Chapter 7 - The Woman Who Was Never Supposed to Survive
One year passed.
Then I received a letter.
No return address.
Inside was a photograph of my mother.
On the back:
She never died in the crash.
I couldn't breathe.
Ronin read the note.
“What does this mean?”
I shook my head.
“It can't.”
We traced the photograph.
The image had been taken six months after my mother's supposed death.
She was older.
Different hair.
Different clothes.
Alive.
Ronin began searching.
Records.
Hospital files.
Travel documents.
Bank accounts.
Nothing.
Then Silian found a clue.
A woman matching her description had lived in Michigan under another name.
We drove there.
The house was small.
Blue siding.
White curtains.
A garden full of roses.
A woman opened the door.
I knew her immediately.
Not from seeing her.
From the way she looked at me.
She covered her mouth.
“Iris.”
My knees nearly gave out.
“Mom?”
She cried.
So did I.
Ronin stood behind me.
My mother embraced me for what felt like an entire lifetime.
“I thought you were dead.”
“I thought I was.”
“Why?”
“Because Gregor told me I had no choice.”
She looked at Ronin.
“I was afraid.”
“Of him?”
“Of everyone.”
We sat for hours.
She told me the crash had been staged.
She had survived.
She had gone into hiding because Gregor threatened to kill me if she ever returned.
The Black Ledger was part of the reason.
But there was something else.
She had known Daniel Morgan was Ronin's uncle, not his father.
She had been protecting his identity.
And she had been the one who warned Ronin's grandmother to keep him away from me.
Not because he was dangerous.
Because she believed the organization would use us against each other.
“I made mistakes,” she said.
“I know.”
“I should have found you sooner.”
“You're here now.”
Ronin sat beside me.
My mother looked at him.
“You kept your promise.”
Ronin's eyes narrowed.
“What promise?”
“To hold her when she needed it.”
He looked at me.
My mother smiled.
“The night your mother died, Ronin was seventeen.”
I stared.
“You knew me?”
“No.”
“Then what promise?”
She explained.
When I was a child, Ronin's grandmother had told him that one day I might need protection.
He had promised to help if he could.
I laughed through tears.
“So I accidentally found the one man who already had a promise attached to me.”
Ronin smiled.
“Apparently.”
My mother watched us.
“You love him.”
“Yes.”
She smiled.
“Then I have one more thing to tell you.”
She gave me a box.
Inside was a wedding ring.
“My mother gave this to me.”
She handed it to me.
“It belonged to Daniel.”
“Why are you giving it to me?”
“Because he would have wanted you to have something that wasn't stolen from your life.”
I cried.
That evening, we drove home.
I held the box against my chest.
Ronin glanced at me.
“Are you happy?”
“Yes.”
“Even after everything?”
“Yes.”
He reached for my hand.
I squeezed his fingers.
Then he pulled over.
“Why are we stopping?”
He looked nervous.
That frightened me more than any gun ever had.
He got out.
Walked around the car.
Opened my door.
Then knelt.
I stared.
“Ronin.”
“I know we already know where this is going.”
I laughed through tears.
“But I want to ask anyway.”
He held out a ring.
Not his father's.
Not his family's.
A simple ring he'd chosen himself.
“Iris Istvan, will you marry me?”
I couldn't speak.
He smiled.
“You don't have to answer immediately.”
I grabbed his face.
“Yes.”
He laughed.
“Yes?”
“Yes.”
I kissed him.
Then I cried.
He slipped the ring onto my finger.
And somewhere behind us, the Chicago skyline glowed against the darkness.
May you like
The city that had once frightened me no longer felt like a place I had to escape.
It was where my new life had begun.
