Chapter 6 - MY MOTHER’S SECRET
Adrian spun and fired.
A man dropped behind the railing.
Victor ran.
“Get him!” Adrian shouted.
His men stormed through the house.
I didn’t move.
I was staring at the tiny carved star.
My mother’s star.
Leo was free now.
Adrian cut his ropes and pulled him into his chest.
For several seconds, the feared Adrian Moretti was just a father holding his shaking child.
“I’ve got you.”
Leo buried his face against his neck.
“Don’t let them take me again.”
“Never.”
“You promise?”
Adrian closed his eyes.
“I promise.”
I turned away because something about watching that moment felt too private.
Then Leo reached for me.
“Emma.”
I crouched.
He hugged me too.
Pain shot through my stitches.
I didn’t care.
“We need to leave,” Adrian said.
“What about Victor?”
“He’s gone.”
“You’re just letting him go?”
Adrian looked at me.
“No one said that.”
Back in the SUV, Leo fell asleep with his head on my lap.
His green dinosaur rested under his chin.
Adrian sat across from us.
“You knew which wire.”
“I guessed.”
“No.”
“It was a guess.”
“You recognized the symbol.”
I looked out the window.
“My mother drew that star.”
“On what?”
“Everything.”
Adrian leaned forward.
“Think.”
“I am thinking.”
“Did she ever hide things?”
“Everybody hides things.”
“Emma.”
I snapped.
“She was my mother, not some criminal mastermind.”
Leo shifted.
I lowered my voice.
“She packed lunches. She worked late. She sang badly in the car. She used coupons. She died of cancer when I was twelve.”
Adrian said nothing.
“She was normal.”
“So was my father to me.”
That shut me up.
He continued.
“Until the night I watched him die.”
I looked at him.
“You think parents tell children everything?”
“No.”
“Neither do I.”
That night, Adrian refused to let me return to my apartment.
I fought him for twenty minutes.
He won because somebody had apparently already broken into my building.
He showed me the security photo.
My apartment door was hanging open.
“Fine,” I said. “One night.”
He took me to his townhouse.
Calling it a townhouse was ridiculous.
It was a fortress with chandeliers.
Leo refused to sleep unless I sat beside him.
So I did.
He asked me why people were bad.
I didn’t know how to answer.
“Sometimes people want things so badly they stop caring who gets hurt.”
“Is Papa bad?”
The question crushed me.
I glanced toward the door.
Adrian stood there.
He had heard.
I chose my words carefully.
“Your papa loves you.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Smart kid.
“I think people are more complicated than good or bad.”
Leo considered that.
Then he fell asleep.
In the hallway, Adrian waited.
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“Not lying to him.”
“I almost did.”
“But you didn’t.”
We stood too close.
I noticed the scar on his face again.
He noticed me looking.
“Victor?”
I asked.
“Yes.”
“He gave you that?”
“When I tried to stop him from leaving after my father was shot.”
For the first time, anger rose inside me for him.
Not fear.
Anger.
Then my phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
A photograph appeared.
My apartment.
My bed.
On the mattress sat my grandmother’s ring.
The ring David had stolen years ago.
Under it was a message.
YOU ALREADY HAVE THE KEY.
I showed Adrian.
His face went cold.
“Who is David?”
“My ex.”
“Where is he?”
“I haven’t seen him in three years.”
Another message arrived.
ASK HIM WHAT HE SOLD.
I stared at the screen.
Then I remembered something David once said when he was drunk.
The ring wasn’t worth what I thought.
May you like
Because it wasn’t the ring they wanted.
It was the box.
