Chapter 7
Mac ran through the lab, desperately trying to find Stella before she could tell someone. He eventually found her, sitting on the wooden bench in the locker room. Mac sat down beside her.
"It's not how it looks, Stella -"
"I thought we had something, Mac. I thought that you actually cared about me."
"I don't love her, Stella."
"So it's just another meaningless fling, and you're just going to hurt her, the way you've hurt me?"
"You don't understand. Lindsay's my daughter."
Stella looked up in shock at Mac. He had never mentioned that he had any children, just that he had a wife who had died a few years ago in the 9/11 attacks.
"She's not my only one. I have two other kids, Reed and Anna. Anna and Lindsay are only my adopted children though. Their parents were killed when Lindsay was six. I could never bring myself to mention them because they reminded me of Claire and I thought that you would all think of me differently," he explained.
"Why would you think that?" asked Stella. "Nobody would think of you differently because you had kids. In fact, we'd probably respect you more."
Mac felt like an idiot for not telling anybody. Of course they wouldn't think of him differently, they were like his second family…
His cellphone rang.
"Taylor."
"I have to admit, Detective, she's a tough one. Gets it from her Daddy," said a cold male voice.
The shock and realisation hit Mac like a tonne of bricks.
"Who are you, and what have you done with Lindsay?"
The man on the other end laughed manically. "It doesn't matter. When I've finished with her, all you'll need to know is the number of a good funeral home."
"If you lay a finger on her -"
"She was smart, all those years ago, hiding in that damn closet. Still, what's done is done. Once I get my hands on that bratty little sister of hers, the Monroe fortune will be mine. And there's nothing you or anybody can do to stop me." He hung up, leaving Mac only slightly more informed than he had been two minutes previously.
"What is it?" asked Stella, seeing the concern on Mac's face.
"Some sick guy has my daughter," said Mac. "And believe me, I will not stop at anything until he is sitting in a prison cell waiting for execution."
