Then he climbed into the passenger side of his own rental truck and slammed the door.
Emily stood outside for a moment.
Then walked around and got into the driver's seat.
They sat in silence.
Rain drummed against the windshield.
Daniel stared straight ahead.
"Start talking."
Emily folded her hands together.
For nearly a minute, she said nothing.
Then she whispered, "His name is Marcus Reed."
Daniel waited.
"His biological mother was Tiana Reed."
The name meant nothing to him.
"She was twenty-eight. She worked at County General."
Emily's voice trembled.
"I met her two years ago."
Daniel turned.
"Two years?"
Emily nodded.
"You've been raising him for two years?"
"No."
"How long?"
"Eleven months."
Daniel looked away.
Eleven months.
Nearly a year.
Almost an entire year in which his wife had become a mother without telling him.
"Who was his father?"
Emily's eyes lowered.
"Sergeant Elijah Reed."
That name did mean something.
Daniel knew it immediately.
He had not seen Elijah in almost eight years.
But he remembered him.
Every soldier remembered the people who had stood beside them during the worst days of their life.
Elijah Reed had been one of them.
Daniel felt his stomach drop.
"No."
Emily said nothing.
Daniel turned sharply.
"No."
Elijah Reed had served with Daniel during his second deployment.
He was tall, loud, fearless, and endlessly irritating.
He sang badly during vehicle maintenance.
He cheated at cards.
He could fall asleep anywhere.
And on one afternoon in Kandahar, when Daniel had been twenty-seven and stupid enough to think death always happened to someone else, Elijah Reed had dragged him out of a burning vehicle.
Daniel still carried the scar along his ribs.
Elijah carried far worse.
He left the Army two years later.
Daniel had heard he moved south.
They lost touch.
"Marcus is Elijah's son?"
Emily nodded.
Daniel stared through the windshield.
Memories returned without permission.
Smoke.
Heat.
Metal.
Elijah shouting his name.
A hand grabbing the back of his vest.
Daniel coughing blood in the dirt.
"What happened to Elijah?"
Emily's voice broke.
"He died."
Daniel closed his eyes.
"When?"
"Two years ago."
"How?"
"Car accident."
Daniel opened his eyes.
"And Marcus's mother?"