin had been found, and now their goal was the sa. They needed to know who Collin Fort really was and why he was targeting Anna’s family.
Anna listened in silence before letting out a slow breath. She rembered how determined she had been to confront Collin herself, yet fear had lingered in her chest the entire ti. The what ifs. The possibility that he might hurt her.
Luckily, he hadn’t.
"Collin surrendered to right away," Anna said, her voice breaking the quiet.
Daniel’s brows knitted together sharply. "He surrendered?" He stared at her in disbelief. "But you didn’t go alone. You took the police with you. How did that happen?"
The shock was evident. Collin had erased every trace of himself so thoroughly that even locating him had been nearly impossible. The idea that he would simply give himself up did not sit right.
"That’s what’s been bothering ever since," Anna admitted. "I’m sure he was planning to flee. He was ready. I could see it. Maybe he sensed sothing, or maybe he panicked. But if I hadn’t arrived when I did, we might have lost him again."
The strain in her voice made Daniel pull her into his arms, holding her close.
"I never ant to hide anything from you, wifey," he murmured against her hair. "But things weren’t simple. Everything I did was to protect you."
Daniel knew he was not being entirely honest with Anna. There were pieces of his past he was still not ready to expose, truths he kept locked away even as he stood holding her. Yet seeing the strain on her face made his chest tighten, and all he wanted in that mont was to shield her from whatever was weighing her down.
He could feel it. If Anna had co back to him with questions, questions Shawn had already partially answered, then sothing deeper was troubling her.
Anna held him just as tightly, trying to steady her own emotions. They might have caught Collin, but an unease lingered in her heart, sharp and persistent, refusing to fade.
"But he isn’t saying anything," she said softly as she pulled back, her eyes searching Daniel’s face. "It’s like he surrendered... but he’s not ready to open up."
"And that’s what’s bothering you?" Daniel asked, lifting a hand to caress her cheek.
She didn’t respond. She didn’t need to. The silence spoke louder than words ever could.
Daniel exhaled slowly, his expression hardening just a fraction. "Do you want us to take a harsher approach?" he asked carefully. "We can make him talk."
The words hung between them, heavy with implication.
"Why does everyone want to be so hard on him?" Anna asked quietly, her voice tinged with frustration as Kathrine’s words from the previous night echoed in her mind.
"Everyone?" Daniel frowned slightly. "Who else is pushing for a harsher approach?" he asked, genuinely unsure who she was referring to besides himself.
"Katherine," Anna blurted out. "She wanted to beat the hell out of him the mont he refused to talk."
Daniel went still for a mont.
"Kathrine knows about Collin?" Daniel asked.
The mont the words left his mouth, it hit Anna like thunder.
Daniel had always believed he was the only one digging into Collin’s trail. Hearing her ntion Kathrine made everything click at once, and his expression shifted from confusion to suspicion.
"Anna," he said slowly, tightening his hold around her, "what are you hiding?"
She instinctively tried to step back, but he was quicker, pulling her closer as if he already knew she was plotting an escape. His eyes searched her face, alert now, sharp.
At this point, Daniel knew her too well. When cornered, Anna always tried to deflect, joke, or flee.
She let out a small, nervous laugh. "Hiding?" she said lightly. "? Nothing."
Daniel raised an eyebrow, clearly unconvinced. "That laugh tells otherwise."
She shrugged, still trying for casual, even as her fingers curled into his shirt. "You’re imagining things."
He didn’t buy it for a second. "Then I might have to make you speak."
This ti, Anna lifted her head and t his gaze. The teasing was gone from his eyes, replaced by sothing deeper and more searching.
Kathrine’s warning echoed in her mind, but she found herself stuck between her sister’s caution and Daniel’s quiet insistence. One used concern. The other used trust.
"She knows," Anna muttered at last, sounding like a child admitting to mischief. "Because I told her."
Daniel’s lips curved into a slow smile, though sothing about it made her nervous. "And how did you find out, my dear wifey?" he asked gently.
Anna swallowed hard. She looked away, her fingers unconsciously tracing small circles on his chest. "I... I sneaked into Dad’s study that day," she admitted softly. "When I went to visit Mom."
She glanced up at Daniel with an almost innocent expression, as if bracing herself for a reaction.
To her surprise, he did not look shocked. Not even annoyed. After all, his wife had always had a habit of sneaking into places she was not supposed to be.
What did catch his attention, however, was sothing else entirely.
Hugo Bennett.
Daniel’s eyes darkened slightly as the pieces began to align in his mind. How did Hugo have Collin’s details in the first place? And why were they being kept hidden?
His hand stilled against her back. "Your father had information on Collin?" he asked quietly, the weight behind his words unmistakable.
Anna nodded faintly, her voice barely above a whisper. "That’s what scared ."
"Why?" Daniel asked quietly. "Because your father wouldn’t approve?"
Anna nodded. "Yes. But there’s more." She hesitated, then added in a lower voice, "I’m scared of the things I wasn’t supposed to know. About him."
Daniel understood instantly. It was the sa fear he carried. Sohow, both of them had ended up unearthing a past her family had buried for years.
"But I still don’t understand why Kathrine didn’t want to know," he said after a mont. "Does she not trust ?"
Anna pressed her lips into a thin line, avoiding his gaze.
That was answer enough.
At that mont, Daniel realized sothing important. Kathrine had planted doubt in Anna’s mind, or at least enough caution to make her hesitate. Otherwise, Anna would never have kept sothing like this from him for so long.
He exhaled slowly. "I won’t bla her," he said at last. "After everything that happened, maybe she’s wary of my involvent with your family."
Anna blinked, surprised by his restraint. She studied him closely, sensing the shift in the air, subtle but unmistakable.
"You’re... not angry with us?" she asked carefully.
Daniel t her gaze, his expression unreadable. "Only because you’re standing here, safe, in front of ," he said calmly.
Then his eyes darkened.
"If it had been the other way around," he continued evenly, "I would have destroyed everyone involved."
Anna’s heart slamd against her chest at the cold certainty in his voice.
"S-she didn’t an any harm," she rushed to say, instinctively trying to defend her sister.
But even as the words left her mouth, she knew the truth.
Daniel wasn’t speaking out of hurt. He was furious. And that was far more dangerous.
***
The police station was heavy with tension.
Inside the interrogation room, Collin sat unmoving, his hands cuffed to the table, his expression blank. The officer across from him had tried everything. Calm reasoning. Sharp questioning. Even intimidation.
Nothing worked.
"Collin Fort," the officer said for the third ti, voice strained, "you are being questioned in connection with Kira’s murder. If you have anything to say, now would be the ti."
Silence.
Not a flicker of emotion crossed Collin’s face. His eyes remained fixed on the table, jaw clenched, as if he had built a wall no one could break through.
Minutes stretched into an hour. Still nothing.
With a frustrated sigh, the officer stood and stepped out of the room.
The mont the door opened, he was t with Kathrine.
Her face was flushed with anger, eyes sharp and unyielding. "Is he talking?" she demanded without preamble.
The officer hesitated, then shook his head. "No, ma’am. He hasn’t said a word. Not about Kira. Not about anything."
The disappointnt on her face was instant, quickly giving way to rage. Her hands clenched at her sides as she glanced toward the interrogation room.
"So he’s still playing mute," she said coldly.
"Miss Kathrine, you can’t—" the officer began, but she was already moving.
Before anyone could stop her, she shoved the door open and stord into the interrogation room.
Collin finally looked up.
Kathrine slamd her palms on the table, leaning forward until her face was inches from his.
"Enough," she snapped. "You don’t get to stay silent anymore."
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