Chapter 9 - The Woman Who Was Supposed to Be Dead
Beatrice stared at the image until it blurred.
“Mara.”
Adriano called the facility.
No answer.
They drove.
Federal agents arrived first.
The evidence room was empty.
The fragment was gone.
So was Mara.
But she had left a message.
Not for Beatrice.
For Adriano.
STOP LOOKING FOR ME. PROTECT THEO.
Beatrice crumpled the paper.
“No.”
“Beatrice—”
“No. She doesn't get to do this.”
“She may be trying to protect you.”
“She has been alive for two years.”
“She was being hunted.”
“So were we.”
Adriano had no answer.
Beatrice cried in the parking lot.
Not delicately.
Not quietly.
Two years of grief had suddenly become anger with nowhere to go.
Adriano stood nearby until she finally said, “Why didn't she come home?”
“I don't know.”
“What if she didn't want to?”
“You don't believe that.”
“I don't know what I believe.”
Adriano stepped closer.
“She went into a federal evidence facility to retrieve something connected to Theo. Whatever else is true, she hasn't stopped protecting him.”
Beatrice wiped her face.
“How are you suddenly good at this?”
“At what?”
“Knowing what to say.”
“I'm not.”
“You really aren't.”
That almost made her smile.
They found Mara through Theo.
He remembered his mother used to call the stuffed shark “Captain Blue.”
Inside the toy's old stitched seam, Beatrice discovered a tiny paper.
A phone number.
She called.
Mara answered.
Neither sister spoke.
Then Beatrice whispered, “You let me bury you.”
Mara began crying.
“I know.”
“Where are you?”
“I can't tell you.”
“Then I'm done.”
“Bea—”
“You come to me, or I stop listening.”
Silence.
Then Mara gave an address.
An abandoned laundromat.
Beatrice went with Adriano.
Mara stood inside.
Alive.
Thinner.
Scarred.
But alive.
Beatrice crossed the room and slapped her.
Then hugged her.
Both women collapsed into tears.
Mara explained everything.
She had survived.
Lorenzo hid her.
Marcus found her.
Mercer held her.
She escaped.
Every attempt to contact Beatrice had been intercepted.
Then Mara learned Marcus had people watching Theo.
“If I came home, he would know.”
“He already knew,” Beatrice said.
“I know that now.”
Mara looked at Adriano.
“You finally opened your eyes.”
He accepted the accusation.
“Too late.”
“Yes.”
“What was inside the fragment?”
Mara held up a capsule.
“The original ledger.”
Transactions tied Marcus and Carlo to trafficking, bribery, murder—and the waterfront attack.
“Why put it inside Theo?”
“I didn't.”
Everyone froze.
“Then who did?”
“Mercer.”
Mara explained Mercer had turned against Marcus.
During Theo's second procedure, he embedded the capsule in the fragment because he knew Marcus would never search inside the evidence of his own crime.
But Mercer also moved the fragment dangerously.
“He thought he could retrieve it later.”
Beatrice's face hardened.
“He gambled with Theo's life.”
“Yes.”
Mara handed the capsule to Adriano.
“End it.”
He didn't take it.
“You should.”
“Why?”
“Because it's your evidence.”
Mara looked at Beatrice.
Then she placed it in her sister's hand.
“You decide.”
Beatrice called federal investigators.
The evidence was transferred.
Within hours, warrants were issued.
Marcus had nowhere left to hide.
Or so they thought.
At 9:30 p.m., Mara finally saw Theo.
He stared at her from his hospital bed.
“Mom?”
Mara broke.
She knelt beside him.
Theo touched her scar.
“You're real.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you come?”
Mara cried.
“I was scared.”
Theo considered that.
“Me too.”
Then he hugged her.
Beatrice turned away.
Adriano did too.
Some moments belonged to families.
Later, Theo slept with Mara beside him.
Beatrice found Adriano in the corridor.
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“Not giving up.”
“I had debts.”
“That isn't why you stayed.”
He looked at her.
Neither moved.
For one dangerous second, all the things they hadn't said existed between them.
Then Adriano's phone rang.
Luca.
He answered.
“Marcus was found.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
Luca paused.
“Inside your mansion.”
Adriano's expression changed.
“What is he doing there?”
“He isn't alone.”
“Who is with him?”
Luca looked across the mansion study at the person Marcus had forced into a chair.
May you like
Then he gave Adriano the name.
“Your father.”
