It was because of the old woman. She had materialized from the thick autumn mist as if she were a ghost, a specter in a threadbare, dark gray coat with frayed sleeves. She grabbed my arm with wiry, surprisingly strong fingers and hissed directly in my face, her breath smelling of some strange, bitter herb.
“Don’t you dare go in there,” she rasped, her eyes boring into mine. “Do you hear me, girl? Call your father. Immediately. Right now.”
I tried to pull my arm free, instinctively clutching Mikey tighter to my chest, shielding him with my body. There was something wrong about this woman, something unsettling. She wasn’t like the usual grandmothers who sat on the benches by the entrance, gossiping about the neighbors. Her eyes were piercing, almost black, without a hint of the cloudy film of old age.
They burned with a fierce inner fire, an understanding of things inaccessible to ordinary people. A dark blue, almost violet, scarf was tied low on her head, pulled down to her gray eyebrows, shadowing her face. Her wrinkles were deep, like cracks in parched earth, but her grip was like steel.
Our suburban district on the edge of the city had its share of fortune-tellers and mystics. They’d set up folding tables near the subway station, laying out their cards and calling to passersby, offering to read futures for twenty or thirty dollars. But they never ambushed new mothers with cryptic, terrifying warnings.
“Please, let me go,” I whispered, glancing around in a desperate hope of seeing a neighbor, a single living soul. But the courtyard was deathly empty, as if every resident had simply evaporated. A cold October wind whipped yellowed leaves across the wet asphalt, swirling them into small vortexes.
In the distance, a crow cawed from the roof of a neighboring building, a long, ominous sound that seemed to foretell disaster. It was only four-thirty in the afternoon, but the sun was already hidden behind a thick blanket of clouds, plunging the world into a gray, anxious twilight.
My husband, Andrew, was supposed to meet me. He had promised just two days ago, when he visited the hospital, his arms full of apples, juice, and a whole bag of tiny baby clothes. He had kissed me, looked at our sleeping son with such tenderness, and photographed him from every angle, sending the pictures to his parents and friends. He’d sworn he would be there on the day of my discharge, that he’d call a large taxi, buy me roses, and fill the apartment with blue balloons.
But this morning, as I was joyfully packing my things, he had called. His tone was clipped, businesslike. “A last-minute business trip to Denver,” he’d said. “A huge contract, three million on the line. The client is difficult, insists on a personal meeting. The boss says I have to go today. Now. My flight leaves at two.” He apologized, of course, said he was terribly upset, but work was work. The mortgage had to be paid. The baby needed things.
I had been so deeply hurt that I’d burst into tears right there in the ward, burying my face in the pillow so the other new mothers wouldn’t see. A kind nurse had comforted me, blaming it on postpartum hormones, but the bitterness remained.
What kind of business trip couldn’t be postponed for the birth of your first child? I had imagined this day for months—the three of us driving home, Andrew carefully carrying our son. Instead, I was alone, bone-tired, with a twenty-pound duffel bag and a nine-pound baby, dropped off by a silent taxi driver who hadn’t even bothered to help me with my bags.
“Listen to me very carefully, girl.” The old woman’s grip tightened, her fingers digging into the fabric of my coat. “Your father is alive. Do you hear me? Do you understand what I’m telling you? He’s alive and well. Call him. Now. Do you remember his old cell number? The one still in your phone?”
A glacial cold spread through me, freezing my heart, my lungs, my very soul. The world tilted on its axis.
My father died eight years ago. March 23rd, 2017. I remember the date better than my own birthday. A massive heart attack, the doctors later said. There had been no chance. It happened so fast, so unexpectedly, we couldn’t even get him to the hospital.
He was on the old sofa in the living room, watching a football game. My mom was in the kitchen; I was in my room studying for my college exams. We heard a groan, a heavy, rattling sound. Mom was the first to run in. Her scream was something from a nightmare. I rushed out to see him, his face gray, his lips blue, clutching his chest. I called 911 with trembling hands, shouting our address. The fifteen minutes we waited felt like an eternity. When the paramedics arrived, they just shook their heads. “He’s gone.”
