Free Never Look Back by Geraldine Solon

Why couldn't she have had two parents who took her to school or had barbecues during the rare sunny days in their backyard like her classmates did? Now she discovered that her father whom she loved dearly was not her father. Now she knew why she was hardly allowed to go out and why her father built that tree house for her. The tree house wasn't her only sanctuary, but a place where her father could look out for her. "Until?"
    "You're a splitting image of your mother, Dana. You're in every magazine and commercial. Somebody must have put two and two together," U.S. Marshall Collins said. "We suspect your father tried to reach your mother before he died.”
    Dana covered her face. "Those men who kidnapped me, who are they? They've also taken my mother and they killed those other women."
    U.S. Marshall Collins asked. "Can you tell us what happened when you came back to New York after your father's death?"
    "I was mourning and didn't want to go out. I declined invitations to holiday parties and modeling projects. I couldn't bring myself to move on."
    "Did anything suspicious occur?" U.S. Marshall Adams asked.
    "Well, aside from my lawyer giving me my father's letter, I did receive a fruitcake from Ginny's Delights. I left the fruitcake and took a walk in Central Park. That's where they kidnapped me."
    "Ginny's Delights?" U.S. Marshall Collins frowned.
    "Yes. And I found their business card inside the drawer in that house, the one I was kept in."
    "Ginny's Delights is right down the street. We usually have coffee or desserts. That means this man has been following us," Agent Wayne said.
    "You guys are not clear. First you tell me that it's a Russian mob, and now you tell me it's a man. What's the real story here?"
    U.S. Marshall Collins cleared his throat. "Your biological father, Anton Markovic, passed away a year ago. He had been searching for your mother and never found her. We learned from an anonymous tip that before he passed away, he discovered he had a daughter and had been hoping to track you down until his heart gave way."
    "Great. In one day, I find out that my mother is part of the WITSEC, my father is not my real father, and my biological father is part of the Russian mob and is now dead. Isn't that enough?" Her tummy growled, but she couldn't imagine eating after what she'd been through. Her life would never be normal again. "If he's already dead, why are they still after my mother?"
    "He has a son."
    "A son?" She paused. "I have a half brother?"
    "Vladimir."
    She swallowed hard trying to process all the information. "My half brother."
    "Technically, he's not. Your father adopted Vladimir when he was five." U.S. Marshall Collins said. "You don't have to be afraid. We are here to help you."
    Dana shook her head. "You're not here to protect me. You're going to strip my life like you did with my mother. Do you know what you did to her? To me? Do you know how hard it is for me to be close to people fearing that I can lose them? I've never had a long relationship." She broke down crying. "I travel a lot, I keep a bright smile on my face, but nobody knows the emptiness I feel inside."
    "I'm sorry," U.S. Marshall Adams said.
    "Tell me, U.S. Marshall Adams, did you grow up with a mother? Did you have somebody kiss you goodbye before you went to school?"
    U.S. Marshall Adams looked away.
    "You're never going to give me back the years I lost with my mother. You destroyed my life, and nobody, not even my father, had the decency to tell me the truth. How dare you!"
    "We're very sorry, Dana," Agent Raymond said.
    She glared at them. "So this is it? You're going to control me like you did with my mother?" You said you would protect her, but after all these years, they've found her."
    "We did the best we can."
    "Really? Up 'till now, you haven't been able to bust the Russian mob." She stomped her foot. "Why is that, U.S. Marshall Collins? And what makes you so sure that you can protect me?"

Chapter 13
    Moments later, despite