Chapter 3 - The Woman Who Wasn't My Mother
Mara stared at the note.
Adrian didn't touch it with his bare hands.
Daniel did.
“Don't,” Thomas warned.
Daniel unfolded it.
On the reverse side was an address.
417 West Bell Street.
Mara recognized it.
“That’s my mother’s apartment.”
Adrian looked at her.
“You said she lived in Ohio.”
“She does.”
“That address is here.”
Mara took the note.
It was impossible.
Elaine had moved to Ohio when Mara was nineteen.
At least, that was what Mara had believed.
417 West Bell was the apartment where Mara had grown up.
The apartment Elaine claimed she'd sold fourteen years ago.
Mara grabbed her coat.
“I'm going.”
Adrian blocked neither the door nor her path.
“I'll arrange a car.”
“No.”
“Mara.”
“I've had enough men arranging things for me.”
That silenced everyone.
She looked at Daniel.
“You're not coming.”
His face fell.
“I can help.”
“You've helped enough.”
Then she looked at Adrian.
“You can come because that ledger is apparently connected to my family.”
Adrian nodded.
“And Thomas.”
The older man seemed surprised.
“Me?”
“You know more than you're saying.”
Thomas didn't deny it.
Twenty minutes later, Mara sat in the rear of a black sedan beside Adrian.
Thomas rode in front.
No one spoke for the first ten minutes.
Mara watched the city pass.
Her life had become unrecognizable in less than an hour.
That morning, her biggest problem had been an overdue electricity bill.
Now her ex-boyfriend had admitted he had entered her life under orders from a billionaire.
Her mother's identity was questionable.
And her name was written inside a dead man's secret ledger.
“You can still go to the police,” Adrian said.
“I already called them.”
“I mean with everything.”
“So can you.”
“I intend to.”
Mara turned toward him.
That wasn't the answer she expected.
“You do?”
“Yes.”
“I thought men like you avoided police.”
“What kind of man am I?”
She studied his tattoos.
His suit.
The quiet authority.
“The kind people whisper about.”
A faint smile touched his mouth.
“People enjoy whispers.”
“Are they wrong?”
“Sometimes.”
“Are they wrong about you?”
He looked out the window.
“Not always.”
Mara waited.
He offered nothing more.
“Why did your father have that ledger?”
“He spent the last years of his life trying to undo things he had helped build.”
“What things?”
“Companies. Alliances. Debts.”
“Crime?”
Adrian looked at her.
“Yes.”
At least he didn't lie.
“My father wasn't a good man for most of his life,” he continued. “Near the end, he tried to become a better one.”
“Did he?”
“I don't know.”
Mara understood that answer more than she wanted to.
Daniel had apologized a hundred times.
Apologies were easy.
Change was expensive.
The sedan stopped outside 417 West Bell.
Mara stared through the window.
The building was still there.
Older.
Narrower than she remembered.
A red brick apartment building squeezed between a laundromat and a closed bakery.
A light burned on the third floor.
Her old apartment.
“That shouldn't be possible.”
Adrian followed her gaze.
“Why?”
“Elaine sold it.”
Thomas turned around.
“No, she didn't.”
Mara looked at him.
“You knew?”
“I knew someone continued paying the property taxes.”
“Who?”
“A holding company.”
“Whose?”
Thomas hesitated.
“Your mother's.”
Mara got out.
She climbed the stairs quickly.
Adrian and Thomas followed.
The third-floor hallway smelled exactly as she remembered.
Old carpet.
Laundry soap.
Radiator heat.
Apartment 3C.
Mara touched the door.
A childhood memory struck her.
Elaine kneeling beside her.
Never open this door for anyone unless they say the word sparrow.
Mara had forgotten that.
Why remember now?
She knocked.
Nothing.
Again.
“Mom?”
Silence.
The door was unlocked.
Mara pushed it open.
The apartment looked abandoned.
Furniture covered with sheets.
Dust on the floor.
But there were footprints.
Fresh ones.
Adrian noticed them too.
He motioned for Mara to remain behind him.
She ignored him.
“Mom?”
They moved through the living room.
Mara found photographs on the wall.
Her kindergarten graduation.
Her tenth birthday.
Her first waitressing job.
Pictures Elaine had supposedly packed when she moved.
“Why are these here?”
Thomas lifted one.
Behind it was another photograph.
Elena Marlowe.
The woman from Room Seventeen.
Holding a newborn baby.
Mara sat down.
“No.”
Thomas said nothing.
On the back:
MARA — 3 DAYS OLD.
