Chapter 8 - The Widow’s Offer
Elena closed the door behind her.
Penny studied her.
Elegant black dress.
Dark hair.
No visible weapon.
That somehow made her more frightening.
Margaret backed toward the wall.
Elena looked at her.
“You’ve become inconvenient.”
Margaret’s face drained.
Penny stepped between them.
“If you came for me, talk to me.”
Elena smiled.
“You really are Elaine’s daughter.”
“Everyone keeps saying that.”
“It’s a compliment.”
“Not from you.”
Elena’s smile disappeared.
“Good.”
Penny held Margaret’s key inside her fist.
“Are you the Widow?”
“No.”
“Do you know who is?”
“Yes.”
“Name.”
Elena looked toward the window.
“Not yet.”
Penny almost laughed.
“I’m getting very tired of your family.”
Elena looked surprised.
Then amused.
“I married into it.”
“That doesn’t improve your case.”
A faint sound came through Penny’s earpiece.
Roman.
He had insisted she wear it.
“We’re outside.”
Penny touched her hair as acknowledgment.
Elena noticed.
“Roman?”
Penny said nothing.
Elena sighed.
“He always was cautious.”
“You mean alive?”
“That too.”
Penny’s voice hardened.
“Why did you fake your death?”
“To survive Adrian.”
Penny frowned.
“You loved him.”
“I did.”
“Then why?”
“Because love and safety are not always the same thing.”
Penny thought of Bradley.
“On that, we agree.”
Elena sat.
“Adrian was becoming his father. I discovered accounts I wasn’t supposed to see. When I questioned him, he told me it was family business.”
Penny remembered Adrian’s version.
He had said the explosion was meant for him.
“What happened that night?”
“I arranged to disappear.”
“You caused the explosion?”
“No.”
Elena looked toward Margaret.
“She did.”
Margaret shook her head.
“I was ordered.”
“By whom?” Penny demanded.
Margaret began crying.
“I can’t.”
Elena laughed softly.
“You still think silence protects you.”
Penny looked at Margaret.
“So did Sofia.”
Margaret’s eyes widened.
“You found Sofia’s recording.”
“Yes.”
“Then you know.”
“No. I know everyone has spent decades refusing to say one name.”
Margaret sat heavily.
Penny approached.
“Say it.”
Margaret looked at Elena.
Then at Penny.
“The Widow is someone you already met.”
Penny’s pulse increased.
“Who?”
A gunshot shattered the window.
Roman’s voice exploded through the earpiece.
“DOWN!”
Penny dropped.
Glass rained across the floor.
Elena pulled Penny behind the desk.
Margaret screamed.
Roman’s men entered seconds later.
The shooter escaped.
Margaret had been hit.
Penny pressed her hands against the wound.
“Stay with me.”
Margaret coughed.
“Key.”
“I have it.”
“Locker…”
“What locker?”
“Penn Station.”
Penny leaned closer.
“Margaret, who is the Widow?”
Margaret’s eyes found hers.
“She knows your mother is alive.”
Penny froze.
“What?”
Margaret’s eyes closed.
Paramedics rushed in.
Penny remained kneeling.
Her mother.
Alive.
Impossible.
Roman pulled her gently away.
“Penny.”
“She said my mother is alive.”
Roman stared.
“What?”
Penny stood.
“We’re going to Penn Station.”
The locker contained a single envelope.
Inside was a recent photograph.
Penny stopped breathing.
A woman in her fifties stood outside a café.
Older.
Gray through her auburn hair.
But unmistakable.
Elaine Gallagher.
Penny’s mother.
Alive.
On the back:
SHE NEVER DIED.
Penny’s knees buckled.
Roman caught her.
For once she did not pull away.
Twenty-two years of grief collapsed in one instant.
“Why?” she whispered.
Roman held her without answering.
Because there was no answer that would help.
Inside the envelope was an address.
Upstate New York.
They drove through the night.
Penny barely spoke.
At dawn, they reached a small house near a lake.
Penny walked to the door alone.
Knocked.
Footsteps.
The door opened.
The woman in the photograph stood there.
She looked at Penny.
Her face crumpled.
“Penelope.”
Penny could not breathe.
Her mother reached toward her.
Penny stepped backward.
“No.”
Elaine stopped.
“You’re alive.”
“Yes.”
“You were alive every birthday.”
Elaine began crying.
“Penny—”
“Every Christmas.”
“I know.”
“Graduation.”
“I know.”
“My first job.”
“I know.”
Penny’s voice broke.
“You knew?”
Elaine covered her mouth.
“I watched from a distance.”
That hurt worse.
“You watched?”
“I was trying to keep you safe.”
Penny laughed through tears.
“There’s that word again.”
Elaine looked confused.
“Protection.”
Penny shook her head.
“I’m done with people hurting me and calling it protection.”
Elaine lowered her hand.
“You deserve the truth.”
“Yes.”
“All of it.”
“Yes.”
Elaine looked past Penny toward Roman.
Her face changed.
“Vittorio’s son.”
Roman nodded.
Elaine whispered, “Then we don’t have much time.”
“Why?”
“Because the Widow knows you found me.”
Penny entered.
Elaine locked the door.
Then she brought out an old photograph.
Penny stared.
It showed Elaine holding a newborn baby.
Penny.
Beside her stood another woman.
Sofia Valerius.
And between them was a man Penny had never seen.
Elaine pointed to him.
“This is where everything began.”
“Who is he?”
Elaine swallowed.
“Your father.”
Penny’s heart stopped.
“My father was Daniel Gallagher.”
“No.”
Elaine shook her head.
“Daniel raised you. He loved you.”
“Who is this?”
Elaine looked at Roman.
Then at Penny.
“His name was Gabriel Valerius.”
Roman went completely still.
Penny turned.
“Who?”
Roman’s voice was barely audible.
“My uncle.”
Penny stared at him.
Elaine continued.
“And Gabriel had another child.”
A knock sounded at the front door.
Three slow knocks.
Elaine turned white.
Penny whispered, “Who?”
Elaine stared at the door.
May you like
“The other heir.”
The lock began turning from outside.
