Chapter 3 - THE NAME SHE BURIED THREE YEARS AGO
Dela Marsh had been born Delaney Varela.
Her father called her Dela.
Her mother called her sunshine.
Her younger brother called her Dee.
Three years ago, she'd had a family.
A small apartment.
A decent job.
And plans to return to school.
Then the warehouse burned.
Her father died.
Her mother suffered a fatal heart attack two months later.
Her brother vanished.
And Dela survived with a damaged leg, a scarred neck, and a warning.
Change your name.
Leave Boston.
Never tell anyone what you saw.
She tried.
She moved to Providence.
Then Hartford.
Then back to Boston under a false identity.
She worked in restaurants.
Cleaned offices.
Slept in rooms where the windows didn't lock.
And avoided anyone who looked powerful.
Because powerful men had destroyed her family.
Now one of them was sitting across from her.
Cormack Brennan.
The man whose name had appeared in her father's final notebook.
The man she had spent three years believing was responsible.
Cormack looked at her.
“Why didn't you come to me?”
Dela laughed bitterly.
“Because I thought you killed him.”
Silence.
Cormack's expression changed.
“Who told you that?”
She looked away.
“Someone who knew him.”
“Who?”
Dela swallowed.
“Nolan Prescott.”
Cormack went still.
The bartender.
The man who had prepared his whiskey.
The man who had worked for him for nine years.
May you like
Cormack closed his eyes.
Then whispered, “Of course.”
