Chapter 7 - The Mother Who Had Been Watching Her
Mave couldn't speak.
"Bridget?"
Anthony nodded weakly.
"No."
"She wasn't your aunt."
Mave stared.
"Then who was she?"
"Your mother's childhood friend."
"You're lying."
"I wish I were."
Dominic knelt beside Anthony.
"Where is Eleanor?"
Anthony smiled.
"Closer than you think."
Then he passed out.
They took him to a private hospital.
For three hours, Mave sat outside the operating room.
Dominic stayed beside her.
Neither spoke.
Finally Mave asked, "Do you believe him?"
"I believe Bridget lied."
"That's not the same thing."
"No."
She looked at him.
"Do you trust me?"
Dominic answered without hesitation.
"Completely."
She swallowed.
"Why?"
"Because you've had twenty-two years to betray people, and you never did."
Mave looked down.
"I didn't know enough to betray anyone."
"Exactly."
The doctor came out.
Anthony survived.
Barely.
When Mave entered his room, he was awake.
He looked at her.
"Your mother is alive."
Mave stopped.
"Where?"
"Boston."
"Why isn't she here?"
"Because she believes Dominic is still dangerous."
Mave glanced at Dominic.
"She should have known."
Anthony smiled faintly.
"She never stopped loving him."
Dominic looked away.
"What happened after the fire?"
Anthony told them everything.
Eleanor survived.
She disappeared under a new name.
She had been threatened into silence.
And someone had kept watch over Mave.
Not to hurt her.
To protect her.
Bridget.
But Bridget had later been blackmailed.
She had handed information to the Ashcrofts.
The information led them toward Mave.
"She didn't mean to sell you," Anthony whispered.
"But she did."
"She was afraid."
Mave closed her eyes.
Fear had ruled all their lives.
She wanted to end it.
"Take me to Boston."
Dominic looked at her.
"We will."
The next morning, Mave flew with Dominic.
They arrived at a small coastal house.
Mave stood outside.
Her hands shook.
Dominic stayed beside her.
"You don't have to go in."
"I've waited twenty-two years."
The door opened.
A woman stood there.
Older.
Thinner.
Her hair streaked with gray.
But the eyes were the same.
Green.
Mave knew.
Eleanor covered her mouth.
"Oh God."
Mave couldn't move.
Eleanor took one step.
"My baby."
Mave cried.
Not softly.
Not gracefully.
The kind of crying that comes from holding twenty-two years of questions inside your chest.
Eleanor crossed the distance.
Mave let her.
Her mother's arms wrapped around her.
"I thought you were dead."
"I thought you were dead."
Eleanor sobbed into her hair.
"I watched you."
Mave pulled back.
"What?"
"I watched you graduate."
"How?"
"From a distance."
"You knew?"
"Everything."
"Then why didn't you come?"
Eleanor looked at Dominic.
"Because I was afraid."
"Of him?"
"Of what would happen if I came back."
Mave looked at Dominic.
"What would happen?"
Eleanor said, "People would die."
Dominic stepped forward.
"No more."
Eleanor looked at him.
"You say that now."
"I've spent twenty-two years making sure the people who hurt you can't touch you."
Eleanor cried again.
"I never wanted this life for her."
"Neither did I."
For the first time, Mave saw something between them.
Not hatred.
Not anger.
Grief.
Love that had been buried under decades of fear.
Then the front window shattered.
Everyone dropped.
A bullet struck the wall.
Dominic pulled Eleanor down.
Another bullet.
Mave screamed.
Elias returned fire from outside.
Then silence.
Dominic looked at Mave.
"You see why your mother ran."
Mave held her mother's hand.
"But we don't have to run anymore."
A phone rang.
Eleanor looked at it.
Her face went pale.
She whispered, "He's found us."
"Who?"
May you like
Eleanor looked at Dominic.
"The man who started everything."
