Chapter 7 - THE WOMAN WHO DIED TWICE
They escaped through a private stairwell.
Caesar refused to leave Briar’s side.
By the time they reached the armored SUV below, flames were crawling up three floors.
Briar stared at the burning building.
“My mother died when I was fifteen.”
Victor opened the car door.
“Get in.”
“I saw her coffin.”
Damien looked at her.
“Did you see her body?”
Briar’s mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
No.
She hadn’t.
Closed casket.
Her aunt had said the accident had been too bad.
Briar got into the SUV.
Damien sat across from her.
Victor drove.
“Tell me everything you remember,” Damien said.
“I remember being fifteen.”
“About her death.”
“I was fifteen.”
Her voice cracked.
“That’s what I remember.”
Damien said nothing.
Briar rubbed her palms over her jeans.
“She was scared the week before. She kept checking the window.”
“Of who?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did she know Corbin’s family?”
Briar shook her head.
Then stopped.
A memory.
Her mother dropping a glass when she saw Corbin’s father on television.
Briar had been thirteen.
She had forgotten.
“No,” she whispered.
Damien leaned forward.
“What?”
“I think she knew his father.”
Victor glanced in the mirror.
Damien’s phone rang.
He answered.
Listened.
Then his face hardened.
“Where?”
He hung up.
“They found Nolan’s burner phone.”
“And?”
“Your name appears in messages going back eight years.”
Briar stared.
“That makes no sense.”
“There’s also an address.”
“Where?”
“Queens.”
They reached the address before sunrise.
A narrow house behind an old church.
Victor went first.
Damien ordered Briar to remain in the SUV.
She ignored him thirty seconds later.
“You are terrible at following instructions,” he muttered.
“You’re terrible at giving them.”
They entered.
Empty kitchen.
Dust.
Old furniture.
Then Caesar began pulling toward a hallway.
He stopped at a closed bedroom door.
Briar’s pulse jumped.
Damien opened it.
A woman sat beside the window.
Thin.
Gray in her hair.
A scar across one cheek.
Briar forgot how to breathe.
The woman stood.
Her cup fell and shattered.
“Briar?”
Briar’s knees weakened.
“No.”
The woman started crying.
“Oh, baby.”
“No.”
Briar backed away.
“You’re dead.”
Her mother covered her mouth.
“I’m sorry.”
“YOU’RE DEAD!”
The scream tore out of Briar.
Fifteen years of grief slammed into betrayal.
“You let me bury you!”
“I had to.”
“You left me!”
“I was protecting you.”
“From what?”
Her mother looked at Damien.
Then at Caesar.
Then back at her daughter.
“From the Ashworth family.”
Briar slowly turned toward Damien.
His expression went cold.
“My family?”
May you like
Her mother’s next words changed everything.
“Briar’s father was your brother.”
