A lot of questions will be answered in this chapter. You may not like some of the answers, but that's your opinion. This is what I've been waiting to write since the very beginning, so I really hope you enjoy this.

Zach and Cammie walked into Parker's Restaurant and found Emily right away. She was sitting at the back of the room holding a menu in her hand and pretending to look at it. Zach and Cammie sat in the two empty seats across from her.

Emily looked up and smiled at Cammie. "Hello, dear, you must be Cameron." She held out her hand. "You have your father's eyes."

Cammie shook Emily's hand and blushed. She had always loved her eyes.

"Now, enough small talk, I believe you two want some answers. So, let's start with Cammie. What would you like to know, dear?"

"I want to know about this." Cammie pulled out the picture of Emily and Chris.

Emily looked at the picture and smiled. "My, I haven't seen this picture in a long time." She looked up. "This was taken on the night of our school dance junior year. It was the closest thing to prom we ever got. I was 16, your dad was 17."

"Were you two going out?" asked Zach.

"Yes. We had been going out since eighth grade when Gallagher went to visit Blackthorne and I met him there."

"I thought my dad didn't go to Blackthorne."

Emily looked confused. "Yes he did. He didn't start until eighth grade, though."

"Oh," said Cammie. Her mom had told her that her father had never gone to Blackthorne. She must've lied. "So why did you guys stop going out?"

"To answer that question I have to start from the beginning. Your mother, Rachel, was my best friend up until freshmen year at Gallagher. My parents had died when I was little, so I had lived with the Camerons. Abby, Rachel, and I were inseparable.

"When we started Gallagher, I met Sarah Newman. We became friends, but Sarah and Abby couldn't stand each other. Eventually, Rachel and I had to choose who we would be friends with. Rachel chose her sister, but I chose Sarah."

Emily paused, but only for a moment. "That was freshmen year. It was also the first year that Blackthorne came to Gallagher. Rachel hadn't gone to Blackthorne the previous year so she hadn't met Chris yet. When Chris came to Gallagher, I could tell right away that Rachel had a crush on him. She flirted with him every chance she got, but he ignored her for the most part."

Emily drew in a shaky breath. She was getting to a sensitive part. "On the night that picture was taken," she pointed to the picture, "Sarah told me that one of the Blackthorne boys had told her Chris was cheating on me. I didn't believe her, so I went looking for Chris so he could tell me it wasn't true. I found him in a hallway making out with Rachel.

"Saying I was pissed would be an understatement. We were at Gallagher that year, so I ran away, even though I could hear Chris behind me, and hid in a secret passageway that only I knew about. I stayed there for an hour and just cried."

At this point, Cammie had tears in her eyes. She didn't understand how her mom could do this to someone. And how could her dad cheat on Emily? That was just wrong.

Emily continued. "Eventually, I got up and went back to the dance. Then I did the worst thing I could think of to get back at Chris. I made out with his best friend."

Zach cut in at this point. "Wait a second, wasn't his best friend Mr. Solomon?"

Emily nodded. "Yes. I made out with Joe Solomon in front of the entire school population. And we got in a lot of trouble, too."

"Was my dad angry?" asked Cammie.

"Yeah, he was pretty upset, but he understood why I did it. We decided that we couldn't have a relationship like that, so we broke up." She looked at the picture again. "You would've never guessed that if you looked at this picture, would you?"

"No," Cammie said quietly.

Emily looked at Cammie sympathetically. "I'm sorry, sweety." She covered Cammie's hand with her own. "It's always hard to hear about bad things your parents have done, but no one is perfect. We've all made mistakes."

Emily pulled her hand back and looked at the two people sitting in front of her. "I know you two are in love. I can see it in your eyes. Don't let this keep you apart. And learn from your parents' mistakes. You don't want to make them.

"Now," Emily sat back in her chair. "Is there anything else either one of you would like to know?"

"Where have you been for the last nine years?" asked Zach.

"I was going on a mission with Chris," Emily answered. "It was the first time I had seen him since graduation day when he came to see Rachel. Since we were two of the best spies, we were sent to infiltrate and destroy the COC headquarters, which was located in a small country in northern Africa. We got to the HQ, but were caught. We were locked in a room together and there was no way to escape."

Emily paused and looked at Cammie. "Cammie, sweety, about ten months after we left for the mission, your dad killed himself so that he wouldn't be forced to give up important information. I'm so sorry. He loved you very much."