My father had been my rock, my confidant, my protector. He was a simple engineer at the local plant, his salary modest, but he never complained. He taught me to ride a bike, helped me with my math homework, and read me adventure stories every night. After his death, my world turned gray. The grief was so all-consuming that I couldn’t function. I nearly dropped out of college, where I was studying to be an elementary school teacher. My mom shattered. She aged a decade in a month, becoming a shadow of her former self. Even now, eight years later, she lived alone in our old two-bedroom apartment, a ghost haunted by memory.
“Are you mocking me?” My voice trembled, hot tears blurring my vision. “My father is dead. It’s been eight years. Eight whole years. What are you talking about? Leave me alone, you crazy woman. My baby is getting cold.”
“He’s alive,” the old woman repeated, her conviction so absolute, so terrifyingly certain, that a fresh wave of goosebumps erupted on my skin. “Dial his old number. The one you keep in your contacts. You never deleted it, did you? Your heart wouldn’t let you. And don’t you dare enter that cursed apartment until you’ve spoken to him. I’m begging you, girl. For the love of God, do not go inside.”
Mikey stirred in his warm, downy bundle and let out a soft whimper, his little nose sniffling. He was probably hungry, or perhaps he sensed my terror. I was completely lost, unsure if this was reality or some postpartum hallucination brought on by sleep deprivation. The birth had been long and agonizing, over twelve hours of excruciating labor. I felt drained, hollowed out, but this woman in front of me was undeniably real. And the fear in her piercing dark eyes was real, too.
“There’s danger in your apartment.” She glanced sharply at the building, her eyes fixed on the dark windows of our fifth-floor unit, number 53. “Mortal danger. For you and for your baby boy. If you go in there now, you will regret it with your last breath. Call your father. He’s waiting for your call. But you must hurry. There’s very little time.”
And then, a jolt, like a powerful electric current, shot through me. I remembered Dad’s old cell phone number. After the funeral, Mom had wanted to cancel the line, but I had begged her not to. I took over the fifteen-dollar monthly payment for the basic plan myself. It was my last, thinnest thread connecting me to him.
Sometimes, in my darkest moments, I would dial the number just to listen to the long, mournful rings, crying silently as I told the emptiness about my life—about my first teaching job, about meeting Andrew, about our wedding, about my pregnancy. It was a secret ritual, a way to keep him close.
The old woman finally released my arm and stepped back. “I’ll wait over here,” she said, her voice softer but no less firm. “Go sit on that bench under the maple tree. You’re exhausted. I can see it in your eyes. And call without fear. Everything will be all right.”
I don’t know what possessed me to obey a complete stranger. Maybe it was the exhaustion, the hormones, or some primal, inexplicable premonition. My grandmother had always taught me to listen to my intuition, to the whisper of my heart. Right now, something deep inside me was screaming, not in words, but with a raw, ancient instinct: Do what she says. Do not go into that apartment. Make the call.
I walked slowly to the old, peeling green bench under the bare maple tree. It was cold and damp from a recent rain. I carefully sat down, arranging Mikey on my lap. With numb, disobedient fingers, I pulled out my phone. My hands were shaking so violently the screen blurred. I scrolled to the letter ‘F’. There he was. ‘Dad’. The contact picture was a small square photo I’d taken five years ago at his last birthday party, him smiling broadly at our backyard barbecue. I hadn’t been able to bring myself to delete it.
This was sheer madness. My father was gone. I had stood by his open casket, kissed his cold forehead goodbye, thrown a handful of dirt onto his coffin. How could he possibly be alive?
But my hand, as if with a will of its own, moved to the screen and pressed the green call button.
My heart hammered against my ribs so loudly I could hear it in my ears. I pressed the phone to my head and squeezed my eyes shut. The rings began—long, monotonous tones stretching into nothingness. One ring. Two. Three. Of course, no one would answer. The number was surely disconnected, or worse, reassigned to a stranger. I was about to hang up, to finally break down and weep from the sheer weight of it all, when on the sixth ring, someone picked up.
