Chapter 5 - CATHERINE'S BRACELET
Diane's first instinct was disbelief.
Her second was rage.
“Catherine is Sadi's mother?”
Evelyn nodded.
“No.”
Diane paced away from the bed.
“She looked at me tonight. She asked my name. She paid me to kiss Ravi.”
“She didn't know who you were,” Evelyn said.
“She knew Sadi?”
“She knew a baby had survived.”
“That isn't what I asked.”
Ravi stood unnaturally still.
“Catherine was seventeen?”
“Yes.”
Ravi looked at Evelyn.
“My brother was involved with Catherine Voss?”
“Secretly.”
“Why didn't I know?”
“Because your father threatened both of them.”
Ravi turned toward the window.
For perhaps the first time, Diane understood what this was costing him.
Adrian had apparently hidden an entire life from his younger brother.
Not because Ravi meant nothing to him.
Perhaps because Ravi had still belonged to the world Adrian was trying to escape.
Diane softened for exactly three seconds.
Then she remembered Catherine.
“Where is she?”
Ravi turned.
“At the hotel.”
“Take me back.”
“No.”
Diane stared.
“That wasn't a request.”
“You're bringing Sadi nowhere near Catherine until we know why she did what she did tonight.”
“Then Sadi stays with Marcus.”
From the doorway, Marcus said, “I appear to have been promoted.”
Sadi looked up at him.
“To what?”
“Unclear.”
“Can we get pizza?”
Marcus sighed.
“Apparently guardian.”
Diane crouched before Sadi.
“We need to talk to somebody.”
“About Mom?”
“Yes.”
“Are you coming back?”
The question broke something inside Diane.
She hugged her.
“Always.”
Sadi whispered, “Promise?”
“Promise.”
At the Grand Aurelia, Catherine was no longer wearing the confidence she'd had earlier.
She sat in a private lounge with Melissa beside her.
When Diane entered, Catherine stood.
“What now?”
Diane crossed the room.
She placed the photograph on the table.
Catherine looked down.
All color left her face.
Ravi watched closely.
“Recognize it?”
Catherine didn't answer.
Diane pointed to baby Sadi.
“That's my sister.”
Catherine's eyes filled instantly.
Not calculation.
Not confusion.
Pain.
“You found her.”
Diane stopped.
“You knew.”
“I hoped.”
“You knew.”
Catherine sat down.
Her hands trembled.
“I was told she died.”
The answer reversed everything Diane had prepared herself to believe.
“What?”
“My father told me the baby died after Adrian was killed.”
Ravi stepped forward.
“Your father?”
“Richard Voss.”
“I know who your father is.”
“Then you know what he was like.”
Ravi's expression said he did.
Catherine looked at Diane.
“I was seventeen. Adrian wanted to take me away. I thought he was rescuing me.”
“What happened?”
“My father found out.”
Her voice became smaller.
“He went to Ravi's father.”
Ravi's jaw tightened.
“They made an arrangement.”
“What arrangement?”
“To separate us.”
Diane looked at the woman who had treated her as disposable hours earlier.
“Your revenge tonight?”
Catherine closed her eyes.
“Was stupid.”
“Cruel.”
“Yes.”
“You thought Ravi would hurt me.”
“I thought he'd frighten you.”
“You were willing to gamble with that?”
Catherine looked ashamed.
“Yes.”
There was no excuse in the answer.
That mattered more than Diane expected.
“Why Ravi?”
Catherine looked at him.
“Because I blamed him.”
Ravi's eyes narrowed.
“For Adrian?”
“You stayed.”
“What?”
“Adrian wanted out. You stayed with your father. You became everything Adrian hated.”
Ravi's face hardened.
“You know nothing about what happened after he died.”
“And you knew nothing about what happened before.”
Silence.
Neither could argue with that.
Diane placed the silver bracelet beside the photograph.
Catherine made a broken sound.
She reached for it but stopped before touching.
