Chapter 2 - The Woman Who Came Back From the Dead
Adrian opened the hidden door.
Evelyn moved first.
She grabbed his arm so hard her nails dug through his shirt.
“Adrian, please.”
He looked down at her hand.
“Let go.”
She did.
Claire had never heard two words sound so final.
Victor stepped beside Adrian while Claire remained near the child’s bed, the music box still open in her hands.
The narrow panel swung inward.
A stale draft moved through the room.
Behind the wall was not another bedroom.
It was a passage barely wide enough for one person, ending at a small storage chamber.
An elderly woman sat against the far wall.
Her silver hair hung loose around a thin face.
One side of that face was marked by pale burn scars disappearing beneath the collar of an old blue coat.
Her wrists were not tied.
There were no chains.
But the handle had been removed from her side of the door.
Someone had locked her in.
Adrian stopped three feet away.
The woman stared at him.
Then she whispered, “You still frown like your grandfather.”
Adrian’s face emptied.
Claire watched his hand tighten slowly at his side.
“You’re not my mother.”
The woman reached beneath her blouse and pulled out a worn silver rosary.
A tiny blue bead hung beside the crucifix.
Adrian stepped backward.
“No.”
She held it toward him.
“You broke this bead when you were seven because you tried to use it as a slingshot.”
Victor lowered his eyes.
Adrian looked at him.
That tiny movement was enough.
“You knew.”
Victor didn’t answer.
Adrian’s voice became quieter.
“You knew.”
“For part of it.”
Thirty-four years of loyalty seemed to disappear from the room.
Adrian turned back to the woman.
“What was my dog’s name?”
“Bruno.”
“My first school?”
“Saint Catherine’s.”
“What did I call you when I couldn’t say Mama?”
Her mouth trembled.
“Amma.”
Adrian looked away.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then he asked the only question that mattered.
“Where is Lily?”
The woman’s face changed.
“She was here this afternoon.”
Adrian turned toward Evelyn.
Evelyn shook her head quickly.
“I didn’t hurt her.”
“Where is she?”
“I moved her.”
Claire felt her stomach drop.
Adrian took one step toward his fiancée.
Evelyn backed into the pink dresser.
“You moved my daughter?”
“She couldn’t stay here after Claire found the conservatory.”
“You knew Claire found her.”
“Yes.”
“And instead of bringing Lily to me, you planted jewelry in Claire’s locker.”
“I panicked.”
“You threatened her father.”
Evelyn closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
Claire expected Adrian to shout.
He didn’t.
That was worse.
“Where did you take Lily?”
Evelyn looked at the elderly woman.
“Ask her why Lily was hidden in the first place.”
Adrian’s mother struggled to stand.
Claire moved automatically and offered her arm.
The woman accepted it.
“Thank you.”
Evelyn gave a bitter laugh.
“Of course. Everyone helps Eleanor.”
Adrian stared.
“Eleanor?”
The woman nodded.
“Eleanor Marchetti.”
His mother’s name.
A name carved on a cemetery stone Adrian had visited every Christmas for thirty-four years.
Adrian turned toward Victor again.
“How long?”
Victor rubbed one hand over his gray hair.
“I drove your mother away from the fire that night.”
Claire looked sharply at him.
Adrian didn’t move.
Victor continued.
“She was injured. Terrified. She believed going back would get you killed.”
“My father told me she died.”
“Your father started the fire.”
Silence.
Even Evelyn looked away.
Adrian’s eyes settled on his mother.
“Is that true?”
Eleanor nodded.
“He thought I had taken records from his shipping office.”
“Had you?”
“Yes.”
Adrian stared at her.
“What records?”
“Records proving that your father was moving more than freight through Boston Harbor.”
Victor stepped forward.
“Eleanor planned to take them to federal investigators.”
Adrian laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“So my mother disappeared because my father tried to kill her.”
Eleanor’s eyes filled.
“I disappeared because he told me what would happen to my eight-year-old son if I came back.”
That stopped him.
Claire saw the anger change.
Not disappear.
Change.
Thirty-four years of grief suddenly had another shape.
But Adrian forced himself back to the present.
“Lily.”
Eleanor nodded.
“Six years ago, Grace Brennan brought her to me.”
“Grace was Lily’s nanny.”
“Yes.”
“The woman police said kidnapped my daughter.”
“She saved her.”
“From whom?”
Eleanor looked at Evelyn.
Evelyn whispered, “My father.”
Adrian’s head turned.
Evelyn folded her arms around herself.
“My father learned Eleanor was alive years before I did. He also knew what she still had.”
“The records?”
“Not only records.”
Eleanor touched the rosary.
“Your father kept a list.”
Adrian frowned.
“A list of what?”
“Names.”
Victor’s face changed.
Eleanor saw it.
“So you never found it.”
Victor shook his head.
“No.”
Evelyn spoke.
“My father believed Lily had accidentally been given something that could lead to that list.”
Adrian stared at her.
“She was five.”
“I know.”
“So he took her?”
Evelyn shook her head.
“Grace heard him planning it. She got Lily out first.”
“And brought her to my supposedly dead mother.”
“Yes.”
Adrian looked at Eleanor.
“Why didn’t you bring her back to me?”
Eleanor began crying.
“Because Grace arrived with proof that someone inside your own house was feeding your father’s old associates information about Lily.”
Victor stiffened.
“Who?”
“We never knew.”
Adrian glanced around the hidden room.
“So for six years you decided lying to me was safer.”
“No,” Eleanor said. “For the first year, we believed we were saving her. After that…”
She looked toward Evelyn.
“…we made choices we could no longer justify.”
Evelyn’s chin trembled.
Adrian stepped closer.
“Where did you take Lily tonight?”
Evelyn reached beneath the sleeve of her robe.
For a moment Victor tensed.
But she pulled out nothing dangerous.
Only a folded piece of paper.
A child’s drawing.
It showed a gray house beside black water.
A red lighthouse stood in the distance.
At the bottom, in uneven handwriting, were three words:
WAIT FOR DADDY.
Adrian took it.
“Where is this?”
Evelyn whispered, “My father’s old house near Gloucester.”
Adrian headed for the doorway.
Eleanor caught his sleeve.
“Adrian.”
He stopped.
“She may not be there.”
He turned.
Eleanor’s voice broke.
“When Evelyn came back after moving Lily, she was alone.”
Adrian looked at Evelyn.
For the first time that night, real fear appeared on her face.
“I left her with someone I trusted.”
“Who?”
Evelyn stared at Victor.
Victor went completely still.
Then Evelyn said:
“Grace Brennan.”
Adrian’s expression hardened.
“Grace Brennan died four years ago.”
Evelyn shook her head.
“No, Adrian.”
A terrible pause.
May you like
“She didn’t.”
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