A click. A rustle of static. And then a voice.
“Natalie? Honey? Is that you?”
The voice was hoarse, strained, layered with static, but it was unmistakably, impossibly, his. The phone slipped from my suddenly nerveless fingers, tumbling onto my lap beside Mikey’s bundle. I grabbed the cold metal edge of the bench, clinging to it as the ground fell away beneath me. The world spun in a dizzying vortex, and darkness bloomed at the edges of my vision.
I snatched the phone back, my hands trembling, and pressed it to my ear with all my might. “Dad?” I breathed, my voice a broken, alien croak. “Dad, is it really you?”
“It’s me, my darling, it’s me.” And that voice, that achingly familiar, beloved voice I hadn’t heard in eight agonizing years, was trembling, thick with unshed tears. “My God. Finally. I’m so glad you called, honey. I was so afraid I’d be too late. Natalie, tell me quickly, where are you right now? Are you home? Are you in the apartment?”
“I’m… I’m outside. On a bench,” I stammered, struggling for breath. “With… with the baby. Dad, how? How is this possible? You died. I was at your funeral. I saw you.”
“I’ll explain everything later, I promise,” he cut me off, his voice suddenly hard, commanding. “There’s no time now. Listen to me, word for word. Do not go into that apartment. Under any circumstances. Take your son, take your things, and walk away from that building. Go to a coffee shop, a library, a friend’s house. Anywhere but home. Do you hear me?”
I looked at our building, our home. The two-bedroom apartment Andrew and I had bought on a 30-year mortgage two years ago. We had renovated it ourselves, painting the walls, laying the laminate flooring, assembling the white crib for Mikey with love and laughter. What could possibly be so dangerous in there?
“Natalie, my darling, I’m begging you,” Dad’s voice was desperate, ragged. “Please, just trust me on this. I know nothing makes sense, but do exactly as I ask. Get away from there this instant. I’m already on my way. I’ll be there in twenty, maybe twenty-five minutes max. Wait for me somewhere safe.”
Twenty minutes. My father, whom I had mourned for eight years, would be here in twenty minutes.
“But why can’t I go inside?” I pleaded, my mind reeling. “Dad, just tell me something.”
He was silent for a moment, and I could hear only his heavy breathing and the sound of traffic. “There’s an explosive device,” he finally exhaled. “A homemade one. It’s set to detonate when you open the apartment door. I don’t know the exact trigger, but I know it’s there. They were going to end you today, Natalie. You and the baby.”
I stopped breathing. A bomb. In my apartment. Someone wanted me dead. Me and my newborn son. “Who?” I managed to force the word out. “Who wants to kill us? Why?”
“Your husband,” Dad said. And in those two words, my entire world shattered. “Andrew. He arranged the whole thing.”
The world swam before my eyes. Andrew, my husband, the father of my child, the man I had loved and trusted unconditionally. “You’re lying,” I whispered. “That’s impossible. Andrew would never… he loves me.”
“Natalie, listen,” Dad’s voice was firm again, cutting through my shock. “He’s been having an affair for the last year and a half with a woman from his company, Jessica Riley. He plans to marry her as soon as you’re gone. There’s a life insurance policy in your name for three hundred thousand dollars. You signed the papers six months ago. Remember? He told you it was a standard requirement for the mortgage.”
I remembered. He’d brought home some papers from the bank, said it was just a formality. I’d signed without reading them, trusting him completely.
“Three hundred thousand,” Dad continued, “plus the apartment would be his, with the mortgage paid off by the insurance company. And he’d be free of a child he clearly never wanted, free to start a new life with his young lover. A perfect plan, isn’t it?”
No. I shook my head, tears streaming down my face. No, no, no. It was a lie. He couldn’t. He had been so happy about the pregnancy, assembling the crib, choosing a name…
“He was playing a role, honey. A very good one,” Dad said, his voice softening with pity. “I’m so sorry, Natalie, but it’s the truth. I have proof. Photos, recordings. I’ll show you everything when I see you.”
