Chapter 3 - The Secret Her Mother Left Behind
The voice on the phone repeated the same words.
"Tell Mara her mother never died."
I stared at Adrian.
He stared at the phone.
Nobody moved.
The entire room felt frozen.
Then Adrian slowly lifted the phone closer to his ear.
"Who is this?"
No answer.
Only breathing.
A quiet, familiar breathing.
The kind of silence that carried a warning.
Adrian's jaw tightened.
"Answer me."
The call ended.
The lights came back on.
But nothing felt normal anymore.
Because the world I knew had just cracked open.
My mother had died when I was eight years old.
I remembered the funeral.
I remembered the black dress my aunt made me wear.
I remembered standing beside a wooden box that was too large for someone who had always seemed so alive.
I remembered everyone telling me she was gone.
But now Adrian Voss was standing in front of me, looking like he had just heard a ghost speak.
And somehow, the ghost was my mother.
"That was impossible," I whispered.
Adrian didn't answer.
He walked to the window, looking outside at the dark streets below.
His men immediately moved.
One checked the cameras.
Another locked the doors.
They weren't confused.
They weren't surprised.
They were preparing.
That frightened me more than anything.
"You knew something."
My voice made Adrian stop.
He didn't turn around.
"I knew your mother."
The words felt heavier than they should have.
"How?"
A long pause.
Then he faced me.
"Because twenty years ago, she saved my life."
I didn't know what to say.
The man in front of me was someone I had only met hours ago.
A stranger who had walked into my apartment and carried me away.
A stranger who somehow knew my name.
A stranger who now claimed my dead mother had been connected to his family.
"My mother was a nurse."
Adrian nodded.
"That's what everyone believed."
I stared at him.
"What does that mean?"
He walked toward the table and placed the old card beside my phone.
"Your mother wasn't only a nurse."
My hands curled into fists.
"Then what was she?"
Adrian looked at the card.
"Someone who knew too much."
The answer made my skin crawl.
I hated mysterious answers.
I hated people who spoke like they were protecting me while hiding the truth.
"My whole life, everyone told me she died in an accident."
"Because that's the story they created."
"Who is they?"
Adrian didn't answer.
That was the moment I realized something.
Adrian Voss was powerful.
Dangerously powerful.
But there were people even he was careful around.
And those people had been watching me my entire life.
"Why did Ethan come after me?"
Adrian's expression changed slightly.
"Ethan wasn't supposed to find you."
The room went silent.
"What?"
He looked at me.
"He was supposed to scare you."
I felt cold.
"What are you saying?"
Adrian walked closer.
"He wasn't the person controlling this."
I remembered Ethan's face.
The anger.
The cruelty.
The confidence.
He had always acted like he owned me.
Like he knew nobody could stop him.
But now Adrian was telling me Ethan was just a piece on a board.
I looked away.
"So I was just a target?"
"No."
Adrian's answer came instantly.
"You were hidden."
I looked back at him.
"Hidden from who?"
Before Adrian could answer, one of his men entered the room.
"Boss."
Adrian turned.
The man's face was serious.
"We found something."
He handed Adrian a tablet.
Adrian looked at the screen.
Then his expression changed.
I noticed.
Because Adrian Voss was a man who controlled his emotions.
But whatever he saw made him forget to hide them.
"What is it?"
He didn't respond.
I stood.
The movement caused pain through my side.
Adrian immediately noticed.
"Don't."
"I need to know."
"Mara."
"No."
My voice surprised even me.
"I spent my whole life being told things I wasn't allowed to question."
I stepped closer.
"I lost my mother."
I pointed at the tablet.
"I lost my home."
I looked directly at him.
"I almost lost my life tonight."
My voice shook.
"But I am done being the person everyone protects by lying to."
Adrian stared at me.
For a moment, neither of us spoke.
Then he turned the tablet around.
I looked.
And my entire body went cold.
It was a photograph.
An old photograph.
A woman stood beside a younger version of Adrian.
My mother.
I knew her immediately.
Even after all these years.
Her smile.
Her eyes.
The way she held herself.
But there was someone else in the picture.
A man standing behind them.
Someone I had never seen before.
Adrian noticed my expression.
"You recognize him?"
I shook my head.
"No."
He studied me.
"Look closer."
I did.
And then I saw it.
Around the man's wrist.
A bracelet.
A small silver bracelet with a symbol engraved into it.
My breathing stopped.
Because I had seen that symbol before.
Inside my mother's old jewelry box.
A bracelet she had kept hidden.
A bracelet she told me never to touch.
"Where did you get this picture?"
Adrian didn't answer.
Instead, he zoomed in on the corner.
There was writing.
A date.
And a location.
My eyes moved to the words.
I felt dizzy.
Because the location was not some distant place.
It was my childhood home.
The house where my mother supposedly died.
"That can't be right."
Adrian watched me carefully.
"Why?"
"Because nobody was there that night except me."
A strange silence followed.
Then Adrian asked:
"Are you sure?"
The question hurt.
Because suddenly I wasn't.
I remembered the night my mother disappeared.
The fire.
The shouting.
The people outside.
The man who carried me away.
I had always thought he was a firefighter.
But now...
I couldn't remember his face.
I couldn't remember his voice.
I only remembered one thing.
A phrase whispered into my ear.
"Don't tell anyone your mother's name."
My heart started beating faster.
"Adrian."
He looked at me.
"I remember something."
Before I could continue, every phone inside the room vibrated at the same time.
Adrian's men immediately checked their screens.
One of them looked terrified.
"Boss."
Adrian took his phone.
His eyes moved across the message.
Then he handed it to me.
A photo.
Taken minutes ago.
Of me.
Standing inside Adrian's safe house.
My blood turned cold.
Because nobody outside should have known where I was.
Under the picture was a message.
Three words.
"We found her."
Adrian immediately moved toward the door.
"Nobody leaves this room."
I looked at him.
"Who sent that?"
He didn't answer.
Because he was already looking at the security monitor.
The camera feed showed the entrance hallway.
Empty.
Then the elevator lights turned on.
Someone was coming up.
Adrian reached for his weapon.
His men surrounded the room.
The elevator doors opened.
Slowly.
A figure stepped out.
And Adrian whispered a name I had never heard before.
A name that made every person in the room go silent.
May you like
Because the person standing outside was the one person Adrian Voss believed had been dead for fifteen years...
"Lucian."