“Adrian gave me that.”
Ravi stared.
“Our mother's bracelet.”
“Yes.”
“He gave it to you?”
“When I told him I was pregnant.”
Catherine finally touched it.
“I put it on Sadi before Laura took her.”
Diane watched her.
“You named her?”
Catherine shook her head.
“Adrian did.”
“Sadi?”
“He said it meant princess.”
Ravi looked away.
Diane realized he remembered something.
“What?”
“Adrian used to write the name on scraps of paper.”
Catherine stared at him.
“He told you?”
“No. I thought it was a business code.”
A strange laugh escaped her through tears.
For ten years, each of them had held a piece.
None had understood the picture.
Diane's anger remained.
But Catherine was no longer simply a villain.
She was a woman who had been seventeen, frightened, controlled, and told her child was dead.
That did not erase tonight.
It changed it.
“Why didn't you look for her?”
“I did.”
Catherine opened her purse.
Instead of money, she removed a folded newspaper clipping.
A photograph showed Laura and Daniel Harper receiving a community award.
Diane recognized her parents.
The clipping was nine years old.
“I found Laura,” Catherine said. “I went to her house.”
Diane stared.
“When?”
“When Sadi was about one.”
“What happened?”
“Laura told me the baby had been moved again.”
“She lied.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Catherine swallowed.
“She said somebody had followed me.”
Ravi's face changed.
“Victor.”
“I didn't know his name then.”
Catherine looked at Diane.
“Laura begged me never to return. She said if I loved my daughter, I would let the world believe she was dead.”
Diane sat.
Her mother hadn't stolen Sadi.
She had protected her.
At enormous cost.
Catherine removed something else.
A child's drawing.
Crayon figures.
A woman in red.
A little girl.
A house.
“I received this six months ago.”
Diane recognized Sadi's handwriting.
FOR C.
Her blood ran cold.
“How did you get that?”
“An envelope arrived at my office.”
“Who sent it?”
“No return address.”
Diane looked at the drawing.
Sadi had drawn it.
But why?
Then she noticed something behind the paper.
A photograph.
Sadi leaving school.
Taken from across the street.
Ravi's expression became lethal.
“Someone wanted Catherine to know Sadi was alive.”
“Why?” Diane asked.
Catherine answered.
“To make me react.”
“And you did?”
“I started attending events Ravi attended.”
Ravi understood.
“You weren't chasing me because you wanted me.”
“Not at first.”
Diane stared at her.
“You were trying to get close to him.”
“I thought he knew where Sadi was.”
“And when he humiliated you?”
Catherine looked ashamed.
“I let ten years of anger become something ugly.”
Diane wanted to hate her cleanly.
Life had stopped offering clean things.
Ravi picked up the photograph.
“There.”
In the background stood a man.
Gray hair.
Expensive coat.
One hand resting on a cane.
Ravi stared.
Diane noticed his face.
“Who is that?”
Ravi didn't answer.
Catherine did.
“Ravi's father.”
Diane looked at Ravi.
“You said he didn't know about Sadi.”
“I said I hadn't told him.”
Catherine turned over the photograph.
Writing covered the back.
She hadn't noticed it before because a strip of tape had concealed part of the message.
Ravi peeled it away.
The complete sentence appeared.
YOU BOTH FAILED ADRIAN. BRING THE GIRL HOME BEFORE THE OLD MAN DOES.
Diane felt cold.
Then Ravi's phone rang.
Marcus.
Ravi answered.
His face changed almost immediately.
“What happened?”
Diane stood.
Ravi looked at her.
“Sadi's gone.”
The room stopped.
Diane couldn't speak.
Marcus continued through the phone.
Ravi's eyes darkened.
Then he lowered it.
Diane found her voice.
“Who took her?”
Ravi looked at the photograph of his father.
“She left willingly.”
“With who?”
May you like
Ravi's answer was barely audible.
“My father.”