My brain refused to process it. My father was alive. My husband wanted me dead. There was a bomb in our home. “But… how do you know about the bomb?” I asked, clinging to the one piece of logic I could grasp.
“Because I’ve been working for a special federal task force for the past eight years,” he answered after a pause. “I had to fake my own death to protect you and your mother. I was a witness in a major corruption case against high-level city officials. They offered me witness protection, but it meant I had to disappear. Officially die. It was the only way to keep you both safe.”
I felt like I was in a cheap action movie. Witness protection. A faked death. “Who was in the casket?” I asked quietly.
“An unidentified man, about my age and build. His family couldn’t be located. They… they made sure identification would be difficult. We couldn’t tell your mother, for her own safety. The less she knew, the better. And we couldn’t tell you for the same reason. I am so sorry, my darling, for what you’ve been through.”
Oh God, Mom. She had mourned a living man for eight years, her life destroyed by a death that never happened. “And the woman who stopped me?” I asked, looking over at the strange fortune-teller, who was still standing by the edge of the courtyard, watching me. “Who is she?”
“My colleague,” Dad replied. “Agent Mariah Evans. I asked her to keep an eye on your building today, just in case. My source told me today was the day.”
A fake fortune-teller. An undercover agent. Everyone was playing a role.
“Put Mariah on the phone,” Dad requested. “She’ll take you somewhere safe.”
I stood up, hoisted the duffel bag, and walked slowly toward the woman, holding out my phone. “It’s for you,” I said quietly.
She took the phone and spoke in low, clipped, businesslike tones. I stood beside her, clutching my son, and stared at our apartment building, at the dark windows on the fifth floor. Behind those windows, in the cozy home where Andrew and I had spent so many happy nights, was a bomb. Designed to obliterate me and my son. And my husband, the man who had promised to love and cherish me, had gone on a “business trip” to establish his alibi.
How could he? How could you sleep beside a person, kiss them, talk about your future child, and be plotting their murder?
Mariah handed the phone back. “Your father wants you to go to the ‘Daisy Cafe’ on the next street,” she said, her voice now normal, stripped of its mystical act. “It’s a five-minute walk. I’ll go with you. You can wait for him there. I’ve already called the bomb squad and the police. They’re on their way to evacuate the building. Let’s go, dear.”
She took my heavy bag, and we walked away from my home. My nest. My life. All of it had been a lie.
The Daisy Cafe was a small, cozy place with yellow curtains and the warm smell of coffee and pastries. It was a pocket of normal, peaceful life, a world away from bombs and betrayal. Mariah led me to a corner table and helped me get settled with Mikey.
“The bomb squad is on site,” she reported after a few minutes, looking at her phone. “They’re evacuating the residents. Your father will be here in five minutes.”
Five minutes. I was going to see my dad, alive and real, after eight years of believing he was gone.
“You know the whole story?” I asked her.
Mariah nodded. “I do. We’ve worked together for the last six years. Your father is one of the best investigators in the Organized Crime unit. That bribery case he witnessed eight years ago… it was a hornet’s nest. Faking his death was the only way. He’s been watching over you and your mother ever since, from a distance.
When you got married, he ran a full background check on Andrew. He seemed clean. But six months ago, your dad noticed some oddities. The secret girlfriend, the mounting debts from online gambling. He started digging deeper. Two weeks ago, his informant in the criminal underworld tipped him off that Andrew had hired a professional, a former demolitions expert, to ‘solve his wife problem’.”
The day before yesterday. The day Andrew came to the hospital, bringing me fruit, kissing me, telling me he missed me. And then he had gone home and let in the man who was supposed to murder us.
The cafe door opened, and a man in a dark jacket and jeans walked in. He was tall, broad-shouldered, with short-cropped hair. He had changed—thinner, older, with new lines around his eyes—but I knew him instantly. It was my dad.
Our eyes met across the room. His face crumpled with emotion. He strode toward me, breaking into a near run. “Natalie,” he breathed, his voice cracking.
