Chapter 3 - The Woman Who Was Supposed to Be Dead
The men left my house before Kai’s people reached Hawthorne Road.
They took only the envelope.
Nothing else.
Not my laptop.
Not the small jar of emergency cash hidden above the refrigerator.
Not my mother’s jewelry box.
Only the letter marked FOR MAYA ONLY.
Kai sent people to repair the broken door and bring our most important belongings to his estate.
I protested.
He ignored me.
“You’re not staying in that house tonight.”
“You don’t get to decide that.”
“Someone connected to my uncle broke into it thirty minutes after seeing Lily’s necklace.”
“You don’t know they saw it.”
“I know men like them.”
I folded my arms.
“Because you’re one of them?”
The words landed harder than I intended.
Kai’s expression closed.
“Yes.”
That ended the argument more effectively than anger would have.
Later, Lily slept in a guest room so enormous she asked whether three families lived in it.
I remained in the study with Kai.
Victor entered near midnight.
“We got one.”
The man they captured was named Dean Mercer.
Fifty-two.
Former Harrington driver.
Former collector for Vincent.
Kai insisted I stay away from the interrogation.
I agreed.
Then five minutes later I followed anyway.
The basement did not look like a movie dungeon.
That somehow made it more frightening.
Clean concrete walls.
Bright overhead lights.
A table.
Dean Mercer sat in a chair.
No blood.
No visible injuries.
Kai stood across from him.
“Where is Vincent?”
Dean laughed.
“You still think this is about Vincent?”
Kai’s face remained calm.
“You broke into Maya Bennett’s house.”
“I was told to retrieve a letter.”
“By whom?”
“You won’t believe me.”
“Try.”
Dean looked past Kai.
At me.
His smile vanished.
“You look like her.”
Kai turned.
“Like who?”
Dean swallowed.
Then said a name.
“Katherine.”
The world seemed to tilt.
Kai crossed the room so quickly Dean flinched.
“You saw my sister?”
Dean said nothing.
Kai gripped the edge of the table.
“Answer me.”
“Not recently.”
“When?”
Dean’s eyes flicked toward me again.
“After you buried her.”
Silence.
Kai’s voice dropped.
“How long after?”
“Six months.”
I stopped breathing.
Kai did not move.
“Where?”
“Providence.”
“What was she doing?”
“Running.”
“From whom?”
Dean laughed bitterly.
“Everyone.”
Kai’s composure cracked.
“My sister was alive?”
“Yes.”
“For how long?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who helped fake the body?”
Dean stared at the floor.
“Your father.”
Kai looked as if someone had hit him.
“Richard?”
“Who else had the power?”
I stepped forward.
“Why?”
Dean looked at me.
“Because Katherine knew the truth.”
“What truth?”
He shook his head.
“That part belongs to the letter.”
“The letter you stole?”
“I didn’t steal it.”
“You kicked in my door.”
“I retrieved it.”
“Where is it?”
“With the woman who hired us.”
Kai leaned forward.
“What woman?”
Dean smiled without humor.
“Ask Maya who raised her.”
I felt my stomach drop.
“My mother is dead.”
“Evelyn Bennett is dead.”
He nodded.
“But Evelyn Bennett wasn’t your mother.”
I stared at him.
“What?”
Kai looked between us.
Dean continued.
“She was your guardian.”
“No.”
“She raised you. Loved you. Protected you. But she didn’t give birth to you.”
I shook my head harder.
“That’s a lie.”
“You were born in Hartford.”
“No.”
“May 12.”
My birthday.
My chest tightened.
“Stop.”
“St. Gabriel’s Hospital.”
I stepped back.
“Stop.”
“Katherine Harrington was there the day you were born.”
Kai gripped Dean by the shirt.
“Was Maya Katherine’s child?”
“No.”
The answer came immediately.
Kai released him.
I didn’t know whether to feel relief or disappointment.
Dean looked at me.
“Katherine was your aunt.”
My legs went weak.
Kai stared.
“My sister had another sibling?”
Dean shook his head.
“Not by blood.”
I snapped.
“That makes no sense.”
“It will when you read the letter.”
“Where is it?”
Dean hesitated.
Kai’s expression hardened.
“Where?”
“Old chapel on Briar Hill.”
Victor left immediately.
An hour later, his team found the chapel abandoned.
The envelope was gone.
But someone had left something else.
A photograph.
Kai brought it back just before sunrise.
The picture showed three women.
One was Evelyn Bennett.
Younger.
Maybe twenty-eight.
One was Katherine Harrington.
The third woman was unfamiliar.
She stood between them holding a newborn baby.
Me.
I knew because the blanket had my name stitched across it.
MAYA.
On the back of the photograph were six handwritten words.
Protect her from Richard at all costs.
Kai sank into a chair.
“Who is the woman?”
I stared at her face.
Dark eyes.
Black hair.
A faint scar above her eyebrow.
“I don’t know.”
