Chapter 15 - The Woman Behind EverythingComplete darkness.
Ivy could hear breathing.
Then footsteps.
One.
Two.
Three.
Carmine grabbed her hand.
“Stay with me.”
A gunshot exploded somewhere in front of them.
Someone screamed.
Emergency lights flickered on.
Lucia was gone.
Maria was gone.
The Shepherd was gone.
Only Carmine, Ivy, Gideon, and Rocco remained.
“What happened?”
Rocco looked around.
“They took Lucia.”
“Who?”
No answer.
Then Ivy heard a voice.
Her mother.
From the speakers.
“Ivy.”
She froze.
“Mom?”
“Come home.”
Carmine grabbed the microphone.
“Where is she?”
A soft laugh.
“Carmine.”
He stiffened.
“You know me.”
“Of course.”
“Who are you?”
Silence.
Then:
“You’re still asking the wrong question.”
Ivy looked at the security screen.
A camera turned on.
Her mother sat in a hospital room.
But she was not alone.
Behind her stood the woman from the church.
Maria.
And beside Maria stood Lucia.
Both women were alive.
The Shepherd walked into frame.
Alive.
Ivy stared.
“What is happening?”
Carmine said nothing.
The Shepherd smiled.
“Now you finally see the problem.”
Rocco muttered:
“This isn’t possible.”
The screen changed.
Old photographs filled it.
Ivy as a child.
Her father.
Carmine.
Lucia.
Maria.
Gideon.
Rocco.
All connected by lines.
At the center was one name.
IVY MERCER.
Carmine stepped closer.
“Why is she at the center?”
The Shepherd answered.
“Because your father didn’t discover the network.”
He paused.
“He created it.”
Ivy’s blood turned cold.
“No.”
Her mother looked at the camera.
“Ivy, there is something I never told you.”
“What?”
“You weren’t six when your father died.”
Ivy stared.
“You were seven.”
A new image appeared.
A medical report.
A brain scan.
A procedure.
And a date.
The same date Ivy remembered as the night her father died.
Her mother whispered:
“We had your memories altered.”
Ivy felt the room spinning.
“Why?”
“Because you saw everything.”
“Everything?”
Her mother nodded.
“You saw who ordered your father’s murder.”
Ivy looked at Carmine.
He looked just as shocked.
Her mother continued.
“You saw who betrayed us.”
Ivy’s breathing became shallow.
“Who?”
Her mother stared straight into the camera.
Then she said:
“Carmine.”
Ivy turned.
Carmine’s face was unreadable.
“No.”
Her mother continued.
“He was there the night your father died.”
Ivy stepped backward.
“Carmine…”
He did not move.
Her mother whispered:
“He held the gun.”
Silence.
Then Carmine finally spoke.
“Ivy.”
She looked at him.
His eyes were filled with something she had never seen before.
Fear.
Not fear for himself.
Fear of what she was about to remember.
And then the final memory broke through.
A younger Carmine.
A gun.
Her father on the floor.
Her mother screaming.
And Carmine whispering:
“Run, Ivy.”
She stared at him.
“You told me to run.”
Carmine closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
He opened them.
“Because I didn’t kill your father.”
“Then who did?”
Carmine looked at the screen.
At her mother.
At Lucia.
At Maria.
At the man calling himself The Shepherd.
Then he looked at Ivy.
“The person who killed your father…”
His voice broke.
“…was the person who raised you.”
The screen went black.
A door behind Ivy unlocked.
Slowly.
Click.
Everyone turned.
Ivy stared into the darkness beyond it.
A woman stepped forward.
Gray hair.
Tired eyes.
A familiar face.
Her mother.
But she was supposed to be on the screen.
Ivy backed away.
“Mom?”
The woman smiled.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart.”
She raised a gun.
And Carmine stepped in front of Ivy.
The gunshot came.
The world went white.
Then everything stopped.
When Ivy opened her eyes, Carmine was on the floor.
Blood spreading across his white shirt.
She screamed his name.
He looked at her.
And despite the blood, despite the pain, he smiled faintly.
“Now…”
He coughed.
“…you finally know.”
Ivy dropped beside him.
“Know what?”
Carmine reached into his pocket.
He pressed something into her palm.
A tiny brass key.
The same key her father had given her.
But this time there was a second engraving on it.
A letter she had never noticed.
B.
Carmine whispered:
“Your father left one last door.”
He looked toward her mother.
“And behind it…”
His eyes closed.
“…is the truth about why your mother was afraid of you.”
The lights went out.
May you like
And somewhere beneath the estate, an old machine started running.
Like someone had just opened the door to a room that had been locked for twenty years.
