Chapter 3 - My mother had been dead for five years.Yet suddenly, every memory of her felt like a lie.
The kitchen where she used to sing while making coffee.
The little blue curtains in our apartment.
The way she always locked the front door twice.
The way she never let me go near the harbor.
All of it.
A collection of details I had once considered ordinary.
Now they looked like clues.
Adrian took me to a private room behind Lumina's kitchen.
I sat across from him while two armed guards stood outside.
Leo refused to leave his father's side.
He sat curled against Adrian's chest, clutching the plastic dinosaur.
I couldn't stop looking at the silver pendant on the table.
"Where did you get that?"
Adrian didn't answer.
I pointed.
"That belonged to my mother."
"I know."
The words hit harder than they should have.
"You knew her."
"No."
"You just said you knew."
"I knew of her."
"That's not the same thing."
His jaw tightened.
"Your mother was named Elena Bennett."
"Yes."
"She worked at St. Vincent's Hospital."
"Yes."
"She treated a man who shouldn't have survived."
"Who?"
"Me."
The room went silent.
I stared at him.
"When?"
"Six years ago."
I searched his face.
That would have been around the time I was twenty-one.
My mother had come home from a late shift that night looking terrified.
I remembered asking what happened.
She had said only one thing.
"Sometimes the people you save are more dangerous than the people you lose."
I had thought it was about medicine.
Apparently, it wasn't.
"What happened?"
"I was shot."
"By whom?"
"I never saw him."
"Then how does my mother fit into this?"
Adrian leaned back.
"She saved my life."
I looked at him.
"Why didn't she tell me?"
"Because I asked her not to."
Rage rose in my chest.
"You knew her, you knew she was in danger, and you let me believe she died in an accident?"
"I didn't know she was targeted until it was too late."
"You expect me to believe that?"
"No."
At least he didn't pretend.
Leo suddenly spoke.
"Mama had the same necklace."
I turned.
"What?"
Adrian looked down.
Leo touched the pendant hanging from my neck.
"Mama wore one like that."
I stared at him.
"Leo."
He frowned.
"What?"
"Your mother had this?"
He nodded.
"She wore it when she came to my room."
My pulse accelerated.
Adrian went still.
"Leo," he said carefully, "you've never told me that."
The boy looked confused.
"Papa, I did."
"When?"
"Before Mama went away."
Adrian's face changed.
"Leo."
The child looked down.
I felt something terrible forming in the room.
"Where did you see her?"
Leo pointed toward the wall.
"Here."
There was no woman behind it.
Only a painting.
Then Leo said something that made my skin prickle.
"Mama told me not to trust the people who smile."
Adrian slowly turned toward the painting.
He walked over.
Removed it.
Behind the frame was a metal safe.
I stared.
"That wasn't there before."
"It was."
His voice had gone quiet.
He entered a code.
The safe opened.
Inside were documents.
Photos.
A black notebook.
And one photograph that made my stomach drop.
My mother stood in it beside Adrian.
Not in a hospital.
Not in a medical room.
At the docks.
Six years ago.
She was holding a file.
Adrian was younger, though not by much.
And standing behind them was another man.
I recognized him immediately.
The owner of Lumina.
Mr. Hale.
My employer.
I stopped breathing.
"No."
Adrian looked at the photograph.
"You know him."
"He's my boss."
Adrian's eyes darkened.
"Then you haven't been working at Lumina for eight months."
"What?"
"You've been in his building for eight months."
The distinction frightened me.
I stood.
"You think he hired me because of my mother?"
"I think he may have."
"No."
I shook my head.
"He barely knows me."
Adrian opened the notebook.
Inside were names.
Dates.
Payments.
And one sentence underlined three times.
ELENA BENNETT HID THE KEY.
I stared at it.
"What key?"
"I don't know."
"You expect me to believe that?"
"I expect you to understand that someone wants you dead because they think you do."
I looked at the pendant around my neck.
Then at Leo.
Then at Adrian.
"Why would they think I have it?"
"Because your mother thought you were the safest place to hide it."
My throat tightened.
"No."
Adrian stepped closer.
"Nora."
"What?"
"Take off the necklace."
My hand went to it instinctively.
"Why?"
"Because it may not be a necklace."
I pulled it over my head.
Adrian took the pendant.
He turned it over.
Pressed his thumb against the back.
Nothing.
Then he used a small blade from his pocket.
He slid it between the metal seams.
Click.
The pendant opened.
Inside was a tiny glass capsule.
My heart stopped.
There was a rolled piece of paper inside.
Adrian removed it carefully.
He unfolded it.
His face changed.
"What?"
He looked at me.
"It's a list."
"What list?"
He handed it to me.
I read the first three names.
Police commissioner.
Judge.
Senator.
Then the fourth.
I knew it.
The fifth too.
Then I reached the bottom.
There, written in my mother's handwriting, was a final name.
Adrian Voss.
I looked up.
His face had gone expressionless.
Then Leo quietly said,
"Papa?"
Adrian didn't answer.
May you like
Because beneath his own name, my mother had written three words.
DO NOT TRUST HIM.
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