Dean did.
He spoke when Kai showed him the picture.
“Her name was Elena Marlow.”
“Who was she?”
Dean hesitated.
“Katherine’s closest friend.”
“And Maya’s mother?”
“Yes.”
I sat motionless.
My entire childhood rearranged itself in an instant.
Evelyn had loved me.
That was real.
She had held me through nightmares.
Packed school lunches.
Sat beside me when I had chickenpox.
Worked two jobs to pay rent.
Whatever her blood relation, she had been my mother.
But she had lied.
Not once.
Every day.
For thirty years.
“Who was my father?” I asked.
Dean looked away.
Kai noticed.
“Tell her.”
Dean sighed.
“Your father was Thomas Harrington.”
Kai’s head snapped up.
“My father?”
“No.”
Dean swallowed.
“Your uncle.”
Kai’s face darkened.
“Vincent.”
The name entered the room like smoke.
My stomach turned.
“Vincent Harrington was my father?”
“Yes.”
I stood.
“No.”
“Elena worked for him.”
“No.”
“She tried to leave after she became pregnant.”
I couldn’t speak.
Dean continued.
“Katherine discovered Vincent was moving money through charities and ordering hits through contractors. Elena had records. Katherine helped her escape.”
“What happened to Elena?”
Dean’s eyes softened.
“That part I don’t know.”
Kai paced once, then stopped.
“Why did Richard fake Katherine’s death?”
“To remove her from Vincent’s reach.”
“So my father helped her?”
“At first.”
“At first?”
Dean looked uncomfortable.
“Richard discovered Katherine had copied the financial records.”
Kai’s face changed.
“He wanted them.”
“Yes.”
“And Katherine refused.”
“Yes.”
“What happened after Providence?”
Dean shook his head.
“I wasn’t there.”
I stared at the photograph.
Three women.
One baby.
A secret.
A family built from people running for their lives.
Then I noticed something.
Katherine’s necklace was visible in the photograph.
The same silver locket Lily now wore.
I turned the image over again.
There was faint writing beneath the original sentence.
Something nearly erased.
Kai held it under a lamp.
The words became clearer.
If anything happens, the proof is where Maya learned to walk.
I frowned.
“What does that mean?”
I suddenly remembered.
A story Evelyn told me repeatedly when I was little.
I had learned to walk in a small house near Providence.
Yellow kitchen.
Green back door.
A walnut tree outside.
Kai asked Dean.
“Where did Katherine live in Providence?”
Dean answered without hesitation.
“Seventeen Orchard Lane.”
We drove there that morning.
The house still existed.
Abandoned.
Condemned.
Kai’s security team checked it first.
Then we entered.
The floor creaked.
Dust covered everything.
I walked into the kitchen.
Yellow paint.
Faded now.
But unmistakable.
The back door had once been green.
Outside stood a dead walnut tree.
A memory moved through me.
Not a clear one.
A sensation.
Warm hands.
Music.
A woman laughing.
I touched the wall.
“Here.”
Kai looked at me.
“What?”
“I think I remember this place.”
We searched for two hours.
Nothing.
Then Lily, who had been kept safely at the Harrington estate with Victor’s wife, called me.
“Mom?”
“Yes, baby?”
“You forgot Bunny.”
Her stuffed rabbit.
It had been in the box of belongings brought from our house.
“I’ll get it later.”
“No. I found something inside him.”
I froze.
“What?”
“Grandma sewed a paper in his tummy.”
Kai heard.
His eyes widened.
“Lily,” I said slowly, “don’t open it.”
“I already did.”
“What does it say?”
There was rustling.
Then Lily read four words.
“Katherine Harrington is alive.”
Kai grabbed the phone from my hand.
“Lily, where is the paper?”
“In Bunny.”
“Is anyone with you?”
“Aunt Maria.”
Victor’s wife.
Kai exhaled.
Then Lily added something else.
“There’s a phone number.”
Kai closed his eyes.
“Read it.”
She did.
Victor ran it.
The number belonged to a prepaid phone.
Active.
One incoming call within the past twenty-four hours.
From Maine.
Kai dialed.
One ring.
Two.
Three.
Someone answered.
No one spoke.
Kai’s voice trembled.
“Katherine?”
Silence.
Then a woman inhaled sharply.
Kai went pale.
He whispered again.
“Kat?”
A voice came through the speaker.
Older.
Shaking.
But unmistakably alive.
“Kai?”
His knees almost gave out.
Fifteen years of grief collapsed into one sound.
Kai pressed a hand against the wall.
“Katherine.”
She began crying.
He did too.
Neither seemed capable of forming another sentence.
Finally Katherine whispered,
“You weren’t supposed to find me yet.”
Kai’s face hardened through the tears.
“Why?”
“Because Vincent is alive.”
My blood ran cold.
Katherine continued.
May you like
“And if he knows Maya has the locket, he will come for Lily next.”
The line went dead.
