Chapter 6 - The Mother Who Had Been Hiding in Plain Sight
Her mother's name was not Claire Laurent.
It was Isabelle Laurent.
And she was living forty miles north of Boston under the name Nora Lewis.
Mave could barely process it.
They arrived at the small house before sunrise.
The front door was unlocked.
Inside, everything was neat.
Too neat.
A kettle sat on the stove.
A book lay open.
A pair of glasses rested on a table.
Mave stepped inside.
“Mom?”
Silence.
Then a voice came from upstairs.
“Lena.”
Mave froze.
She climbed slowly.
Her mother stood in the hallway.
Older.
Thinner.
Silver hair tied behind her neck.
But unmistakably her.
For a moment, mother and daughter simply stared.
Then Mave whispered,
“You let me bury you.”
Isabelle began crying.
“I know.”
“You let me think you were dead.”
“I thought it was the only way to keep you alive.”
Mave shook her head.
“I spent twelve years thinking no one wanted me.”
“That wasn't true.”
“You weren't there.”
“I was watching.”
“Watching isn't loving.”
Isabelle closed her eyes.
The sentence broke her.
“I deserved that.”
Dominic stayed outside.
This was not his moment.
Mave stepped closer.
“Tell me everything.”
Isabelle nodded.
She told Mave about Helena.
About Adrian.
About Lucien.
About the night the ledger vanished.
“We had planned to expose the network.”
“Why didn't you?”
“Because Helena found out.”
“What happened?”
“She threatened Mave.”
“Me.”
“Yes.”
“She said if Adrian spoke, you'd die.”
Mave looked at the floor.
“So you disappeared.”
“I disappeared to keep them from following you.”
“What happened to Lucien?”
“He was killed.”
Mave's eyes filled.
“By Helena?”
Isabelle nodded.
“Did you know?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because the truth would have put you in danger.”
Mave looked toward the window.
“All my life, everyone thought lies were protection.”
Isabelle cried.
“I know.”
Mave finally turned.
“I hate you.”
Isabelle nodded.
“I know.”
“But I missed you.”
Her mother covered her mouth.
Mave stepped forward.
They embraced.
The years between them collapsed.
Dominic watched from outside.
He had never seen Mave look so vulnerable.
When they finished, Isabelle gave her a small envelope.
“Your father left this.”
Inside was a photograph.
Adrian.
Isabelle.
Lucien.
And three children.
Mave.
Dominic.
And a little girl.
Dominic walked inside.
“Who is that?”
Isabelle looked at him.
“Your sister.”
He stopped.
“My sister is dead.”
“She survived.”
Dominic stared.
“Where is she?”
“She is the reason Helena never killed me.”
“Where?”
Isabelle whispered a name.
“Grace.”
Dominic's face changed.
He knew that name.
Grace Rossi.
A charity worker killed in a supposed car accident five years earlier.
“No.”
“She survived.”
“How?”
“She was moved into witness protection.”
Dominic sat down.
His entire family history was collapsing around him.
Mave touched his shoulder.
“We'll find her.”
They did.
Grace was living under another surname in Chicago.
When Dominic saw her, he couldn't speak.
She was older.
Married.
Had two children.
Alive.
His sister had not died.
She had simply vanished.
The reunion was painful and beautiful.
Grace told him the truth.
Helena had tried to control the family by convincing everyone that loss was inevitable.
She manipulated deaths.
Faked accidents.
Created enemies.
Turned relatives against one another.
She had never wanted the Rossi family destroyed.
She wanted it dependent on her.
And now she wanted Dominic's position.
“She'll come after Mave,” Grace warned.
“She already has.”
Grace looked at Mave.
“The ledger?”
Mave nodded.
“That's what she wants.”
“No.”
Grace shook her head.
“She wants more.”
“What?”
“Mave.”
Everyone fell silent.
Grace explained.
Helena had discovered Adrian's real secret.
He had not merely memorized a ledger.
He had memorized a list of children born into powerful families whose parents had died or disappeared.
Children Helena had manipulated over the years.
Mave was one of them.
There were seventeen.
And every one of them could expose her.
Mave realized why Helena had been hunting her.
She wasn't merely afraid Mave could translate.
She was afraid Mave could connect identities.
Mave had spent years learning languages because she had learned to read people.
Now that ability could expose an entire hidden network.
Dominic looked at her.
“You don't have to do this.”
“Yes, I do.”
“Why?”
“Because too many people lost their families because of her.”
He stared.
“And because my father died trying to finish this.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“You're not alone.”
Mave looked up.
“No.”
She smiled faintly.
“I'm not.”
Their hands touched.
Neither moved away.
Across the room, Grace quietly smiled.
For the first time, Mave noticed that Dominic's expression changed whenever he looked at her.
Not fear.
Not control.
Something softer.
Something dangerous in its own way.
Something he wasn't ready to name.
Then the front windows exploded.
A black SUV crashed through the gate.
Helena's people had found them.
Dominic grabbed Mave.
“Go!”
They ran.
Behind them, Isabelle screamed.
And in the chaos, one attacker captured her.
By the time Dominic reached the street, the SUV was gone.
On the pavement was a single white envelope.
May you like
Inside was one sentence.
BRING ME THE GIRL, OR YOUR MOTHER DIES.
