Chapter 3 - The Woman Behind The Locked Door
The door moved slowly.
Not kicked open.
Not forced.
Opened carefully.
Like whoever stood outside knew exactly what they were doing.
I stood behind Adrian Voss, unable to move.
Five minutes earlier, I thought my biggest problem was explaining why I had flooded a bathroom in a mansion I had worked in for eleven days.
Now I was hiding behind the owner of that mansion while a stranger holding a photograph of me prepared to enter a secret meeting room.
My life had changed too quickly for my mind to catch up.
Adrian kept his eyes on the doorway.
His voice was barely audible.
"Stay behind me."
I almost laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because the situation was impossible.
The man I had been warned about.
The man everyone feared.
The man who controlled every room he entered.
Was standing between me and danger.
Protecting me.
"Who is Elena?" I whispered.
Adrian did not answer.
That scared me more than anything.
Because Adrian Voss always had an answer.
The door opened wider.
A woman stepped inside.
She looked to be in her early thirties.
Dark hair.
Pale face.
A long black coat covering her clothes.
She looked exhausted.
Not dangerous.
Not like someone who had broken into a mansion.
But Adrian reacted like he had seen a ghost.
The woman stopped when she saw him.
For several seconds, neither of them spoke.
Then she looked past him.
At me.
My entire body went cold.
Because her eyes changed.
Not with anger.
With sadness.
Like she already knew me.
"Maya Bennett."
Hearing my name from a stranger inside a locked room made my stomach twist.
Adrian stepped forward.
"How did you get inside?"
The woman ignored him.
She continued looking at me.
"I didn't think you would find her this soon."
Adrian's expression hardened.
"Elena."
The woman's eyes moved back to him.
"You still don't understand what happened, do you?"
The room went silent.
I looked between them.
"Can someone please explain why everyone knows my name except me?"
Neither of them answered.
That was becoming a terrible habit.
I stepped out from behind Adrian.
His hand immediately reached toward me.
Not grabbing.
Warning.
"Maya."
I looked at him.
"No."
My voice surprised even me.
"I have spent the last hour finding out strangers have pictures of me, my dead father apparently knew secrets about you, and now a woman I have never met walked into a locked room and knows my name."
I looked at Elena.
"I think I deserve to know what is happening."
For the first time, Elena looked directly at Adrian.
"She has his eyes."
Adrian froze.
I noticed.
A tiny reaction.
But I saw it.
"Whose eyes?" I asked.
Elena looked at me.
"Your father's."
The room felt heavier.
My father.
Again.
Everything kept coming back to him.
A man I barely remembered.
A man who died before I was old enough to understand why people whispered about him.
"What did my father do?" I asked.
Elena slowly walked toward the table.
She placed the photograph she had been holding beside the one Adrian showed me.
They were identical.
Except one difference.
On the back of Elena's photograph was writing.
I turned it over.
Four words.
"Protect Maya at all costs."
My fingers tightened around the picture.
"Who wrote this?"
Elena looked at Adrian.
"He did."
Adrian's jaw tightened.
"No."
The answer came immediately.
Too quickly.
"You know this handwriting."
Adrian didn't respond.
Elena looked back at me.
"Your father trusted him."
She pointed at Adrian.
"And Adrian failed him."
The words hit the room like a weapon.
I looked at Adrian.
For the first time, I wondered if I had been wrong about him.
Maybe he wasn't the person protecting me.
Maybe he was part of the reason I needed protection.
"Is that true?"
Adrian looked at me.
His expression was impossible to read.
"I made mistakes."
"That's not an answer."
"No."
His voice became quieter.
"It's not."
He walked toward the table and opened another compartment hidden beneath the surface.
Inside was a small metal box.
Old.
Scratched.
Locked.
He placed it in front of me.
"This belonged to your father."
I stared at it.
"Why do you have it?"
"Because he gave it to me."
"Why didn't you give it to me?"
Adrian looked away.
That answer hurt more than if he had lied.
"Because I was trying to keep you alive."
I laughed softly.
"By hiding my own father's things from me?"
"By keeping you away from the people who killed him."
The room went completely silent.
My smile disappeared.
"Killed him?"
Adrian looked at Elena.
She nodded.
"He wasn't supposed to die."
I stared at both of them.
"My father had a heart attack."
Elena looked down.
"That is what everyone wanted you to believe."
The words made my chest tighten.
For fifteen years, I had lived with one version of my father's death.
Now strangers were taking that away from me piece by piece.
"Who killed him?"
Adrian did not answer.
Instead, he opened the metal box.
Inside was a small flash drive.
A handwritten note.
And a newspaper clipping.
The headline was faded.
But I could still read the name.
My father's name.
Underneath it were words that made my hands shake.
"Investigation Closed."
Adrian picked up the flash drive.
"Your father discovered a network of people who controlled information, money, and businesses across the city."
I stared at him.
"And you were part of that?"
"No."
The answer came immediately.
"I was trying to destroy it."
I looked at Elena.
"Do you believe him?"
She didn't answer.
That was enough.
A sudden sound interrupted us.
A phone ringing.
Not Adrian's.
Not Elena's.
Mine.
I looked down.
My phone was in my pocket.
The screen showed an unknown number.
Adrian immediately looked concerned.
"Don't answer."
I stared at him.
"Why?"
"Because whoever is calling knows you are here."
My finger hovered over the screen.
The phone continued ringing.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Then a message appeared.
A picture.
My blood froze.
It was a photo of me.
Standing in Adrian's meeting room.
Taken moments ago.
Impossible.
Because nobody else was inside.
Below the picture was a message.
"Ask Adrian why he never told you about your mother."
I looked up slowly.
Adrian's face changed.
Not confusion.
Not anger.
Fear.
"My mother?"
He didn't answer.
"Adrian."
Silence.
Then Elena whispered:
"Maya..."
I turned toward her.
She looked terrified.
"Your mother isn't dead."
The room stopped moving.
For fifteen years, I believed I had lost both parents.
My father first.
My mother two years later.
A car accident.
A closed case.
A life I had accepted.
But now Elena was looking at me like she was afraid of the truth.
"Where is she?"
No one answered.
Then Adrian looked toward the hallway.
The security screen flickered back on.
A new camera feed appeared.
A woman was standing outside the mansion gates.
Older.
Tired.
Holding an envelope.
Adrian stepped closer to the screen.
His face went pale.
Because he recognized her.
And then the woman slowly lifted her head toward the camera.
She looked directly into the lens.
And whispered:
May you like
"Maya..."
The gate opened by itself.
