Chapter 3 - Captain Buttons
Elena nearly fell down the stairs.
Damian caught her elbow.
She tore away.
“Give me that photograph.”
Evan smiled.
“Hello to you too.”
Damian descended behind her.
“Who are you?”
“Her husband.”
“Ex-husband,” Elena snapped.
Evan’s eyes traveled over Damian’s suit.
“So the rumors are true.”
“What rumors?”
“That Mercer offered marriage to whoever fixed his kid.”
Damian’s voice became quiet.
“You have ten seconds to explain the photograph.”
Evan looked at Elena.
“I can explain everything.”
“Then start.”
“Not here.”
Damian gestured around the mansion.
“You’re surrounded by twelve armed men. This is the safest place you’re ever going to get.”
Evan’s smile vanished.
He handed Elena the photograph.
Lily.
Older than Elena remembered.
Standing beside a lake.
Elena knew every line of her daughter’s face.
This was Lily.
Or someone who looked impossibly like her.
“Where did you get this?”
“Ray Maddox.”
The name chilled her.
Damian noticed.
“Who is Maddox?”
“A loan shark.”
Evan laughed nervously.
“He’s more than that.”
Elena stared at him.
“You borrowed from him.”
“I borrowed because Lily needed surgery.”
“You gambled it away.”
“I was trying to double it.”
Her palm struck his face.
The sound echoed.
Noah appeared halfway down the stairs.
Elena immediately regretted it.
She lowered her hand.
Evan rubbed his cheek.
“Still dramatic.”
Damian stepped between them.
“Say that again and you’ll discover how dramatic I can be.”
Elena looked at the photograph.
“Is she alive?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then why are you here?”
“Because Maddox wants something from Mercer.”
Damian’s eyes narrowed.
“What?”
“A file Rebecca Mercer stole from St. Catherine’s.”
Damian glanced upstairs.
The flash drive.
Evan saw the recognition.
“You found it.”
Vincent seized him.
“Search him.”
They found a burner phone.
One message.
GET THE DRIVE OR THE WOMAN PAYS.
The woman.
Elena.
Damian read it twice.
“You brought danger to my house.”
Evan laughed bitterly.
“Your house is where the danger started.”
Noah suddenly came downstairs.
Captain Buttons hung from his hand.
He approached Elena.
Then held up the bear.
Something hard shifted inside it.
Elena felt it.
She examined the seam.
Rebecca’s purple stitching.
“Scissors.”
Mrs. Whitmore brought them.
Elena carefully cut three threads.
Inside Captain Buttons was a tiny brass key.
Damian stared.
“My wife put that there.”
Noah nodded.
Then signed.
Elena translated.
“Mommy said bear keeps truth.”
Damian’s face changed.
“You remember her saying that?”
Noah nodded.
“Why didn’t you show me?”
The boy lowered his eyes.
Elena answered quietly.
“Because he wasn’t ready.”
Damian closed his fist around the key.
Evan suddenly lunged for it.
Vincent slammed him against the wall.
“You idiot,” Evan shouted. “You don’t understand. If Maddox knows you found that key, everybody in this house is dead.”
Damian approached him.
“Where does it go?”
“I don’t know.”
Damian pressed him against the wall.
“Wrong answer.”
“I swear.”
Noah covered his ears.
Elena saw him.
“Damian.”
He stopped.
It was the first time she had used his first name.
His eyes met hers.
She pointed at Noah.
Damian released Evan.
That single choice changed something.
Noah noticed too.
Elena took the key.
A number had been engraved along its stem.
Mrs. Whitmore inhaled sharply.
Damian turned.
“You recognize it.”
“No.”
“Grace.”
Her composure cracked.
“Rebecca once asked me where the old servants’ lockers were.”
“Where?”
“The basement.”
They descended together.
Locker 417 stood behind a rusted maintenance cabinet.
Damian inserted the key.
Click.
Inside was a single sealed envelope.
Elena opened it.
A hospital wristband fell into her palm.
LILY HART.
Elena stopped breathing.
Then another object dropped.
A death certificate.
But the name printed on it was not Lily Hart.
It was another child.
Same birth date.
Same hospital.
Same surgery date.
Elena looked at Damian.
“My daughter’s death certificate had this medical record number.”
Damian stared at the document.
Someone had switched the identities.
Behind them, Evan whispered:
“Oh God.”
Damian turned.
Evan was staring past him.
At the basement door.
May you like
It was slowly opening from the other side.
And Ray Maddox stepped through.
