Chapter 9 - LORELEI
The woman in the photograph was not Lorelei.
That was what the former nurse told them.
Her name had been Eleanor Vale.
At least that was the name on her paperwork.
She had arrived without identification.
She rarely spoke.
She had no visitors.
And every six months, someone from a private trust paid her bill.
Maya traced the trust.
Durham Holdings.
Rosalie stopped pretending she was calm.
“Where did she go when the facility closed?”
The nurse hesitated.
“A residential home in Maine.”
Rosalie and Manuel arrived the following afternoon with two investigators.
The home sat beside a frozen lake.
Rosalie stood outside the entrance for almost a minute.
Manuel didn’t hurry her.
“What if it isn’t her?”
“Then we keep looking.”
“What if it is?”
Manuel looked at her.
“Then you decide what happens next.”
Rosalie entered.
The administrator led them into a sunroom.
An elderly woman sat beside the window.
Silver threaded through her dark hair.
Her hands rested around a cup of tea.
Rosalie stopped.
The woman turned.
The cup slipped from her hands.
It shattered.
Nobody moved.
Rosalie’s birthmark covered the left side of her cheek and neck.
The woman had the same mark.
Smaller.
Faded with age.
“Rosie?”
Rosalie broke.
Not gracefully.
Not quietly.
Twenty years of control disappeared in one breath.
“Mom?”
Lorelei stood.
Rosalie crossed the room.
They collided in the middle.
Lorelei held her daughter’s face between both hands.
“I thought he killed you.”
Rosalie sobbed.
“I thought you were dead.”
Manuel turned away.
Even Maya wiped her eyes.
Lorelei had spent twenty years believing Rosalie died shortly after their separation.
Emmett had told her so.
He had shown her a death certificate.
Fake.
He had threatened to expose Lorelei as Daniel Mercer’s murderer if she tried to leave the institution.
Then medications and forged guardianship orders kept her trapped.
When the original facility closed, the lie followed her.
Lorelei had stopped fighting.
Until Rosalie walked through the door.
That evening, mother and daughter sat together for hours.
Lorelei told the investigators everything.
Daniel Mercer had been her friend.
He discovered Emmett’s fraud.
Lorelei agreed to help him.
Emmett found out.
Daniel disappeared.
Lorelei photographed evidence before Emmett moved the body.
She gave the camera and ledger to the only person she thought Emmett would never suspect.
Harlan Voss.
“Why Voss?”
“He wasn’t always like this.”
Lorelei looked toward the window.
“He was afraid.”
“He hid the evidence.”
“Then Emmett discovered his betrayal.”
Rosalie understood.
“And made him work for him.”
“For twenty years.”
Lorelei nodded.
Rosalie took her mother’s hand.
“Where is Daniel Mercer?”
Lorelei’s expression changed.
“The north foundation.”
Manuel leaned forward.
“What foundation?”
Lorelei looked directly at him.
“Pinecrest.”
“When Emmett renovated the north wing, Daniel was buried beneath it.”
Silence filled the room.
Then Lorelei said something worse.
“Rosalie, your father knows I’m alive.”
Rosalie stared at her.
“How?”
Lorelei looked toward the doorway.
“Because someone called here yesterday.”
“Who?”
Lorelei’s voice dropped.
May you like
“He said Emmett Durham sends his love.”
At that exact moment, every light in the building went out.