Cammie couldn't breathe. She couldn't think. She never really believed that her dad would come home, but she always had a small spark of hope. Now she had nothing.

"Cammie," Zach asked, worried. "Are you gonna be okay? Do you want to go back?"

Cammie looked straight ahead, refusing to let the tears come. "No," she said. "I want to hear the rest."

So Emily continued. "After Chris's death, I was taken to a new place. I'm still not sure where I was, but it was somewhere in northern Africa. I was tortured and interrogated everyday for four years." She looked at her bruised arms. "I can still remember their faces, and that look in their eyes." She shuddered. "One thing you learn if you're ever captured by the enemy is that the bruises may fade, but the memories never will.

"But enough of that. Eventually, I was able to escape. I lived with a very nice woman for a couple of years and raised enough money to get a bus ticket to the CIA HQ in Africa. That was about a year ago. I wanted to send word that I was alright, but they were afraid my message would be intercepted by the COC, so they refused to let me. They healed my legs so that I wouldn't need to use wheelchair, and they closed up and disinfected most of my scars and wounds. Then I had to answer some questions and fill out a lot of paperwork. Then, finally, they let me come home."

Emily stopped and took a sip of the forgotten water in front of her. Then she said, "After that I came home to see Zach, and that's pretty much it. Any other questions?"

"Yeah, one more," Zach said. He leaned forward. "Mom, who is my father?"

Emily put down her water glass. "Zach, your father is-"

"What the hell is going on here!" said a very pissed off Rachel Morgan as she stormed into the restaurant. Right behind her was an angry Joe Solomon.

"Mom, calm down," said Cammie.

Rachel ignored her. She pointed at Emily murderously. "You stay away from my daughter."

"Why, hello, Rachel, it's been a long time since I've seen you. Care to join us?" Emily asked calmly.

"You leave my daughter alone. I don't care if you have been missing for nine years, that doesn't mean you can come back here and take children away from my school!"

"I'm sorry, Rachel, but Gallagher is not your school. In fact, if I remember correctly, you weren't even the top of the class. Who was that again? Oh yeah, me." Emily continued. "And Zach is my child, so I can do what I want. And Cammie came here on her own free will, I didn't force her to go anywhere."

Rachel was furious. She grabbed Cammie by the arm. "Come on, Cammie, we're leaving." Cammie didn't refuse.

Cammie looked at Emily and said, "Thank you for telling me about my father. I needed to hear the truth." Then she walked out of the restaurant followed by her mother.

It was just Zach, Emily, and Solomon now. Solomon said quietly, "Zach I think you should go back, too."

"But I-"

"I don't care if you need to know who your father is. Go back to school now." Joe looked very angry.

Zach left reluctantly. He had been so close to finding out who his father was and Solomon had ruined it.

When Zach left, Joe turned to Emily. "I can't believe you were about to tell him."

"Joe, he's old enough to handle it now. He needs to know."

"No, Emily! He doesn't need to know that his father was a double agent. He doesn't need that."

"He won't care, Joe. He'll be happy that his father is still alive." She came to his side of the table and sat down next to him. She held his hands in hers and looked into his eyes. "He'll be happy to know that you were there for him. He already thinks of you like a father, so it won't be that hard for him to understand."

"No."

"But Joe, the COC aren't after you anymore. That was 16 years ago. They've probably forgotten that you ever worked for them."

"Emily, when they found out who you were, they sent a ransom note to me, telling me that if I didn't give them two million dollars they would have you killed. The CIA wouldn't let me give that amount of money to save one agent, but luckily you weren't killed. I tried to rescue you 374 times and the CIA caught me every time. Four years of torture, Emily. If they ever found out who Zach was, what do you think would happen to him?"

Emily looked at her lap. She knew he was right, but it didn't matter. "He needs a father, Joe." She stood up. "Eventually, one of us is going to have to tell him." Then she walked out of the restaurant.

Joe Solomon sat in the booth until the restaurant closed. Then he walked back to Gallagher, thinking about everything Emily had said. She was right. Eventually, Zach would have to find out that he was his father.

How did you like it? Please tell me, I really want to know what you thought because this chapter is very important to the rest of the story. And be happy because at first I wasn't going to tell you who Zach's father was in this chapter. Love you guys! Ella