Chapter 2 - The hallway was dark.Only emergency lights painted the walls in thin red strips.
Kendrick stared at Penny.
“What did you say?”
Penny's lower lip trembled.
“Mommy said she's coming.”
Kendrick crouched.
“Penny. Mommy is gone.”
The little girl shook her head.
“No.”
“Who told you?”
Penny pointed toward Willa.
The entire world seemed to stop.
Willa's face went pale.
Kendrick slowly stood.
“You.”
“I didn't say anything.”
Penny clung to Willa's waist.
“She knows Mommy.”
Kendrick looked at Willa with something far more dangerous than suspicion.
Rage.
“How?”
Willa forced herself to breathe.
“I don't know what she's talking about.”
Kendrick grabbed her arm.
“Don't lie to me.”
Titan stepped between them.
A low growl filled the hallway.
Kendrick looked at his dog.
“Titan.”
The mastiff didn't move.
For the first time in years, Titan was choosing someone over him.
Willa looked at Penny.
Then she realized something.
The little girl wasn't looking at her face.
She was staring at her necklace.
Willa touched it instinctively.
A tiny silver pendant.
She had worn it since childhood.
Penny reached for it.
“My mommy had that.”
Willa pulled it away.
“No.”
Kendrick's eyes narrowed.
“Take it off.”
She didn't.
“Willa.”
Her fingers tightened around the chain.
Kendrick stepped closer.
“Take it off.”
Willa slowly removed the necklace.
Kendrick stared.
On the back of the pendant was an engraved symbol.
An eagle surrounded by three stars.
His expression changed.
“Where did you get that?”
“My mother.”
“Your mother?”
Willa nodded.
Kendrick touched the engraving.
“My father used this symbol.”
Willa said nothing.
Kendrick's eyes snapped toward her.
“Who are you?”
Before she could answer, Barrett rushed into the corridor.
“Boss!”
His jacket was torn.
There was blood on his sleeve.
“The south entrance was breached.”
Kendrick turned.
“How many?”
“Three dead. Two attackers escaped.”
“Who were they?”
“We don't know.”
Barrett's eyes landed on Willa.
His expression froze for half a second.
Then he quickly looked away.
Willa noticed.
Kendrick noticed too.
“Barrett.”
“Yes?”
“Have you seen her before?”
“No.”
Too fast.
Willa's stomach tightened.
Barrett had lied.
Kendrick ordered security to lock down the building.
Then he walked away.
Willa waited until he disappeared.
Barrett passed her.
As he did, he whispered so softly no one else could hear.
“You should have stayed dead.”
Her heart stopped.
Barrett kept walking.
Willa stood frozen.
He knew.
He had recognized her.
And if Barrett knew who she was, then he had been involved six years ago.
She had come into Kendrick's mansion seeking answers.
Instead, she had walked straight into the hands of the man she feared most.
Later that night, Willa slipped through the service corridor.
She needed to search Barrett's office.
The security system was sophisticated, but she had studied the building during the three months she had worked around Kendrick's organization.
She reached the restricted floor.
The door was locked.
Willa pulled a thin metal pin from her sleeve.
Click.
The door opened.
Inside, she searched the desk.
Nothing.
Drawers.
Nothing.
Then she noticed the painting behind the desk.
The frame was crooked.
She moved it.
A hidden safe appeared.
Willa smiled bitterly.
“Of course.”
She entered the code.
It didn't work.
She tried again.
Nothing.
Then she remembered the symbol.
Three stars.
Eagle.
A date.
The night her family died.
She entered it.
The safe opened.
Inside were documents.
Photographs.
Bank records.
And one envelope.
Willa opened it.
Her hands went numb.
Inside was a birth certificate.
Penny Ashford.
But the name on the mother line wasn't Kendrick's dead wife.
It belonged to Willa's mother.
She read it twice.
Then a voice spoke behind her.
“You weren't supposed to find that.”
Willa turned.
Barrett stood in the doorway.
Gun raised.
He smiled.
For six years, Willa had dreamed of this moment.
She had imagined revenge.
She had imagined justice.
She had imagined pulling the trigger herself.
But now she noticed something unexpected.
Barrett wasn't looking at her.
He was looking at the document in her hand.
And he looked terrified.
“You don't understand,” he whispered.
“What?”
“The woman you think died that night...”
He swallowed.
“Your mother was never in that house.”
Willa stared at him.
May you like
Barrett lowered the gun.
“She ordered the fire.”
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