Mara looked at Thomas.
“Tell me.”
He lowered his eyes.
“Elaine Ellis raised you.”
“That's not what I asked.”
“She loved you.”
“Tell me.”
Thomas took a long breath.
“Elena Marlowe gave birth to you.”
The words entered Mara slowly.
“No.”
“Elaine was her closest friend.”
“No.”
“Elena knew she was in danger.”
“Stop.”
“She asked Elaine to take you.”
Mara stood.
“You're lying.”
“I wish I were.”
“Where is Elena?”
Thomas looked away.
“Where is she?”
“We believed she died.”
“Believed?”
“No body was found.”
Mara pressed both hands against the table.
Adrian remained silent.
That helped.
No comforting words.
No attempt to touch her.
Just space.
Mara looked at the photograph again.
Her real mother.
If Thomas was telling the truth.
“Why was Elena in danger?”
Thomas's face tightened.
“Because she discovered what Victor was doing.”
“What?”
“Stealing from Adrian's father.”
Adrian frowned.
“That wouldn't explain twenty-eight years of hiding.”
“No.”
Thomas looked at him.
“Because the money wasn't the important part.”
“What was?”
“Names.”
Mara looked toward the ledger.
Thomas nodded.
“Elena created the original records.”
Adrian stared.
“My father's ledger?”
“Her ledger.”
That changed everything.
Thomas walked to an old cabinet.
He pulled the bottom drawer out completely.
Behind it was a steel panel.
Mara remembered Elaine forbidding her from using that drawer.
Thomas pressed two corners.
The panel opened.
Inside were cassette tapes.
Documents.
Photographs.
And a second leather ledger.
Mara stared.
Adrian took it out.
The cover was marked with a single letter.
E.
He opened it.
Pages of names.
Payments.
Dates.
Companies.
Some entries were crossed out.
Others were circled.
Mara's name wasn't inside.
But Daniel Mercer's was.
She pointed.
“There.”
Adrian read.
DANIEL MERCER — RECRUITED 2023.
Mara's stomach dropped.
Three years ago.
Exactly when they met.
Beneath it:
ASSIGNMENT: M.E.E.
Mara stepped away.
Daniel had told the truth.
He had been sent to find her.
But another notation followed.
SUBJECT UNAWARE.
DO NOT DISCLOSE PARENTAGE.
Mara felt sick.
Adrian turned pages.
“Victor was tracking you.”
“Why?”
Thomas picked up one of the cassette tapes.
“Because Elena took something from him.”
“What?”
“Proof.”
“Of what?”
Before Thomas could answer, Mara heard a sound from the bedroom.
A floorboard.
Adrian raised one hand.
Everyone stopped.
Another sound.
Someone was inside.
Adrian moved toward the doorway.
Mara followed despite his look.
The bedroom was empty.
Window open.
Curtains moving.
On the bed sat a cassette recorder.
Its red light was blinking.
Mara pressed PLAY.
Static.
Then Elaine's voice.
“Mara, if you're hearing this, I couldn't keep the truth from reaching you anymore.”
Mara sat on the edge of the bed.
Elaine continued.
“I wasn't the woman who gave birth to you. But every day I raised you, you were my daughter.”
Mara covered her mouth.
“I promised Elena I would keep you hidden until Victor was gone. I failed.”
A pause.
Then:
“Daniel was sent to watch you. I discovered the truth too late. But Daniel isn't the person you need to fear most.”
Mara looked at Adrian.
The recording continued.
“Victor has spent twenty-eight years looking for the original page Elena removed from the ledger.”
Adrian turned toward the second book.
“What page?” Mara whispered.
Elaine answered as though she had heard.
“The page that proves who really owns Hale Meridian.”
Mara frowned.
“Why would that matter?”
“Because Victor never owned it.”
A knock sounded from the apartment door.
Three slow knocks.
Mara froze.
The recording continued.
“Elena did.”
Adrian's eyes widened.
Another knock.
Thomas moved toward the hallway.
Mara grabbed his arm.
“Wait.”
Elaine's recorded voice became quieter.
“And after Elena disappeared, ownership legally passed to her only child.”
Mara looked at the photograph of the newborn.
Her.
A shadow appeared beneath the front door.
Someone was standing outside.
Then a woman's voice called through the wood.
“Mara?”
Mara went pale.
She knew that voice.
“Mom?”
The door handle slowly turned.
Elaine Ellis stepped inside.
May you like
Blood covered the sleeve of her coat.
And behind her stood Daniel.
