Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN I THOUGHT WAS THE ENEMY
Adrian cleared Blackthorn House in seven minutes.
Guests surrendered phones.
Employees were separated.
Police were not called.
That frightened me almost as much as everything else.
I sat inside Adrian's private office gripping Vanessa's phone.
Owen's photograph remained on the screen.
“Where is he?”
Vanessa stood across from me.
“I don't know.”
“You've watched us for eleven years?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
She looked toward Adrian.
He stood beside the window.
“Tell her,” he said.
Vanessa swallowed.
“My father knew yours.”
I laughed.
It came out ugly.
“My father abandoned us.”
“No.”
“What?”
“He disappeared.”
“Same difference.”
“No, Mara.”
Vanessa's voice softened.
“He didn't leave voluntarily.”
I stared.
My father, Thomas Bennett, vanished when I was sixteen.
No goodbye.
No call.
No body.
My mother spent years telling us some men simply ran when life became expensive.
I believed her because hatred was easier than uncertainty.
Vanessa placed a photograph on the desk.
My father stood beside another man.
Adrian Cross.
Except Adrian looked younger.
Maybe twenty-five.
“What is this?”
Adrian answered.
“Your father worked for me.”
My lungs forgot how to breathe.
“As what?”
“Accountant.”
I laughed again.
“My father repaired elevators.”
“That was his legitimate job.”
Adrian's eyes did not leave mine.
“He also audited financial records for my father.”
“Your criminal records.”
“Yes.”
I stood.
“You knew him?”
“Yes.”
“Did you kill him?”
The room went silent.
Vanessa closed her eyes.
Adrian did not flinch.
“No.”
“Did your family?”
“I don't know.”
That answer scared me more.
Adrian opened a locked drawer.
Inside was an old envelope.
My name was written across it.
MARA.
My father's handwriting.
I knew every crooked letter.
My hands shook.
“How long have you had this?”
“Eleven years.”
I slapped Adrian.
Nobody moved.
His head turned slightly.
I expected his guards to react.
They didn't.
He looked back at me.
“You deserved that.”
“You had a letter from my father for eleven years?”
“I was told to give it to you only if something happened to Owen.”
My anger stopped.
“What?”
Adrian pushed the envelope toward me.
I tore it open.
Inside were four words.
MARA, TRUST WHAT YOU NOTICE.
Then:
THE NUMBERS ARE IN THE SONGS.
Nothing else.
I stared.
“That makes no sense.”
Vanessa whispered:
“It will.”
She explained.
Thomas Bennett discovered someone inside the Cross organization was siphoning millions through charities and medical foundations.
He began collecting evidence.
Before he could identify the person controlling the network, he vanished.
Vanessa's father had been the attorney helping him.
“That's why you watched us?”
“My father made me promise.”
“Why secretly?”
“Because whoever took Thomas was still alive.”
Adrian stepped forward.
“And tonight they moved against me.”
I looked at Owen's photograph.
“Why take him?”
Adrian's expression hardened.
“Because they think your father gave your family something.”
“The numbers are in the songs.”
Vanessa nodded.
“What songs?”
Then I remembered.
Owen.
His piano.
Our father had taught him six songs before disappearing.
Owen still played them whenever he was scared.
I looked at Adrian.
“I know where the numbers are.”
May you like
And somewhere in Chicago, whoever had kidnapped my brother probably knew too.
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