He wrapped his arms around me, holding me in a desperate, crushing embrace that stole my breath. “I’m sorry,” he whispered into my hair, his shoulders shaking with silent sobs. “I’m so sorry for everything, my darling. For the pain, for the tears, for these eight terrible years. I had no other choice. I had to protect you.”
I hugged him back with my free arm, the one not holding Mikey, and I wept. We stood like that for a long time, an island of raw emotion in a quiet cafe. He was alive. Real. Warm.
Finally, he pulled back and looked at the sleeping bundle in my arms. “My grandson,” he said, his voice trembling. “May I?”
I carefully passed Mikey to him. Dad held the baby as if he were the most precious thing in the world, his eyes tracing the tiny, perfect face. Tears streamed down his cheeks. The tough federal agent who had faked his own death was crying like a child.
“The bomb has been disarmed, Frank,” Mariah said quietly from the window. “It was real. Would have taken out the whole floor. Andrew Carter is being apprehended at the Denver airport as we speak.”
The end. My husband was being arrested. The life I had built for two years had crumbled to dust in a single day.
Dad sat down beside me, returning Mikey to my arms. “I know this is hard,” he said softly, taking my hand. “But you’ll get through this, Natalie. You’re strong, like your mother. You’ll survive this and be even stronger.”
“Mom,” I whispered. “When will she know you’re alive?”
He sighed, a heavy, pained sound. “Tonight. After you give your statement. I’m going to her. I’ll explain everything. I don’t know if she’ll ever forgive me, but I have to try.”
“She will,” I said with a certainty I didn’t feel but desperately wanted to. “She loves you. She never stopped.”
The next three weeks passed in a surreal haze. I moved back into my childhood bedroom in my mother’s apartment, my new reality a strange fusion of past and present. Dad moved in with us, sleeping on a cot in my old room, the small space suddenly crowded with the ghosts of who we used to be and the strangers we had become.
The reunion with my mother had been a storm of disbelief, grief, and eight years of pent-up rage, which slowly, painfully, began to give way to forgiveness. I watched them navigate the fragile terrain of their rediscovered love, speaking to each other with the careful courtesy of strangers, slowly learning to be a husband and wife again. Dad doted on Mikey, changing diapers, rocking him to sleep for hours, a grandfather making up for a decade of lost time.
The trial was swift. Andrew looked like a ghost, a hollowed-out man who couldn’t meet my eyes. He pleaded guilty. The evidence was overwhelming—bank transfers to the hitman, text messages with his lover, Jessica, where they discussed their future after I was “gone.” She had texted him the day before my discharge: Soon this will all be over and we can finally be together, my love. I can’t wait. I’ve already picked out a wedding dress.
She had been planning a wedding to coincide with my funeral.
Andrew was sentenced to fifteen years in a maximum-security prison. Jessica, as an accomplice, received eight. The house was sold to pay off the mortgage, and I put the remaining money into a trust for Michael’s future.
One snowy December evening, I was rocking a fussy Mikey in the living room, listening to the quiet murmur of my parents talking in the kitchen.
“I never stopped loving you, Laura,” I heard my father say, his voice thick with emotion. “Not for a single second. Everything I did, all the risks I took, it was all so that you and Natalie could be safe.”
There was a long pause, and then my mother’s soft reply. “I know, Frank. It just takes time. Eight years is a long time to mourn a man who was still alive.”
I heard the scrape of a chair, a quiet sob from my mother, and my father’s comforting whisper. They were healing. We were all healing.
I looked down at my son, who had finally drifted off to sleep, his tiny hand curled around my finger. My own little family, the one I had tried to build with Andrew, had been a lie, a carefully constructed illusion that had shattered into a million pieces. But from the ashes, my first family was being reborn.
Life was not what I had planned. It was messy, complicated, and scarred by betrayal. But it was also real. My father was alive. My son was safe. My mother was learning to smile again. And as I looked out the window at the snow blanketing the world in a clean, white sheath, I felt something I hadn’t felt in a very long time. A quiet, fragile, but persistent sense of peace. The storm was over. We had survived.
